Queens College officially launched its new School of Arts on May 5 with an “Art Walk” that took family members and other visitors on a tour throughout the college’s arts facilities.

The school will add to Queens College’s already well established arts programming that up until now has been housed within the college’s School of Arts and Humanities.

“Queens College has long led in the arts,” Queens College President Frank Wu said. “We are a civic institution serving the ‘World’s Borough.’ Everywhere I travel in New York City, I meet people who are alumni—and folks whose parents, siblings, cousins, or neighbors attended Queens College. Art is for all members of our diverse democracy. It cannot—it must not—be limited to a privileged few. That ultimately is why our School of Arts is destined to succeed. It has the most idealistic mission: To promote the participation of all of our students in the fullness of life.”

The mission of the new school is to make even more available arts programming not only for arts and arts administration students, but for all students at the college, regardless of what they study.

By concentrating the fine and performing arts into one program, the accessibility of these kinds of classes and experiences will increase on campus, Queens College administration explained.

School of Arts and Humanities Dean William McClure will now also be the dean of the School of Arts. McClure worked to help organize the “Art Walk” and facilitate the creation of the new school.

“Today’s event is a culmination of many months of hard work and dedication,” Wu said in the program for the “Art Walk.”

“We would not be here today without the leadership of our Dean of Arts and Humanities William McClure and the extraordinary efforts of our faculty, staff, and students. A special thanks goes to everyone involved in making the School of Arts a reality and to all of you for joining us today.”

The event started at 5 p.m. in the lobby of the college’s Godwin Ternbach Museum, which is the only art museum in the CUNY system — not to be confused with art galleries, which other CUNY campuses, including Baruch College, do have.

It is also the only art museum in Queens to have a collection “spanning antiquity to present-day,” according to CUNY.

From there, the walk spanned hallways and classrooms throughout the building where guests could meet current arts students and faculty.

The tour included stops at the Art Department, a Louis Armstrong House Museum video and the Master of Fine Arts studios, exhibit spaces, the ceramics studio, the Art Department Imaging Lab, the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance and the Department of Media Studies and the newly renovated television studio and social media kiosk.

“Queens College enjoys a national reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs,” a CUNY press release reads in part. “With its graduate and undergraduate degrees, honors programs, and research and internship opportunities, the college helps its students realize their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning faculty.”