College of Fine Arts
The schools of the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts fuel the creativity of artists, designers and architects through an immersive conservatory-inspired arts education that engages with the university’s strengths in science, technology and the humanities.
We shape and enrich human lives through innovation, expression and creation by merging technology and imagination in bold, new ways.
With your support, we can fuel the work of our performing and visual artists, designers and architects to advance the ideas and disciplines that enrich humanity and inspire the next generation of makers and creators.
A Message from the Dean
Dan Martin
The arts, design and architecture were an essential part of Andrew Carnegie’s founding vision for this institution. For more than a century, the College of Fine Arts’ students, faculty and staff have crafted new culture and creative knowledge on our campus and around the world: framing problems, constructing solutions, challenging audiences, perfecting craft and celebrating human vitality. We continue to build on the rich history of free expression and the world-changing capacity of creativity to transform and advance culture and society.
Exposure to creative studies positively influences our students, helping them to leave Carnegie Mellon as more empathetic human beings, more aware of the larger world in which they will make their mark and more well-rounded individuals who will lead with ideas and bring unparalleled experience, ethics and passion into the future.
Your commitment will help us to continue our legacy of excellence in the arts, design and architecture. You truly make possible what comes next for the College of Fine Arts.
Our founder once said, “You are on the threshold of unparalleled success. Achieve! Achieve!” With you, we can.
What will you and the College of Fine Arts
Elevating arts education with dynamic spaces for creation and performance
By giving our students the finest arts facilities in higher education, we’ll provide them with fertile, technology-enhanced ground to grow their artistic vision and hone their talents. Your support will advance creativity and fund the great works of the future.
Supporting excellence and diversity in the arts by expanding access
By increasing accessibility, we’ll facilitate creativity across cultures, communities and experiences, which will make our work even more powerful. Your support will foster an atmosphere in which diverse perspectives are supported, inspiring greater creativity.
Enriching the human experience by supporting creativity and discovery
By giving practicing artists and professionals from a multitude of disciplines and perspectives the security and support they need, we will attract and retain faculty who will continually seek to push their work forward, enrich the educational experience for our students and shape the future of artistic endeavor. Your support will empower the next generation of artistic explorers.
Help us make it possible
Elevating arts education with dynamic spaces for creation and performance
- Renovated and Transformed Facilities
Create spaces that promote learning, making, creating and performing at the highest level possible — across all the schools of the College of Fine Arts. Great environments inspire students and faculty to do their best work, and prepare them to enrich a modern, technology-enhanced world. - School of Music Piano Campaign
Attract and train the world’s most gifted student musicians with an inventory of high-quality, well-maintained pianos for concerts, practice rooms and teaching studios. World-class artists need world-class instruments to reach their full potential. - Urban Design Build Studio
This collaborative of students, professors and professionals work with community residents to implement design solutions that are appropriate, affordable and replicable. Improve lives by providing them the space and resources they need to maximize their impact.
Supporting excellence and diversity in the arts by expanding access
- Scholarships
Recognize talented undergraduates with merit-based scholarships that fuel their artistic and creative passions and build a student body that thrives on diverse perspectives. - Fellowships
Unlock a world of creativity for the next generation of artistic innovators and leaders by opening up a CFA education to skilled graduate students regardless of financial circumstances. - College of Fine Arts Fund
Give our leaders the flexibility to address the college’s areas of greatest need, continuing to make CFA a place that attracts gifted faculty, students and staff from around the world.
Enriching the human experience by supporting creativity and discovery
- Professorships
Fuel faculty with funding that empowers their creativity and artistic work and furthers their teaching goals, while helping us recruit and retain the best professors and scholars. - CFA- and School-Specific Innovation Funds
Fuel innovation at the College of Fine Arts; its five schools; and BXA Intercollege Degree Programs, Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art by giving us the flexibility to seize emerging opportunities and take advantage of new ideas. - Experiential Learning Funds
Expand our students’ experiences with and throughout the world through Student Experience Funds and Travel Funds by funding travel and other experiences that offer them fresh inspiration to create, make, explore and perform. - Program and Research Center Support
Accelerate the genre-defying and groundbreaking innovation that’s happening in interdisciplinary initiatives like the Design Center, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, BXA Intercollege Degree Programs, the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art and IDeATe (Integrative Design, Arts and Technology). - Visiting Artists Fund
Broaden the education of our students by exposing them to a cross-section of practicing artists, educators, researchers and theoreticians.
Discover what you make possible in our schools and programs
Funding opportunities in the School of Architecture:
- Merit Scholarship Fund
- Fellowships Fund
- Head’s Innovation Fund
- Parents Fund
Funding opportunities in the School of Art:
- Head’s Innovation Fund
- Innovative Technologies Fund
- Lecture Series Fund
- Parents Fund
- Merit Scholarship Fund
Funding opportunities in the School of Design:
- Merit Scholarship Fund
- Fellowships Fund
- Head’s New Initiative Fund
- Student Experience Fund
- Parents Fund
Funding opportunities in the School of Drama:
- Drama Student Travel Fund
- Visiting Artists Fund
- Season Production Fund
- Showcase Fund
- Head’s Creative Initiative Fund
- Merit Scholarship Fund
- Parents Fund
Funding opportunities in the School of Music:
- Heritage Scholarship Fund (Merit)
- Piano Fund
- Violin Scholarship Fund
- Chamber Series Fund
- Parents Fund
- Head’s Innovation Fund
Funding opportunities in the CFA’s cross-disciplinary programs and research centers:
- BXA Intercollege Degree Student Experience Fund
- Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Fund
- Miller ICA Fund