Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory – Studio Visual Arts (BFA and BA degree)
Written by: Christine D’Onofrio
In consultation with Visual Arts staff and faculty; Gareth James, Barrie Jones, Phil McCrum, Manuel Piña, Richard E Prince and Marina Roy, Deana Holmes, Scott Watson and guidance of Ilia Star (Arts Outcomes Project Manager, CTLT) and Janet Giltrow (Associate Dean, Arts)
In the Visual Arts studio program, graduates will:
- Develop a life-long skill as a self-reflexive artist at a professional capacity.
- Acquire visual literacy, understanding of materials, and technical skills to develop a critically engaged art practice.
- Employ all basic components—materials, form, time, and ideas—to convey meaning in the production of artwork, and affect in the act of “making” (poiesis).
- Develop artistic skills in the communal space of the studio laboratory, a space where art making and research coalesce.
- Have an art vocabulary informed by art theory and art history to draw upon when conceptualizing and making art, resulting in the ability to communicate ideas about one’s work.
- Process the relationship of intuition to intellect, of thinking to vision, so as to create new links between what we see and what we know, and ultimately, new avenues for producing meaning.
- Discover differences and commonalities between the realms of visual culture and that of the work of art; to critically respond through the production of art the strategies of contemporary visual media.
- Communicate complex ideas about art in a broad range of forums, such as lectures, artist talks, studio critiques, group and solo presentations, writing, and conferences.
- Cultivate critical modes of thinking informed by production and study of the visual arts, to formulate ideas that interrogate dominant structures and that give them the capacity to make meaning.
- Have an established skill base in various media, such as painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and digital art forms, and be able to identify avenues to adapt/advance techniques toward development of an art practice.
- Bring an ethical perspective to their artistic praxis in an effort to understand the social, political, and emotive implications of art, enacting responsible citizenship through an understanding of the relationship of the artist to the society at large.
- Integrate a range of research disciplines offered through the University into the practice of contemporary art.
- Be prepared to enter the professional world of contemporary art by presentation of a formal artist’s portfolio consisting of art works and artist statements that illustrate the development of their practice.
Specific to BFA
- Plan, arrange, and mount personal artwork for a successful art exhibition in collaboration with one’s peers and other professionals.
Specific to BA
- Approach research areas through the lens of the visual arts, creating a trans-disciplinary investigation on the development and expansion of meaning applied to other subject areas.