Thomas Berding

Thomas Berding was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a BA from Xavier University and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Prior to his appointment at Michigan State University, he taught at Dartmouth College, Indiana University, and Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University). He has also been invited nearly 40 times by other universities to serve as a Visiting Artist/Critic or external program reviewer.

A practicing studio artist, Berding’s paintings have been recognized with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the NEA /Mid America Arts Alliance. His work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the University of Maine Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, and The Painting Center in New York. In 2016, Oakland University Art Gallery in metro Detroit mounted a survey of the last decade of Berding’s work which was accompanied by a major catalog. Over his career, he has exhibited his work at many venues including the David Klein Gallery, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Rochester Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Art Chicago International Art Fair, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Rhode Island School of Design Museum among many others.

Berding’s essays on painting have also been published and he has been a frequent presenter at the College Art Association (CAA). He has served as a member of  CAA’s Professional Practices and Services to Artists Committees and co-led the Committee on MFA Standards that re-wrote the guidelines for the MFA degree in Art and Design. In addition, Berding has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Arts Administrators. Within MSU, he served as Chairperson of the Department of Art, Art History, and Design for eight years.  In 2010, he was one of five MSU faculty and administrators selected as a Big Ten Academic Leadership Fellow by the Office of the Provost.

In 2026, Berding was awarded the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award, which is among the most prestigious honors MSU bestows upon its faculty.