Oct 15, 2024  
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Visual Art, B.A.


This program’s approach to the arts incorporates our belief in the importance of educating critical thinkers, inspired makers, and engaged citizens. A closely knit interdisciplinary, project-based program seated in a dynamic liberal arts institution, the visual arts program offers an intimate conversation in the history, purpose and process of making art. Learning, experimenting and engaging ideas is a collaborative adventure taken on by students and faculty alike. While developing the skills necessary to become practiced makers, students also gain a thorough understanding of the contemporary and historical ideas surrounding studio practice as well as the role art plays in the local and global community.

Students are asked to choose from one of the 5 concentrations in order to focus their studies. The contemporary environment demands that graduates in the arts have a broad skill base and understanding of a variety of mediums. To meet this demand, all of our students are required to take classes across disciplines. In their second year all majors are required to submit work for a portfolio review in which they have an opportunity to present their work to the full faculty. This review fosters a relationship between our students and all of the art faculty and is designed to help each student begin their advanced research. Our program builds a sense of community through group trips collaborative projects, student clubs and the Senior House. The Senior House provides each student a private studio with common spaces where students work together to write their senior thesis paper and prepare a body of work for their senior exhibition.

The UMF Art Gallery provides students the opportunity to form a sustained relationship with contemporary art focused on global social and aesthetic concerns. Through working directly with guest artists of national and international reputation and exhibiting their own work in annual student and Senior Thesis exhibitions, students build a strong context for their own artwork.

A degree in the arts provides students with a broad interdisciplinary lens that can be applied to a variety of real life applications. UMF Art graduates go on to pursue careers in studio art, education, advertising, community development, curating and museum studies, media production, film and animation, etc. Students are not restricted to simply follow a fine-arts path. An undergraduate degree in the visual arts provides students with a foundation that supports a career in a variety of extended fields including law, business, community development.

Concentrations:

  • New Media and Graphic Design
  • Graphic Design
  • Painting and Sculpture
  • Socially Engaged Art
  • Visual Culture
  • Integrated Arts

Major Requirements (60 Credits)


*All Art Majors must take at least one digital course option within their degree requirements.

*NOTE: A grade of C- or above must be earned in all ARH/ART courses in order to count toward major requirements.

Concentration: (32 Credits)


*Choose One

New Media and Graphic Design


Graphic Design


Painting and Sculpture


Socially Engaged Art


Visual Culture


Integrated Arts


  • Any 1 100 Level ART Class Credits: 4
  • Any 5 200 Level ART classes Credits: 20
  • Any 2 300 Level ART Courses Credits: 8

World Language Requirement


For specific information about world language requirements and expectations, see the General Education Requirements  in the Academic Programs section of this catalog.

General Education Requirements


For specific information about general education requirements and expectations, see the General Education Requirements  in the Academic Programs section of this catalog.

Minimum Total Credits for The Degree: 128


Learning Goals and Assessment


Learning Goals:

UMF students graduating with a degree in art will:

  • Be able to create a dynamic and intellectually sound body of work within their chosen medium that demonstrates a high skill level and functions both conceptually and technically
  • Be able to express the context of their work orally, in writing, and through research
  • Be able to prepare appropriate packages to send out to galleries, graduate schools and/or potential employers
  • Understand the conceptual and technical aspects inherent in a given medium
  • Be able to find a context for their work and ideas in contemporary art and art history
  • Be able to construct meaning that is relevant to the contemporary art dialogue as well as art history
  • Be able to formulate content for their work that is both relevant and complex
  • Be able to identify their own perspective, community, and role in the world
  • Be prepared to approach a variety of opportunities and connections in the real world
  • Be able to identify their relevance as artists and makers in a wider context
  • Be able to evaluate and critique the communicative and conceptual strength of their own work as well as the work of their peers
  • Be able to continue to develop problem-solving skills (both technical and conceptual) within a given medium

New Media and Graphic Design

New Media is the study of art making processes that were invented after 1950. In our program instruction centers around digital tools such as video, animation, and print. Graphic Design is often thought of as a discipline that describes the ideas of others, and that the designer is only a tool for creating consumer desire. This is not historically the role of design, and we embrace it’s power to communicate as well as critique.

Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of new media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.

Sculpture and Painting

Many changes have taken place in traditional media over the last 100 years. Students will engage the disciplines of Painting and Sculpture by investigating its complex history and experimenting with new and exciting ways of working that employs new tools and practices and develops new ideas, in order to create new meaning in our contemporary dialog.

Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of 3D and 2D media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.

Socially Engaged Art

Foregrounding social issues, activism and community collaborations, Socially Engaged Art is art that acts as a catalyst for social change.

Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of live/performance art to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.

Integrated Arts

In this concentration students begin with the idea and investigate the material and mediums that best represent the idea to their audience. Skills are learned in service to the idea and working across the concentrations is essential to creating a meaningful and successful body of work.

Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of a variety of media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.

Visual Culture

Visual Culture is the study of images and media, their meaning and their impact on society and culture. This concentration is designed for students interested in cultural studies, writing, history, and curating as well as artmaking. Students will be able to demonstrate scholarly knowledge and critical understanding of art history and visual culture including architecture and historical and media images as texts, as cultural constructions.

Students will also be able to demonstrate the ability to write and speak persuasively on complex ideas in art history, visual culture, and related disciplines.