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.
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 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.
A 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.
We offer three campus-approved undergraduate minors.
