George Smith is Founder and President of the
INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES IN THE VISUAL ARTS.
 George Smith has long been a leader and innovator in American education. As a graduate student at Brown University he redesigned the undergraduate writing program and introduced courses in interdisciplinary studies to the university Modes of Thought curriculum. After his appointment as University Fellow, he taught art and literature in Paris using the streets and museums as classroom space.
Among the very first to write an interdisciplinary dissertation for the PhD at Brown, Dr. Smith is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary scholar. He has published widely on relations between literature and the visual arts. His essays on psychoanalytic theory, philosophy, visual culture, and the literatures of France, England, and America have appeared in critical and philosophical journals and collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.
As Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at the Maine College of Art, Dr. Smith designed and founded one of America’s first low residency MFA programs. The first MFA curriculum to combine equal studies in art theory and studio practice, the MECA MFA has served as a model for change in American graduate education in the visual arts.
In 2007 George Smith founded the INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES IN THE VISUAL ARTS. IDSVA is the first and only school in the history of American education to be founded for the sole purpose of providing doctoral studies in philosophy and art theory for visual artists. Headquartered in Portland, Maine and supported by a worldwide faculty, IDSVA offers online instruction and holds residencies in Tuscany, Venice, New York, Paris, and at Brown University.
Photograph by Jack Montgomery
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