The School of Art at Kent State University was established around 1940 and maintains a tradition of excellence in visual arts education, creation, scholarship and leadership. Its undergraduate and graduate programs in the visual arts offer a range of directions and opportunities in the fields of arts education, art history, and a comprehensive array of studio disciplines including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, glass, jewelry/metals/enameling, and textiles. It offers the only MFA program in northeast Ohio and is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The School of Art at Kent State University offers a long tradition of imagination, thought, skill, and achievement in the visual arts. For its students, both current and future, its alumni and its many friends, the School of Art continues to explore ideas, provide the highest standards of craft, and stimulate individual and collective creativity, teaching, and research through its programs, curriculum, and exhibitions. This excellence was recently recognized by US News and World Report's ranking of the School's graduate programs in the top 100 of the 1200 US grad programs in the visual arts surveyed. Located in the heart of Northeast Ohio, the university is surrounded by cultural resources: Cleveland is a mere 35 minutes away, Akron only 15 minutes to the west, Youngstown is forty-five minutes to the east, and the cities of Pittsburgh, Columbus, Toledo and Detroit offer further visual arts resources for easy day-trips.