The School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is committed to training artists and designers at the highest professional levels. Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and highly ranked by the U.S. News and World Report, the School of Art + Design is regarded as one of the outstanding public university art programs in the United States. The School of Art and Design emphasizes the development of individual or collaborative practice in preparation for careers in both fine arts and client based contexts, including gallery exhibitions, product/media design, university research/education, public or community-based work, curatorial practice, performance or activism. Students at the University of Illinois are motivated, independent, and interested in contextualizing their traditional and non-traditional practices within a stimulating environment of rigorous interdisciplinary research and critique.