Art and Art History

Degrees in Art

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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BFA Plans of Study

BA Plan of Study

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