School of Art & Design

The Art Education Program promotes the idea that art teaching is a lifelong creative practice. Our students are professionally prepared for teaching careers in and out of schools, museums, community sites, and through their own artistic practice and scholarly work. We offer a BFA and MA path to obtain a pre-k to 12th grade license for teaching art in Illinois and 46 other States. Our graduate students (MA, MEd, and PhD) become thought leaders at the intersections of teaching, art, and research; working as authors, curators, professors, activists, community organizers, and artists all over the world.

Why are the objects that we call “works of art” made? Who makes them? Who sees them? What functions do they serve? What kinds of meaning have they offered to viewers in the past? What kinds of meaning can they have for us now? Questions like these are central to the study of art history.

Take your design skills to the next level and bring expertise from other disciplines into conversation with design research.

Explore the wide and varied field of fashion, from history and social psychology to sustainable manufacturing and brand development.

Negotiate challenges at the intersection of traditional craft and rapidly evolving communication technologies to create positive change in today’s social and cultural systems.

Illustration introduces students to a range of historic and contemporary illustrative practices and the various paths they can take in industry, including fine art, editorial, publishing, advertising, visual development, surface design, and fashion Illustration.

New and continuing BFASA students may choose this concentration beginning in spring 2025, pending final approval by NASAD, our national accreditation organization.

Ever wonder about why products look and work the way they do? From cell phones and computers to the microwave of the future, industrial designers find the answers.

The interdisciplinary practice concentration enables students to explore, combine, and expand their knowledge in an array of studio disciplines including fashion, new media, painting, photography, printmaking, illustration, and sculpture. If you’re looking for an option that allows optimal experimentation to determine your own studio experiences, this is the path for you.

New Media students pursue sustained study in the art forms of time-based media, performance, digital imaging, and coding-based practices.

Students begin with rigorous instruction in traditional drawing and painting materials, methods, techniques, and concepts. Then they explore experimental and multi-disciplinary approaches to painting, as well as its complex and culturally influential history.

We prepare serious photographers to serve as cultural leaders of the 21st century. Our studios and seminars explore historic traditions, wide-ranging techniques, recent innovations, and the role of the contemporary photographer.

Printmaking offers a wide range of traditional, photographic, and digital printmaking methods that engage with contemporary art and design fields. Specific courses focus on screenprint, letterpress, comics and ‘zines, relief printing, intaglio, lithography, and other rotating special topics.

Sculpture focuses on methods and concepts in three-dimensional  form-making and expanded spatial practices. Clay, plaster, paper, fibers and textiles, wood, metal, found objects, and plastics are just a few of the materials our students utilize to create three-dimensional objects at a variety of scales, from the miniature to the monumental.

The BA in Studio Art offers an alternative option for students who are interested in high-level visual art studies combined with ample coursework outside of art and design. This degree is intended for those students who want maximum flexibility in the pursuit of minors, certificates, or double majors, while still developing their skills as a visual artist.

Choose among four campus-approved minors.