Graphic Design students meet creative industry professionals at The Department of Art & Design’s Portfolio Review. (above) Students work independently in studio space and collaboratively in a variety of methods and media to gain career-building skills and experience. (below)

2024 Award of Excellence Recipient

During the Tuesday, March 19, Awards Dinner of the Tennessee Association of Museums, the MTSU Department of Art and Design’s Todd Art Gallery was awarded a 2024 Award of Excellence for the collaborative effort involving the traveling exhibition, Crafting Blackness: Black Bodies Making Form. As a cooperative, East Tennessee State University’s Curators Karlota Contreas-Koterbay and Karen Sullivan and the Tipton and Slocumb Galleries share this award with Tennessee Craft, Tennessee State University’s Hiram Van Gordon Gallery, and MTSU. We are most grateful for this special recognition to our Curators, fellow exhibition spaces, the artists of Black Bodies Making Form, and the Tennessee Association of Museums!

presented by the Middle Tennessee State University Department of Art and Design

Find Past Lectures on our Common Ground YouTube Channel

This lecture series, presented by Middle Tennessee State University’s Department of Art & Design, features artists and scholars whose work reflects varied cultural traditions, artistic practices, and career paths. MTSU instructors handpick all guest lecturers, and although topics vary, the content is always art-related.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X

Ruben Castillo via Zoom

Artist and Educator

Castillo’s work explores themes of intimacy, identity, archival history, and the body through a range of media, including printmaking, drawing, installation, sculpture, and video. His recent work draws from photographs and historical documents, treating the ordinary as a site for transformation.

Sonia Dixon via Zoom

MTSU Alumna, U.S. Army Major, and Cultural Heritage Preservation Specialist

Sonia Dixon is a doctoral candidate in Art History at Florida State University, where her research examines visual culture in the late antique eastern Mediterranean. An MTSU alumna, she holds a BA in Art History and an MA in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies. She currently serves as a Major in the U.S. Army, working as a Battalion Executive Officer and Heritage and Preservation Officer with a focus on cultural heritage protection.

A Special MTSU Department of Art and Design, Todd Art Gallery Saturdays At Todd event.

Presented by the College of Liberal Arts!

For complete details and to join Zoom, visit,

Questions: Douglas.Dabbs@mtsu.edu

Department of Art and Design Faculty

#MTSUart @MTSUart

Wednesday, February 5 – As a concluding event to the department’s Biennial 2024, faculty from the various areas of Art and Design reflected on their work from the exhibition and, more broadly, on their artistic motivations and philosophy with a strong component of Q&A for an invigorating and educational exchange between students and faculty. Among those faculty members who spoke were Paige Medlock, Art Education; Kate Kinder, Studio Art; Doug Dabbs, Graphic Design and Illustration; and Jake Wells, Foundations.

Images of Artwork Left to Right, Top to Bottom – Kim Dummons, Kelsey Duncan, Kathleen O’Connell, and Tony Rodriguez

#MTSUart @MTSUart

Biennial 2024 Poster, Images, top to bottom, left to right: Ambrose Prince, The Sheep Man; Joshua Lynn, Bubble; Nick Satinover, Time is a Distance 8; Sisavanh Phouthavong-Houghton, Fields of Red Anemone Blooming; Kim Dummons, A Conversation Across Time, Posthumous Collaboration with John T. Scott; Kathleen O’Connell, Character Flaw: Denial, Blissful Ignorance, Worrier; Kelsey Duncan, Roxana; Tony Rodriguez, The Andy Warhol Diaries; Background, Staff.