The BFA Studio Program provides a curriculum stressing a strong foundation in drawing and design. It concentrates on developing the student’s sensory awareness, ability to think in response to it, and proficiency in the visualization of thought through the manipulation of materials and processes.
The Program
The first year, students are guided through the core curriculum where thorough training in the fundamentals of drawing and 2D-design are coupled with color theory and 3D-design.
During the sophomore year, students take a series of survey courses which introduce them to painting, photography, printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture. This survey allows the students to engage themselves in a form of art making that will best express their own personal artistic development. The junior and senior years involve a concentration in one of the various studio disciplines where they can begin to hone their skills and expand their conceptual knowledge.
The student will develop skills in the making of art ranging from the two- dimensional to three-dimensional, encompassing traditional and contemporary forms of art making. This is achieved through a comprehensive course of study that ensures investigative exposure to the widest variety of tools. The Studio Program is comprehensive and includes a sequence of courses in design, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, mixed media, and digital practices. The curriculum is practical and visionary in terms of the role of the student within the university and in the community as an artist by:
- encouraging experimentation, crossing boundaries, and hybrid processes as well as engaging the history and traditions of art,
- offering an expansive and inclusive approach toward educating artists, embracing new and established technologies in materials and conceptual contexts,
- providing extensive training and excellent facilities in a supportive environment with a professionally active faculty who focus on students as individuals,
- acquiring a critical awareness of seeing, and of the problems and possibilities for investigating, thinking and problem solving in the 21st century, and
- promoting activities of students as they contribute to our artistic community with creativity and intelligence.
With our belief in a well-rounded, individualized education, students are free to create an education from their own creative passions. And along the way students are supported, guided, and encouraged by faculty and academic advisors whose collaborative spirit and active engagement make a strong individualized education all possible.