The expansive state of Texas enrolls 10,000 students in art school and boasts 13 schools accredited by the Council for Interior Design. Among its leading programs are offerings at the University of North Texas-College of Visual Arts and Design, Rice University, and Baylor University.The University of Texas offers NSAD-accredited programs and has art departments in its nine campuses across the state including Austin, San Antonia and Arlington. Texas also boasts renowned museums including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, McNay Art Museum and the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Austin Museum of Art.The College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas in Austin recently completed a new Visual Arts Center. Two of its faculty members were named Guggenheim Fellows in 2010. Noted graduate Marcia Gay Harden was the 2010 commencement speaker at University of Texas at Austin-a school that clearly values the arts.Austin is one of the largest and most diverse art departments in the country. The Studio Art division offers seven areas of study: Ceramics, Metals, Printing and Drawing, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Transmedia, a major with an emphasis on experimental practices including working in such realms as sound, installation, web, interactive and hypertext. The school also offers a selective 3-year MFA in Studio Art program enrolling 30 students.The College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Art (SoA) at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas offers NASAD-accredited degree programs in studio arts, art history, communication design and visual studies. The BFA in Studio Art focuses on the development of students’ personal artistic expression and technical skills as well imparting an understanding and appreciation of both artistic heritage and contemporary art. The school also offers Masters Degrees as well a doctoral program in Fine Arts focusing on Critical Studies and Artistic Practice.Rice University, one of the nation’s premier research universities, boasts a commitment to undergraduate education and offers a Studio Art major in its Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. Students are encouraged to explore courses in areas such as philosophy, anthropology and history. Students at Rice have access to the creative resources of the dynamic city of Houston Texas and visit galleries, studios and exhibitions in their junior year in preparation for a senior year that focuses on intensive studio work.Baylor University, in Waco Texas, offers both a BFA and BA in Studio Arts. Baylor students can concentrate in Ceramics, Fabric Design, Painting and other fine arts. BA students are encouraged to take courses across the concentrations, and are required to enroll in a larger percentage of liberal arts coursework than students on a BFA degree track. Baylor also offers a BA in Architecture in cooperation with Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Students at Baylor complete discipline-specific exams, portfolios, exhibitions and research papers, depending on their degree track. Baylor houses the Martin Museum of Art, the Allbritton Art Institute for the study of nineteenth and twentieth century art and the Harding Black Ceramic collection and Archive dedicated to scholarship in the ceramic arts.There are dozens of other colleges and universities across the state of Texas that offer degree programs in fine art, design and commercial art fields. Individuals interested in these fields can explore the range of options available to them in Texas and seek out a balanced program to help launch their career.