The Visiting Artist Lecture Series features approximately 25 contemporary artists each semester. Many artists conduct studio visits with our graduate students, who are involved in the selection of the artists as well as in organizing studio visits with them.

In Fall 2020, the Visiting Artist Lecture Series partnered with In Plain Sight, a national artist collaborative of 80 artists protesting immigrant detention centers within the United States. Thirteen of these artists presented their work, participated in classes, and held studio visits with graduate students in sharing their work.

[Above, students setup pop-up printmaking studios in San Francisco to create banners for protests addressing immigration and other social issues]

Alpert Fellow

The Sandra Kahn Alpert ’45 Visiting Artist Endowed Fund was established in 2008 to bring leading artists and designers to campus for the purpose of engaging in direct interaction with students and faculty over the course of a full semester. Guests have included Diana Al Hadid, Stephen Talasnik, Shimon Attie, Radcliffe Bailey, and Abbas Kiarostami.

Recently, the School of Art hosted internationally renowned artist Cassils as an Alpert Fellow. Students in the course Studio Atelier: Cassils participated in the creation of Cassils’ “The Resilience of the 20%,” a cast bronze sculpture from the Monument Project that was exhibited at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Previous Visiting Artists