The visual arts emerged as a curricular option at the University of Chicago in the mid-20th century, when the University acquired Lorado Taft's Midway Studios. Studio arts were first available as an extracurricular respite from the intensity of scholarly pursuits — an attitude endemic to the period, rooted in a post-Enlightenment belief that engagement with the arts offered societal and individual betterment: enriched by their experience as makers and viewers of art, students would become better human beings. Art making was seen as an avenue for personal expression and recreation. Studio courses were taught under the umbrella of the Department of Art (the name of which was later and more accurately changed to the Department of Art History). Midway Studios housed much of the department's teaching, although classes were also held in Cobb Hall through the 1980s.
Beginning in 1950, students had the option to pursue a master's degree focused either on the history or the practice of art. Even for those who concentrated on making, the degree awarded was an MA rather than an MFA. Six years later, in 1956, the University awarded its first Master of Fine Arts in the Practice of Art.
In 1970, the studio art program solidified as a semi-autonomous committee, albeit still governed by the Chair of the Art History Department. The first Director of the committee, housed at Midway Studios, was Hall Hayden, who headed the department until the 1970s, when Tom Mapp assumed the role. Mapp and Bob Peters were hired from the School of the Art Institute and charged with bolstering this disciplinary area. Lecturers and adjunct faculty during these years included Ruth Duckworth, Vera Klement, and Virginio Ferrari. In 1977, the committee was named the Committee on Art and Design (CAD), although it continued to be academically and administratively housed within the Department of Art History.
CAD was modeled on other committees in the Division of the Humanities and the Division of the Social Sciences — units with a long history at the University that allowed faculty with shared interests across different departments to address intellectual needs not met by the departments themselves. In addition to studio faculty, CAD included faculty from other departments, including English, Philosophy, Anthropology, and Art History.
CAD differed from other interdisciplinary committees in that it always had a graduate program: the MFA program. At this time it shared a common Chair with the Art History Department; Art History Professor Charles Cohen served as Chair for nine of CAD's first twelve years of existence.
In 1996, CAD became the Committee on the Visual Arts (CoVA) — a change that went beyond a name, as the Committee became entirely autonomous with its own chair and budget, separating fully from the Department of Art History. Charles Cohen was lobbied by the studio faculty and agreed to serve as Co-Chair of the newly independent CoVA from 1996 to 2005.
In 2005, Laura Letinsky became the first studio faculty member to serve as Chair of CoVA, having co-chaired with Cohen from 2002 to 2005. Letinsky, hired in 1994, profoundly influenced the shaping of the department as it developed into its present form — overseeing the transition from a Committee to a full-fledged department, the Department of Visual Arts (DoVA) — a significant step in the program's evolution toward its current standing.
In the wake of CoVA's transition to an autonomous department in 2006, several faculty members retired and significant new hires were made, providing DoVA with a core faculty whose work commands attention from scholars, curators, and audiences nationally and internationally. These hires included Catherine Sullivan in 2006, and David Schutter and Jason Salavon in 2007, all three of whom received tenure in 2013 and 2014. Geof Oppenheimer was hired as a Harper Schmidt Fellow in the College in 2007 and as an Associate Professor of Practice in 2011. Matthew Jesse Jackson joined as a joint appointment between DoVA and Art History in 2005 and was awarded tenure in 2010. William Pope.L was hired in 2010, followed by Jessica Stockholder in 2011 as Chair of the Department, bringing further stability and distinction to DoVA — as did the hire of Theaster Gates in 2014, who had been affiliated with the University for some time.
The emergence of a stand-alone Department of Visual Arts was fueled over the years by the interest and support of many faculty members across the University of Chicago who engaged in extended dialogue about the role of the arts at the University, including Bill Brown, W.J.T. Mitchell, Christine Mehring, and Rachel Cohen. Their combined effort and enthusiasm contributed to the building of the Logan Center for the Arts, which opened in 2012 and has served as DoVA's home ever since.
In 2018, Matthew Jesse Jackson assumed the role of Chair of DoVA, with a new wave of faculty hires soon following, including Julia Phillips in 2018, Mari Eastman in 2023, and most recently Anna Martine Whitehead in 2025. The department's undergraduate and graduate programs have become a model for interdisciplinary research and art making within the University and beyond. Faculty and students of DoVA continue to thrive in this intellectual and creative environment and are exceptionally active — exhibiting and publishing alongside alumni who have gone on to exhibit and teach nationally and internationally.