Utah Valley University announced Thursday that Courtney Davis has been appointed as the new dean for the School of the Arts.

Davis has served as the interim dean of the school since May 10, 2021, when Stephen Pullen chose to become a full-time professor within the art department.

Prior to her time as interim dean, she served as the department chair of art and design, and the acting director and associate director of the UVU Center for the Study of Ethics.

Davis is the founder of UVU’s Biennial Art History Symposium, as well as co-founder of the annual Student Ethics Symposium. She has helped to develop a curriculum in the visual arts at UVU, she created the school’s art history major and minor as well as several individual courses and flex-learning options.

“I have been a part of the School of the Arts since it was formed,” Davis said in a press release. “I have watched it grow, transform, and develop into the incredible place that it is. The School of the Arts is my heart and my home, and it is my honor and privilege to be a part of school’s bright future.”

According to Davis, she will continue to build upon her contributions to UVU and the School of the Arts during her time as dean.

“My vision is to expand, enhance, and elevate the profile of the already amazing School of the Arts through destination programs and events that highlight UVU as a leader for quality and innovation,” she said.

Davis has been a full-time faculty member at UVU since 2007, but prior to her time at UVU she served as an associate attorney at Hill, Johnson & Schmutz, a Provo law firm where Davis practiced family and business law. She received her J.D., as well as a Master of Art in Art History and Curatorial Studies, from Brigham Young University.

Davis is a two-time UVU Faculty Senate Award of Excellence recipient and has received the UVU Alumni Outstanding Educator of the Year for the School of the Arts Award three times.

Davis also received international recognition for her 2018 paper “So, Sue Me: Legal Actions as a New Staging Ground for Performance Art,” which was published in The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, and her paper “Intellectual Theft or Creative License? Copyright Education in the Visual Arts,” received the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters with the award of Best Paper, Arts Division in 2017.

Newsletter