The Art Department at BYU-Idaho serves both the campus and the community by providing artistic enrichment and education for all who are interested.

The chair of the department, Leon Parson, said that the two main purposes of the Art Department are to provide an educational experience for students that wish to become professional artists and to provide the opportunity for artists who don’t want to become to enrich their lives with art.

Parson said that in addition to the classes offered, the Jacob Spori Gallery provides access to a variety of artists’ works.

The Art Department also reaches into the community as “there is a continuous request for and thereby artistic service given to local businesses and individuals by BYU-Idaho art students,” Parson said.

Parson said that this situation in which students work within the community creates a great opportunity for students to apply what they are being taught and learn in a professional setting.

The department currently has 13 full-time faculty as well as 12 adjunct faculty.

“All faculty, both full and part time, are wonderful people, excellent teachers and dedicated artists,” Parson said.

Parson said that many people view art as a narrow field of painting, sculpture or graphic design, which is an extremely narrow segment of what is actually available and used by man.

“The interesting thing about art and the world we live in is that perhaps people don’t recognize that virtually everything, if not literally everything, that is manufactured and manmade from shoes you wear, to the car you drive, the book you read, the phone you talk on, the city you work in et cetera, have all been drawn or designed by artists,” Parson said.

The number one thing Parson said he wants students to gain from the Art Department is a reverence for the Savior and His ability to design. He also hopes they’ll recognize that their own contribution to mankind can be used for good and uplifting principles.

“The classes offered through the department have taught me how to be a good artist as well as how to become the person I should be,” said Art major Julie Riley, a junior from Lewiston, Utah.

Parson said he also hopes students gain a competence that will allow them to meet the challenge of providing for their families as professional artists successfully.

For those that choose not to become professional artists, Parson said that he hopes they come away with an awareness and appreciation of art and that it enriches their lives as well as the lives of the people they come in contact with.