UArts Welcomes New President to Campus

The University of the Arts community welcomed President David Yager to its campus on January 15, 2016, his first official day as the 140-year-old institution’s fourth president since receiving university status in 1987

Yager, who was chosen unanimously by the Board of Trustees after a national search, was most recently dean of the Arts Division at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a position he held since 2009. Prior to that, he worked for 23 years at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, as an art professor and founder/director of its Imaging Research Center; Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture; and Innovation Design Lab. Yager also holds a faculty position in pediatrics at the Children’s Center and the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where the Innovation Design Lab he founded at UC Santa Cruz focuses its primary research.

An accomplished photographer and designer whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, Yager’s extensive background as an artist, academic, researcher, entrepreneur and business executive will allow him to strengthen the University of the Arts and further expand its reputation as an innovative leader.

“I am looking forward to helping to shape the University’s future and to raising its profile as we enter this new chapter in its history together,” said Yager. “I’m especially looking forward to working with UArts’ high-quality faculty, students and scholars.”

Yager’s art training began with painting, printmaking, photography, film and video. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Fine Arts from Florida State University and an honorary doctorate in design from De Montfort University in Leicester, England.

Above: UArts President David Yager (center) chats with Music students Greg Wilson '16 (Saxophone) and Frank Rein '16 (Trombone) in the School Store.