DENTON (UNT), Texas — UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design is opening its doors with CVAD Celebrates, an open house-style event featuring activities for attendees including prospective students and their families.

"This event provides us a moment to open the doors wide, welcoming alumni, donors and friends to experience the boundless talent within the College of Visual Arts and Design,” CVAD Dean Karen Hutzel says. “CVAD Celebrates reveals the emerging creativity and leadership shaping our future."

CVAD Celebrates is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 29 at the UNT Art Building at 1201 W. Mulberry St. Visitors can register to attend here. The celebration allows visitors to experience one of the nation’s largest art and design schools, which saw more than 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for the Spring 2025 semester.

Among the activities scheduled are tours of UNT’s 238,000-square-foot Art Building, considered among the world's most technologically advanced art facilities with state-of-the-art fabrication labs, a digital studio and a full-scale photography studio.

The Art Annex, at 1001 W. Mulberry St., home of CVAD’s Studio Art ceramics program and 40 graduate-student studios, will also be open during the event for tours.

CVAD faculty and staff members will participate in meet-and-greets and lectures during the event, which will also feature art demonstrations and exhibitions by hundreds of UNT students, faculty and alumni, including a dual exhibition in the Cora Stafford Gallery by sculptor Kirupa Sargunaraja (’24 M.F.A.) and fashion design teaching fellow Lasya Aji Silpa, who is scheduled to graduate in May with a master’s of fine arts degree.

Event attendees may try on a replica Roman toga as part of “The Weight of Power” art history demonstration, learn about metalsmithing and jewelry-making through a make-and-take metal stamping activity and watch a demonstration by members of the Printmaking Association of North Texas Students.

Opening receptions for a pair of new exhibitions in the CVAD Gallery, located adjacent to the Art Building’s expansive open-air courtyard, are also scheduled during the event.

“An Irrational Fancy," featuring curated selections from the UNT Libraries’ core collections and Special Collections, includes artists and artworks that explore the human condition in reimagined worlds shaped by technological advancements, environmental transformations and imagination.

"The Word is Not Lucky," by artist Eileen Maxson, is curated by CVAD art history lecturer Mónica Salazar, whose research includes contemporary Mexican art and conceptual art in Latin America. The exhibition features pieces from a series that processes the flooding of the artist’s parent's home during Hurricane Harvey and her grandfather's death two years earlier.

"CVAD Celebrates is more than an event — it is a testament to the creativity, innovation and critical impact of art and design,” Hutzel says. “This special occasion highlights the college’s regional and global prominence while strengthening connections, fostering cultural understanding and showcasing the transformative power of creative expression and design thinking.”

About the College of Visual Arts and Design

UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design is one of the nation’s most comprehensive visual arts schools at a public university, offering 29 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and concentrations in areas ranging from art history to communication design to new media art. The college includes several institutes and centers, including the renowned Texas Fashion Collection, and three art galleries to showcase student and professional work. Considered one of the best art schools in the South and Southwest, the College of Visual Arts and Design offers the first and only Ph.D. program in art education in Texas and the top-ranked program in Communication Design for Graphic Design. Learn more at cvad.unt.edu. Follow our CVAD News and Views site at news.cvad.unt.edu.