B.A. Degree in Applied Arts and Sciences

Students who want to specialize in a specific studio discipline can do so within the ‘Bachelor of Arts in applied arts and sciences’ degree. The areas of emphasis below are available as official discipline focuses. Undergraduate Emphasis Area Options: Applied Design: The goals of the Applied Design area are to encourage the undergraduate student to explore the media offered within the area as a means of making an expressive personal statement, and to develop a mature statement that requires both handcraft and intellectual capabilities. The following areas listed below are the four primary programs within the Applied Design emphasis: Ceramics, Fiber, Furniture and Woodworking, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Graphic Design: The Graphic Design program is committed to teaching professional skills that allow students to plan and execute visual communication according to the needs of audiences in specific contexts. Our students gain a thorough understanding of the principles of design, theories of communication, and strategies for problem solving, by working on a wide range of projects that apply cognitive, social and cultural human factors to inform, instruct and persuade. In addition to developing solid professional skills, courses in our curriculum explore emerging design practices and theoretical concerns with focus on the cultural, technical, and communicative potential of graphic design. Interior Design: The faculty of the Interior Design emphasis believes that the interior designer must respond to all of the needs of human beings: aesthetic, spiritual, physical, social and cultural. Focus must always be on the human condition and its context. We are committed to interior design as an expressive art form applied to the solution of human problems in three-dimensional space and form. Multimedia: The Multimedia emphasis provides students majoring in Art the opportunity to study an aggregate of courses related to time-based media, interactivity, experimental narrative, time space approaches to installation, and interdisciplinary approaches to art and design. This course of study provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary studies incorporating traditional and emerging technologies. Painting and Printmaking: The Painting sub-discipline is an integral part of the Painting and Printmaking emphasis. The Painting and Printmaking area provides an environment that encourages students to develop as professional artists. The area attempts to offer a solid foundation in perceptual and technical skills, and an awareness of historical and contemporary precedent in the disciplines of painting and drawing. The emphasis encourages students to use these basic principles creatively to explore a broad range of concepts and to develop independent directions. The primary focus of the Painting program is two-dimensional imaging through the traditional mediums of painting and drawing. As the student advances, attention is paid to the integration of these two with the other 2-D disciplines of printmaking and photography, and further integration with three-dimensional concerns where appropriate. Sculpture: The School’s Sculpture emphasis is designed to provide training for students to become professional artists and or prepare them for further study at the graduate level. The program has the objective of providing students a program which is designed to develop their perceptual sensitivity, aesthetic judgment, creative resourcefulness, and provides the skills necessary to express themselves. The area seeks to train artists who specialize in three-dimensional expression and sensory kinesthetics.