the bachelor of fine arts in visual art is a four-year, 120 credit hour degree program. the first year is spent in foundations where students focus on the development of their creative and technical skills.

after the foundation year, students select five introductory courses from across the seven studio areas; ceramics, expanded media, metal smiting/jewelry, painting/drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and textiles/fibers.

the intent is for students to explore a variety of mediums in order to determine how they would like to focus their advanced studies. in addition, fundamental concepts and strategies of art making are reinforced, even as new techniques and approaches from various disciplines are introduced.

students are required to take 15 hours of art history, one additional drawing course beyond foundations, as well as the professional activities seminar.

the remaining studio art credit hours can be formed in any way to allow opportunities for students to focus intensely in any one specific studio area or more broadly to work inter-disciplinarily across media. ten credit hours are capstone courses (normally taken both semesters of senior year): directed study i and ii in which students work independently on the development of a cohesive portfolio of work that is strong in technique and concept.