Troy Richards is the dean for the School of Art and Design, overseeing the school’s 17 associate and baccalaureate programs as well as the gallery space in the Pomerantz Art and Design Center. He came to FIT in 2017 from the University of Delaware, where he worked from 2008 to 2017 as an associate professor in art and design and served in a number of leadership roles, including interim associate dean for the arts. He holds an MFA from Cranbrook Art Academy and a BFA from the University of Arts in Philadelphia.

As an artist, Richards works in a range of media and often collaboratively. He has exhibited widely nationally and has received numerous awards and grants, including the 2007 Ohio Arts Council Grant for Individual Excellence and a 2017 Delaware Division of Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, Established Professional category.

Richards has had solo exhibitions at Grand Arts (Kansas City, MO), Thomas Robertello Gallery (Chicago and Aqua Art Miami), and Whittier College (Whittier, CA). His work has been shown in exhibitions in New York City at P.S.1, White Columns, Socrates Sculpture Park, the Queens Museum of Art, the International Print Center, and the Center for Book Arts, among other venues. “The Criminal Us,” an ongoing project with Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, is included in the exhibition Prisons Today, which won the overall prize for excellence from the American Alliance of Museums in 2017. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, New Art Examiner, Time Out New York, NY Arts magazine, Newcity (Chicago) magazine, and others.