大连工业大学艺术设计学院创建于1985年，是较早开设艺术设计类专业的院校之一。现有教职员工169人，在校本科生3273名，硕士研究生559名。学院分设环境设计系、视觉传达系、数字媒体艺术系、工业设计系、风景园林系、美术学系、雕塑系、文化产业管理系、艺术与科技系、学科基础部10个系(部)，9个专业方向。30年来培养毕业生近万人。
目前学院的艺术设计学科享誉东北、全国知名，2006年被辽宁省教育厅评为“艺术设计人才培养基地”。2007年，艺术设计专业被评为“辽宁省示范专业”，艺术设计生态教学团队被评为“省级教学团队”。2008年，设计艺术学被评为“辽宁省重点学科”。学院被教育部、财政部评为2009年度人才培养模式创新实验区。2014年在中国科学评价研究中心(RCCSE)与中国科教评价网联合发布的中国研究生教育排行榜中，学院研究生教育在全国131所开办设计学专业的院校中排名第14位。设计艺术学专业被评为A级，进入全国相同专业前5%的领先行列。2014年在辽宁省教育厅发布的本科专业综合评价结果中，我院环境设计专业综合排名第1名，视觉传达设计专业综合排名第2名，产品设计专业综合排名第4名。
艺术设计学院在多年的教学实践中确立了独特的办学理念和人才培养模式，有别于八大美院的教学及发展方向。作为东北地区目前唯一拥有艺术与科技专业的高校，艺术设计学院依托于大连工业大学设置全面的文、管、理学科集群和兄弟学院的艺术类学科，积极推动艺术与科技的学科融合，从艺术创作到科技创新;从学科交叉到资源共享;从课程建设到创新训练全面发展。近年来学院在做好传统教学的同时，积极倡导当代艺术、时尚与科技之间的跨界融合，“跨界”与“共享”将成为学院未来教育的主题。依托省级生态型教学团队积极探索创新型与设计服务型人才培养模式，形成“以艺术与科技融合为内涵、以创意思维与专业实践共生为理念、以国际合作与教师培训为依托、以设计服务与科研项目为平台”的人才培养目标。
学院在以国际化办学的总体规划指导下，积极开展对外交流与合作。先后与英国、法国、日本、意大利、俄罗斯、芬兰、澳大利亚、韩国、新西兰、加拿大、美国等一些知名院校和国际企业建立了友好合作关系，并互派留学生。积极开展多种形式的合作办学，推动学院的教学融入国际先进行列，进行互访、举办教育论坛、作品联合展演等形式的学术交流。2013到2014年连续两次举办国际艺术与科技节、作品展等活动，吸引了大批国内外专家学者到访。2014年与俄罗斯、法国、意大利、日本、澳大利亚等国外高校联合举办作品展、论坛等学术交流活动，受到了艺术界的普遍关注。
The School of Art and Design of Dalian Polytechnic University was founded in 1985 with a history of 25 years. It currently has 142 faculty and staff numbers. There are 2500 undergraduate students and 300 graduate students.
The center of art & design engineering has undertaken hundreds of projects both in and out of Liaoning Province. During the recent years, there are more than 400 papers, 850 works and 45 composing of faculty and staffs which have been published on local and international design and art magazines. Teachers and students take active part in joining all levels of academic competitions and events, achieved outstanding results, and won wide praise. Nearly 70 teachers fully complete their own work and in the meantime, serve a leader position in various academic institutes and associations, and also the judge of the tournaments. The school has successively hosted the sorts of competition.
The school has actively carried out exchanges and cooperation with counterparts at home and aboard in recent years, invited well-known scholars and experts lectures over a hundred times; established a friendly inter-school exchange relations with dozen or more international institutions.
37 renowned domestic and foreign scholars and experts are hired as visiting professor.
Nowadays, the subject of art & design has a lot of prestige in Northeast and all over the China. The school was chosen as “Art and Design Training Base” in 2006 by Education Department of Liaoning Province.
In 2007, the subject of art & design was named “Model Subject of Liaoning Province”, the teaching team of ecology in art & design earned “the Provincial Teaching Team” award. In 2008, the school was named “Liaoning Provincial Key Disciplines”, and earned the award for the experimental innovative department of the Year 2009 by Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance.