Major Description
The BA and BFA in Studio Art offer a student-initiated path through a variety of studio art course offerings. Students may choose a general concentration in studio art, allowing them to use a range of studio practices from different disciplines, or they may choose a concentration in fashion, new media, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Concentrations will be noted on the student’s transcript, indicating material expertise and qualification for discipline-specific employment or advanced study.
Concentrations
Students may choose to develop their area of interest by focusing on one of five specializations within the major.
Fashion
Fashion is about more than style, it’s about sustainability, identity, and innovation. Students explore design for the body through a blend of creative research, hands-on making, and future-focused thinking.
Illustration
Illustration is where storytelling meets creativity. Develop strong skills in drawing, painting, and design while learning to communicate ideas visually across media and industries.
Interdisciplinary Practice
Push boundaries, blend media, and make art on your own terms. Interdisciplinary Practice encourages you to combine techniques and ideas from multiple studio disciplines to create innovative, personalized work.
New Media
Provides an opportunity for students to pursue sustained study in art forms that include time-based media, performance, digital imaging, and coding-based practices. New Media courses incorporate established and emerging technologies in the service of art-making that looks to the history of art as well as to contemporary intersections between art, design and community engagement.
Painting
Pursue a course of study that begins with rigorous instruction in traditional Drawing and Painting materials, methods, techniques, and concepts, and proceeds to encourage a diversity of experimental and multi-disciplinary approaches to Painting as a field with a complex and culturally influential history.
Photography
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 students the opportunity to study a wide range of traditional, photographic, and digital printmaking methods that engage with contemporary art and design fields. Courses provide instruction in screenprint, letterpress, comics and zines, relief printing, intaglio, lithography, and other rotating special topics.
Sculpture
Focus on methods and concepts related to three-dimensional art, form-making, and expanded spatial practices. Contemporary sculpture practice is informed by multiple modes of ideation, making and fabrication, and utilizes a dynamic and ever-expanding set of tools, materials, techniques and approaches.
Courses That Introduce the Major
- *ART 102 Drawing for Non-Majors
- *ART 103 Painting for Non-Majors
- *ART 104 Sculpture for Non-Majors
- *ART 105 Visual Design for Non-Majors
- *ART 140 Introduction to Art
- ARTS 210 Ceramics Sculpture I
- ARTS 220 Introduction to Fashion
- ARTS 243 Time Arts I
- ARTS 244 Interaction I
- ARTS 264 Basic Photography
- ARTS 280 Beginning Sculpture
*Courses non-majors can take, but do not count toward the major. These courses will help students continue to develop their portfolios and connect them to the department.
Possible Career Opportunities
A studio art degree can lead to a variety of professions related to art.
Common Career Skills
- Creativity
- Planning
- Problem Solving
- Spacial Visualization
- Visual Analysis
- Visual Communication
- Visual Design
Common Career Titles
- Apparel Fashion Designer
- Art Administrator
- Art Buyer
- Art Conservator
- Art Critic
- Art Dealer
- Art Gallery Owner
- Art Teacher
- Art Therapist
- Cartoonist
- Commercial Artist
- Curator
- Editorial Illustrator
- Exhibit Designer
- Fashion Designer
- Fashion Photographer
- Graphic Designer
- Illustrator
- Interior Decorator
- Medical Illustrator
- Mural Artist
- Painter
- Sculptor
- Silkscreen Artist
- Videographer
- Website Designer
Enhancing Your Academic Experience
- Participating in undergraduate research
- Applying for a study abroad experience
- Utilizing resources of The Career Center
- Joining a Registered Student Organization (RSO) related to this major, such as:
- 8 to CREATE: 8 to CREATE is an art event in which 8 artists have 8 hours to create 8 works of art. The event is open to the public to observe, engage, and participate in the creative process.
- Life Drawing Club: Allows its members to learn and understand the human figure. Through the use of a live model, the members will observe and render the form to their own degree of satisfaction.
- Krannert Center Student Association: promotes and celebrates the arts by providing volunteer opportunities and activities that unite those who appreciate the arts throughout the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Illinois, and larger communities.
- Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics: focuses on the development of computer animation & visual effects, video games, graphics research, multimedia, and software relating to graphics.
Further Information
There are several professional organizations dedicated to the Studio Arts:
- American Photographic Artists
- The American Society of Media Photographers
- College Art Association (CAA)
- Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)Mid-American Print Council
- The New Media Caucus (NMC)
- Rhizome.org
- SGC International
- Society of Illustrators Artists & Designers (SIAD)
- Women’s Caucus for Art