Art
Western Connecticut State University’s visual arts curriculum incorporates a structure consistent with CAA guidelines, based on classic design principles inspired by the Bauhaus and through exploration of traditional and emerging media. The areas of concentration are Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, and Studio Arts, comprised of Painting and Sculpture. All areas of emphasis share a common two-year foundation program leading into the technical specializations of the final two years. This foundation program is of critical significance as it instills in each student a comprehensive background in aesthetic form, structure, and dynamics. Additionally, our students have the opportunity to participate in professional internships and the annual Senior Portfolio Exhibition.The liberal arts component is vital; it promotes and develops a set of skills that are of fundamental importance to any citizen and critical for the successful artist or designer. These include the ability to think critically, the development and refinement of verbal and writing skills, and the acquisition of a diverse and extensive visual vocabulary and knowledge base.
This combination of professional artistic training and acquired liberal arts skills enables visual artists to successfully develop, create, and articulate their creative, visual dialogues.
- Program type: Bachelor of Arts in Art
- Minors / Options: Bachelor of Arts in Art, Minor in Art, Minor in Photography
- School: School of Visual, Performing, and Communication Arts
- Primary Location: Westside campus
- Program Information:
The Art major at WCSU provides challenging visual arts training within the context of a liberal arts education. This approach infuses in our students a broad, diverse range of knowledge and experience along with the ability to think critically and analytically.
Department of Art faculty are professional art practitioners with close ties to the New York City art world. Their unique backgrounds and experiences create engaging and challenging learning environments for our students.
Our curriculum incorporates comprehensive instruction integrated with the development, stimulation and increased awareness of the creative process. This ensures that our Visual Art majors become proficient creative problem solvers capable of freely expressing themselves.
The Gallery at The School of Visual & Performing Arts serves as a venue for a broad range of professional and student exhibitions, while the Visiting Artist Lecture Series features an impressive array of practitioners. Bus trips provide our students the opportunity to visit galleries and museums each semester in the surrounding area, including Manhattan.
All students pursuing the Bachelor of Arts in Art degree at WCSU will demonstrate the following upon graduation:
In General Education:
- The ability to think, speak, and write clearly and effectively, and to communicate with precision, cogency, and rhetorical force.
- An informed acquaintance with the mathematical and experimental methods of the physical and biological sciences, and with the main forms of analysis the historical and quantitative techniques needed for investigating the workings and developments of modern society.
- An ability to address culture and history from a variety of perspectives.
- Understanding of, and experience in thinking about, moral and ethical problems.
- The ability to respect, understand, and evaluate work in a variety of disciplines.
- The capacity to explain and defend views effectively and rationally.
- Understanding of and experience in one or more art forms other than the visual arts and design.
Studies in the Visual Arts
- Acquisition of a comprehensive set of creative, intellectual and technical skills, along with an ability to make connections between them. Students will have an understanding of scale, perspective, tone, color, line, form, light, texture, pattern, balance, and tension.
- Development and creation of a significant body of work along with the ability to understand and evaluate works of art.
- Familiarity with the works and philosophies of major artist/designers and a familiarity with contemporary thinking on art and design.
Graduating majors participate in the annual Thesis Exhibition, which serves as the capstone event, showcasing implementation of acquired skill sets.
To learn more about the Art degree, please follow the links below: