Bachelor's Programs
Our undergraduate programs challenge students to think, create, and act in transformative ways. An education in art and design is also an education through art and design, enabling you to develop valuable transferable skills in creativity, communication, organization, problem-solving, and expanding the possibilities for your future.The creative industries are now recognized as a vital and growing sector of the national economy, employing around 30% of the working population. The job market for artists and related workers continues to expand, and our graduates are well prepared to take advantage of these growing career opportunities.
We are a thriving community of artists, designers, educators, and historians committed to excellence and innovation in the practice, study, and teaching of the visual arts. Our students benefit from learning in professional programs administered in conjunction with the interdisciplinary resources of a Tier 1 research university.
The School of Art & Design is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art & Design (NASAD), and is regarded as one of the outstanding public university art programs in the United States.
The BFA in Art Education offers a pathway for motivated students to become licensed to teach K-12 art in Illinois public schools.
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.
With a BFASA with a concentration in fashion you can 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.
Ever wonder about why products look and work the way they do? From cell phones and computers to the microwave of the future, industrial design students explore the conjunction of form and function.
New Media students pursue sustained study in the art forms of time-based media, performance, digital imaging, and coding-based practices.
Students choosing the BFASA with a concentration in painting 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.
The BFASA with a concentration in photography is intended to 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.
The BFASA with a concentration in 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.
The BFASA sculpture concentration 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 BFASA concentration in interdisciplinary practice enables students to explore and combine methods and materials from an array of studio disciplines including fashion, new media, painting, photography, printmaking, illustration, and sculpture.
The Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art (BASA) focuses on the study of art, design, and art history in the context of a broader program of general study offered by the diverse research and teaching activities across the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign campus. The BASA degree is intended for those students who have strong interests in blending the study of art and creative practices with coursework in other academic areas.
Our newest concentration, the Illustration concentration will provide students with rigorous training in the necessary practical skills in drawing, painting, layout design, and visual storytelling; investigations of new business models and best practices within a collaborative and interdisciplinary industry; as well as a path to understanding themselves as makers in the creative process.
New and continuing BFASA students may declare a concentration in Illustration beginning in Spring 2025, pending approval by NASAD, our national accreditation organization.
We offer three campus-approved undergraduate minors.
