BFA, BA, Minor

Degrees in Art

The Department of Art & Art History offers a BFA, BA degrees and Minor opportunities in Art disciplines across a series of concentrations including Graphic Design, Illustration/Animation, Industrial Design, Printmaking, Painting/Drawing, Photography/Video and Sculpture/Ceramics.

BFA in Art

The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program in Art is designed to provide an enriched educational environment that develops and nurtures the full range of capabilities necessary for a career in the visual arts. Skills addressed include: a mastery of requisite technical skills, the use of technology across the curriculum, experience in critical and creative problem solving, visual literacy, knowledge of historical modes of expression in the visual arts, and mastery of written modes of expression.

After Foundations courses, students declare a concentration in which to focus their advanced studies. Once a concentration is declared students follow that concentration's prescribed Plan of Study. Students are able and encouraged to take advanced courses across all the studio concentrations. Specific concentration requirements can be found on each concentration's page.

Concentrations

Graphic Design

Graphic Design in the Department of Art & Art History is predicated upon Graphic Design as a multifaceted discipline in the art and practice of verbalizing, visualizing and communicating ideas. This approach offers students the creative, intellectual and technological skill sets necessary to become design practitioners engaged with real world design opportunities.

More about Graphic Design

Illustration/Animation

Illustration/Animation concentration prepares students to pursue visual narrative storytelling as an applied art creatively and professionally. Emphasis is on creative process, visual thinking, communication, authoring extended illustration and/or animation works, and understanding professional practice. Illustration/Animation gives students a working knowledge of both traditional approaches and new technologies. Students merge personal expression with communication goals in their comprehensive professional preparation as they pursue a wide variety of projects in both analog and digital environments, including: book, editorial, institutional, and children’s illustration; 2-D and stop-motion animation; character and environment design; design for products; comics, cartoons, and graphic novels; self-promotion, among so much more.

More about Illustration/Animation

Industrial Design

Industrial Design is the practice of envisioning and creating solutions to complex problems, in the context of human experience. Industrial Designers apply research and creativity to identify opportunities for creating new products, services or systems with a focus on human factors, aesthetic value and user input. Industrial Design prepares students to generate creative solutions to complex problems and increase their capacity to be creative thinkers. Human centered design coursework enables students to design objects, environments, systems and experiences that are formulated in the context of real world challenges. By developing resourcefulness and adaptability, students learn to identify and analyze problems and objectively evaluate information to form actionable design solutions. A core objective in Industrial Design focuses on helping students develop a design practice based on ethically sound principles that recognize and value the social impact of design, and create environmentally responsible solutions.

More about Industrial Design

Photography/Video

Photography/Video prepares students for careers from fine art to commercial photography. A central premise of the program is that ideas and techniques are inextricably intertwined, and are explored together. Understanding principles and concepts behind both new and traditional imaging media, and establishing a firm grounding in basic ideas and techniques empowers students to respond effectively to future change. Photography/Video facilities include digital and wet darkrooms providing students with a wide range of experiences from traditional black and white film to state of the art color prints using archival pigment ink sets. Cameras in various formats, tripods, lighting equipment, and other accessories are available for student use. Our lighting studio is available for individual student sessions.

Video provides students with a chance to explore time-based images in an art context displayed in all forms from projections to web and installations. Work addresses personally and socially meaningful subjects framed by the rich history of the medium, and explored through screenings of important videos. A range of digital cameras and editing stations is available for students to use.

More about Photography/Video

Printmaking

Printmaking functions as an intersection where many approaches to print media are practiced in unison. Coursework encourages both dynamic group interaction and independent inquiry. Students utilize fully equipped facilities to investigate a broad range of traditional printmaking media including intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, and letterpress, as well as new and experimental approaches incorporating digital processes, laser engraving and cutting, and alternative types of presentation and media.

More about Printmaking

Painting/Drawing

Painting has a long history. The decision to be a painter means learning the history of the medium and how one can choose to use or disrupt that history. Painting/Drawing values painting as a language that comprises a vocabulary of symbols, metaphors, representational systems, and documentary ambitions, and material processes. From the earliest images on cave walls, painters have found inspiration in both the world around them and their own internal worlds. Issues of representation are explored through projects that inspire risk-taking and discovery. Equally important are projects that encourage thematic investigation, whether it be through observational painting or investigations of personal, political, and socially coded imagery. Abstraction, conceptual concerns, and mixed media serve as vehicles for extending the painting experience.

More about Painting Drawing

Sculpture/Ceramics

Sculpture/Ceramics is immersed in multidimensional art making, including the creation of functional forms, sculptural objects and installations often involving site specificity, community engagement and performance art. Through material and conceptual investigations Sculpture/Ceramics offers study in new and traditional media. Sculpture/Ceramics has fully equipped woodworking, metalworking, digital sculpture, mold making and casting, and ceramics studios. Design and craft are balanced with historical and theoretical discussions that engage creative practice within the context of contemporary culture and society.

More about Sculpture/Ceramics

66

Art/Design Credits

+

12

Art History Credits

+

42

General Education Courses

BA in Art

The Bachelor of Arts (BA) program in Art provides you with the best of two worlds: the intimacy of a small and vibrant art school, situated within an intellectually engaging major research university. Here it is possible to follow your passions for studio art in its many forms, art history, design, or visual storytelling (in still and moving images), while also exploring literature, history, sciences, and so much more. Students have access to a wide array of art-making and exhibition spaces, as well as emergent and convergent methods and technologies.

BA Degree Requirements

A minimum of 120 total degree credits are required for a BA degree. Within the 120 total credits a minimum of 42 must be studio art credits, with 30 of the 42 credits at the 3000/4000 level.

42

Art/Design Credits

+

9

Art History Credits

+

69

General Education Courses

Suggested Sequence of Study

Suggested Sequences of Study for BA concentrations are only samples/suggested course schedules. Requirements are subject to change and may vary based on catalog year, curriculum changes and course availability.

First Year

Semester 1
ART1010/Studio Concepts /3cr.
ART1030/Drawing 1 /3cr.
Art History 1000/Content Area 1 /3cr.
Content Area 1 /3cr.
English 1010/1011 /4cr.
Total Credits /16

Semester 2
Basic Studio ART2310, 2410, 2510 or 2610 /3cr.
Basic Studio ART2310, 2410, 2510 or 2610 /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Content Area 2 /3cr.
Content Area 3 /3–4cr.
Total Credits /15–16

Second Year

Semester 3
Basic Studio ART2310, 2410, 2510 or 2610 /3cr.
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Content Area 3 (Lab) /3cr.
Content Area 4 /4cr.
Total Credits /16cr.

Semester 4
Basic Studio ART2310, 2410, 2510 or 2610 /3cr.
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Art History 2000L or 3000/4000L /3cr.
Content Area 4 /3cr.
Total Credits /15cr.

Third Year

Semester 5
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Art History 3000/4000W /3cr.
Math/Stats Q /3cr.
Total Credits /15cr.

Semester 6
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Content Area 2 /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Total Credits /15cr.

Fourth Year

Semester 7
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Total Credits /15cr.

Semester 8
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
ART Elective 2000L or higher /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Elective /3cr.
Total Credits /15cr.

Minor in Art

Art Minor Requirements

Minor students must complete a minimum of 18 Art course credits (earning a grade of C or better) according to the following division:
Either ART1010, 1030 or 1040
Five additional ART courses at the 2000-level or above (minimum 15 credits).

3

ART1010, 
ART1030 or
 ART1040

+

15

2000 Level or above Studio Art courses

=

18

Studio Art course credits minimum


How do I apply for an Art Minor?

Complete the Art Minor Declaration Form

Fill out the Art Minor Declaration form. Send your signed form to the Studio Art Minor Coordinator who will sign and send it to the Art Department office for processing. It may take a few weeks for the Minor to appear on your transcript.

Minor Declaration Form

Art Minor FAQs

Do I need to apply to the SFA or complete a portfolio review in order to apply for the Art Minor?
No, but please contact the Studio Art Minor Coordinator for more information and fill out the Studio Art Minor Declaration Form

How long will it take to complete the minor?
Students wishing to complete the Studio Art Minor degree must complete a minimum of eighteen (18) credits in ART courses.  One of these courses must be either ART 1010, ART 1030 or Art 1040; five (5) courses at the 2000 or 3000 level.

How do I enroll in an art class as an Art Minor?
Studio Art Minors must contact the individual instructor of a course to obtain a permission number. While preference is given to Art and Digital Media majors, Art Minors have priority over other non-art-majors and will be able to enroll in a class if there is space once majors have enrolled. While minors technically do not need prerequisites for classes, this is ultimately up to the individual instructor teaching the class.

Can I start the Art Minor after I have already taken an art course?
Yes, but you must contact the Art Minor Coordinator as soon as possible to declare the Art Minor. Not all art classes can be used to fulfill Art Minor requirements, and courses taken out of sequence will need approval.

Can AP, Transfer and Foreign Study Art Course credits fulfill Art & Design Minor requirement?
With an AP portfolio score of 5, AP Credit may be substituted for Art 1030 Drawing I, without further portfolio evaluation. No other AP Credit, nor Transfer Credit of any kind may be applied to the Minor. A maximum of 6 credits of University of Connecticut Foreign Study Program Credits may be used to fulfill Minor requirements. The Art & Design Minor Coordinator will signSubstitution (Graduation Exception) Forms.pdffor Foreign Study credit.

What should I do if I decide to drop the Art Minor?
You must email the registrar directly to communicate your intention not to complete the Art Minor course of study. If you do not officially “un-declare” the minor, your transcript and PeopleSoft “degree requirements” will indicate an incomplete course of study.

Who is the Art Minor Coordinator?
Professor Kathryn Myers
 
Contact Studio Art Minor Coordinator