The educational mission of the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design at Indiana University is to help art, architecture, design, and merchandising students develop their creative skills; to provide them with an intellectual, historical, and critical background that will enable them to understand the functions and importance of art and design to contemporary society; to give students regardless of their specific aesthetic discipline an education across a range of art and design practices; and, through its program in merchandising, to help students take ideas from the imagination of the artist/designer to implementation in the marketplace. This mission includes a major international component as the School continues to develop internships and other educational opportunities for its students around the globe.