You are at: Planned Giving > Our Mission

Our Mission

Ringling College of Art and Design recognizes that artists and designers play a significant role in society. The College's primary mission is to provide programs leading to degrees that prepare students to be discerning visual thinkers and ethical practitioners. Visual arts and creative professionals must understand diverse aspects of past and present cultures, and develop their capacity for creative expression and effective communication.

Ringling's curriculum, therefore, balances the teaching of technical knowledge and skills with the development of critical, conceptual and creative abilities and supports courses that provide historical, multicultural, global and future perspectives. Ringling faculty consists of professionally active and teaching-oriented artists, designers and scholars.

Ringling College of Art and Design strives to enroll both full and part-time students from diverse backgrounds who intend to become professionals in the creative and visual arts. Through its policies and practices, the College supports excellence in teaching and fosters the aesthetic, intellectual, professional, personal, and social development of its students. Academic programs and advising, career services, and an extensive co-curricular student life program prepare students for an art or design profession, or when appropriate, for continued studies on the graduate level. In addition to its degree program, Ringling College offers courses, lectures, exhibitions and other art-related services to the local, national and international communities through its museum, galleries, library, continuing education and community service programs.

Through the efforts of its Board of Trustees, administrators, faculty, support staff, alumni, and friends, Ringling endeavors to provide the necessary resources, services and environment to fulfill its institutional mission. Founded in 1931, Ringling College of Art and Design is a private, independent nonprofit, four-year college.