Bachelor of Arts - Art - Studio Art

Program Description

The Department of Visual Arts and Art History at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is dedicated to the advancement, practice and theoretical understanding of the visual arts. A central mission of the department is to enable students to understand art in the context of its rich historical heritage, incorporating continuing changes, innovations and accomplishments made by creative artists and art historians.

The department seeks to prepare both undergraduate and graduate students for professional careers in the creation and interpretation of the visual arts. Deeply related to this focus is a commitment to elevate and sustain the study of the arts as both a necessary mode of understanding and a dynamic expression of human experience as it relates to an increasingly complex global society. To accomplish this goal, students must develop technical skills related to a variety of artistic media as well as develop a comprehension of the creative impulse and the spirit that motivates it.

The faculty of the Department of Visual Arts and Art History, through its own significant research and creative activities, fosters the preservation of artistic legacies with an interest in originality and innovation within artistic and research practice. These educational goals are enhanced by visiting lecturers, workshops, internships, conferences and exhibitions held at two University galleries, the Dorothy F. Schmidt Center Gallery and the Ritter Gallery in Boca Raton, and activities at the other campus locations, including the Metrolab Studio in the Reubin Askew Tower in Fort Lauderdale.

The BA in Art with a concentration in Studio Art is designed for a general education in the visual arts. Students are given rigorous training in the foundations of art, as well as in ways to explore new and innovative questions, theories and ideas that drive art today. Students are encouraged to create individualized programs of study anchored by any three areas of interest in the visual arts. Majors are expected to explore the variety and breadth of contemporary art practice in order to develop their own understanding of directions in visual art and their own artistic practice. Studio and seminar experiences are supplemented with field trips, visiting artist lectures, and critiques in order to help students begin to develop their own interests and projects as artists.

Students will choose three areas of interest from the following: Ceramics, Drawing, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture.