History

a close up of a hand using a palette knife to paint a picture of a fruit still life

The Center for Visual Arts began in 1974 as the Homewood Art Workshops offering extracurricular courses in drawing & painting to Hopkins students. The painter and former president of Maryland Institute College of Art Eugene Leake was the first director of the program.

As the Workshops’ popularity steadily increased enrollment, painter Craig Hankin was hired in 1980 to share the teaching duties. Homewood’s first studio art course for academic credit started the following year. Upon Leake’s retirement in 1986, Hankin became the Art Workshops director until 2018 when he retired. Artist & educator Margaret Murphy is the current director of the CVA overseeing its move to the North Ave Arts District and divisional move to KSAS.

Today, the CVA is an academic department of the Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences offering a minor in visual art and a full roster of offerings that including fibers, painting & drawing, printmaking, jewelry and small metals, digital and analog photography, visual communications, book arts, and advanced visual arts courses that combine contemporary art theory & practice.

Located on the third floor of the iconic Film Centre building at 10 E. North Avenue, the CVA regularly welcomes the Hopkins and greater Baltimore community to visit the center during one of our visiting artists talks and our Conversations with Artists events to speak directly with artists working in Maryland.

The spring student exhibition is also open to the public. See our Instagram page for more information. #jhuvisualart