School of Visual Arts (SVA) is pleased to welcome celebrated author, educator, designer, and Co-Founder and Chair Emeritus of the College’s MFA Design program Steven Heller as the keynote speaker for the milestone 50^th annual commencement exercises. The ceremony will be held at Radio City Music Hall at 1:00pm on Thursday, May 15, 2025. SVA President David Rhodes will recognize some 1,151 degree candidates from the College’s 30 academic degree programs, including BFA, MA, MAT, MFA, and MPS.

“My over 45-year relationship with my SVA collaborators, colleagues, faculty, and students has offered an unmatched opportunity to find and grow my life’s eclectic and curious passions,” says Heller. “SVA is more than a college of visual arts; it is a cultural experiment and social laboratory where, over time and fluxes in fashions and technologies, values are measured by the unique consequences of contributions its makers put into the real world for the real world.”

In 2024, Heller officially retired from his position as co-chair of the prestigious MFA Design program, which he founded with alumnus Lita Talarico (MFA 2007 Art Criticism and Writing) in 1998 after 15 years on the SVA faculty. Heller also spent more than three decades at The New York Times, as an art director for multiple sections, as “Visuals” columnist for the Book Review, “Graphic Content” columnist for T-Style,” and as a writer of obituaries on important graphic designers, cartoonists, and illustrators. He has been a contributing editor for Print for more than 40 years, including as a partner, editor at large, and columnist for the past five years; and has also written for Upper and Lower Case (U&lc), Baseline, EYE, Creation, I.D., Metropolis, Graphis, and Wired, as well as other international design journals. 

Heller has authored, produced, or edited over 200 books on the histories and practice of graphic design, typography, illustration, satiric art, and pop and visual culture themes, including Design Literacy (Allworth Press, 2014), The Swastika and Symbols of Hate (Allworth Press, 2019), Milton Glaser POP (The Monacelli Press, 2023), and more recently, Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counter Culture New York (Princeton Architectural Press, 2022), and The Education of a Design Writer with SVA MA Design Research Chair Molly Heintz (MFA 2011 Design Criticism), due out this year on Allworth Press. He has also written hundreds of introductions, prefaces, and essays for books and catalogs of work by authors and artists including his wife Louise Fili and Edward Gorey.

Heller has conceived of or curated many exhibitions around the world and was the recipient of SVA’s Masters Series Award and Exhibition in 2007. He is in the Art Directors Hall of Fame and The One Club Educators Hall of Fame and has been honored with the AIGA Medal For Lifetime Achievement, the Eric Carle Award, the Society of Illustrators Richard Gangel Award for Art Direction, The Ladislav Sutnar Award for Design, and the Smithsonian National Design Award. Heller is the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees in Fine Arts, from The College for Creative Studies in Detroit and the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

As the keynote speaker for SVA’s commencement exercises, Heller will join a distinguished group of leaders in the arts, humanities and public service, including trailblazing artist and alumnus Gary Simmons (BFA 1988 Fine Arts), Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario, cultural icon and filmmaker John Waters, musician and poet Patti Smith, activist and author Gloria Steinem, U.S. Congressman and civil-rights hero John Lewis, cultural critic Greil Marcus, artists Laurie Anderson and Carrie Mae Weems, playwrights Edward Albee and Tony Kushner, and historian Robert A. Caro.

School of Visual Arts is a comprehensive college of art and design offering the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Animation and Visual Effects, Advertising, Animation, Comics, Computer Art, Design, Film, Fine Arts, Illustration, Interior Design, Photography and Video, and Visual and Critical Studies; the degree of Master of Arts in Curatorial Practice, Art Education and Design Research, Writing and Criticism; the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching in Art Education; the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Art Practice, Computer Arts, Design, Design for Social Innovation, Fine Arts, Illustration as Visual Essay, Interaction Design, Photography, Video and Related Media; Products of Design, and Visual Narrative; and the degree of Master of Professional Studies in Art Therapy, Branding, Digital Photography, Directing and Fashion Photography.

SVA alumni include Renée Cox, Paul Davis, Sal DeVito, Michael Giacchino, Pete Hamill, Keith Haring, Julia Hoffmann, Justine Kurland, Suzanne McClelland, Patrick McDonnell, Elizabeth Peyton, Alexis Rockman, Carlos Saldanha, Harris Savides, Kenny Scharf, Yuko Shimizu, Amy Sillman, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Rebecca Sugar, and Sarah Sze.

School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers, and creative professionals for seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprising 6,000 students at its Manhattan campus and over 43,000 alumni from some 130 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.