College of Visual Arts

The College of Visual Arts (CVA) is a private, accredited, four-year college of art and design offering Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in graphic design, illustration, photography, drawing/painting, sculpture, and interdisciplinary art & design studies (IADS) with concentrations in fashion design at Parsons Paris, museum gallery studies, teaching artist, advertising, printmaking, interdisciplinary fine arts, or visual communications. The college is located on Summit Avenue in the thriving urban residential areas of historic Summit Hill and Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota. The school is fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

CVA began as one of the first learning environments in the Twin Cities specifically designed to ignite the creativity of artists and designers. CVA is one of a handful of art and design colleges in the U.S. that provides an arts education steeped in the liberal arts. With an enrollment of approximately 200 students and a faculty of 50, CVA offers a low student-teacher ratio. The College is one of only two private art and design colleges in Minnesota.

History

In 1948, Lowell Bobleter acquired Mills College of Art and Advertising and transformed it into what would become the College of Visual Arts. Bobleter, a prominent Saint Paul artist and educator then serving as chairman of the fine arts department at Hamline University, based the new curriculum on the Bauhaus model: an integrated program including both fine and applied arts, and general courses in the humanities, natural sciences, and aesthetics. As president, Bobleter renamed the institution the “School of Associated Arts” (SAA). In 1969, the school assumed non-profit status, which it maintains today. During the 1970s, the school achieved national accreditation with the National Association of Trade and Technical Schools (NATTS) and began to participate in federal financial aid programs. In 1989, the college changed its name to the "College of Associated Arts." and began the process of seeking accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC). To clarify that the college was a four-year institution, the administration adopted the name "College of Visual Arts" (CVA) in 1995. CVA was granted candidacy status by HLC in August 1994, and was granted initial accreditation for five years in 1998. HLC renewed CVA's accreditation for a seven-year term in 2003.

The College of Visual Arts (CVA) is a private, accredited, four-year college of art and design offering Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in graphic design, illustration, photography, drawing/painting, sculpture, and interdisciplinary art & design studies (IADS) with concentrations in fashion design at Parsons Paris, museum gallery studies, teaching artist, advertising, printmaking, interdisciplinary fine arts, or visual communications. The college is located on Summit Avenue in the thriving urban residential areas of historic Summit Hill and Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota. The school is fully accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.