And now, the Australian National University School of Art is changing its name to become the School of Art & Design.

Head of School Denise Ferris said the rebranding was both a reinvention of the school's identity, and acknowledgement of how it has evolved over the years.

"We've been, really, a school of art and design for more than a decade, and probably for more than that, to be honest, but no one called it design," she said.

"And so what we're doing now is we're naming it."

The school is also adding to its faculty, and extending its reach in terms of the students it recruits.

"We have two new colleagues. Their research is in both making things and also in data visualisation, so that will map onto our traditional disciplines," she said.

"That is value-adding, there's no doubt about that - we're not just renaming ourselves and staying the same. We're changing, we're evolving, and that's appropriate."

She said she and her colleagues had been in the process this week of interviewing prospective students for 2017, and that many candidates did not fit the traditional art school mould.

"They are a different kind of young person or older person who are interested in tapping into some of the things of our school, but also interested in the design program, and what that is about," she said.

"It's design thinking, the branding that comes out of design, the kind of use of data to create things, but as well as the use of material to create things. So they are a different cohort."

The school would also differ from the University of Canberra's Faculty of Art and Design, in that it would not offer industrial design or graphic design.

"Industrial design is a different kind of thing, where you're working to a client brief, so we're maintaining our innovative status by doing other kinds of design," she said.

And the school would continue to offer flexible double degrees with academic disciplines across the board, with such unexpected blends as astrophysics and textiles, glass art and music, and, in the case of recent graduate Ciara O'Brien, photography and international relations.

Dr Ferris said the school's name change was a significant one that had involved an extensive consultation process with staff and students.

And now that Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt has signed off on it, the next step will be getting approval – required through the National Capital Authority – to place a new sign on the school's heritage-listed building on the ANU campus.

The ANU School of Art's 2016 Graduating Exhibition runs until Sunday December 4.