Program Details
Program Structure
First Year: Visual Foundations
Second Year: Skills Mastery
Third Year: Integration of Theory and Practice
Fourth Year: Graduate Art Exhibition
Program Highlights
- Exhibitions on and off-campus, including solo exhibitions for Honours students
- Studio classrooms, digital design lab, and dedicated senior studio space
- Practicum opportunities and campus media positions
- Major, minor, concentration, and honours options
- Instructors who are exhibiting and publishing professionals, exceptional educators, and committed Christians
- Small class sizes and one-on-one mentoring
- Dedicated on-campus gallery featuring work from students, faculty, alumni, and visiting artists
Design
Our design courses merge innovative creative thinking with robust technical proficiency. By deeply integrating creative problem solving approaches (such as Design Thinking and Human Centred Design) into each of our design courses, our students are empowered to tackle multifaceted real-world design projects. Our design courses cultivate rich interdisciplinary connections by engaging empathy, collaboration, diverse perspectives, and rigorous design processes. In our courses, students develop professional expertise with current Adobe design software while gaining experience in industry-leading design processes, typography, print, UI/UX design, brand identity, image manipulation, digital illustration, and professional career development. We place special emphasis on helping our students develop the versatility to quickly adapt, navigate, and respond to our constantly changing world and culture.
Studio
Students experience historical, contemporary and experimental art practices in drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, intermedia and sculpture as increasingly interdisciplinary, active, critical, collaborative practices. Visual intelligence is developed through formal, perceptual, imaginative and critical challenges that prepare students for an informed engagement with our predominantly visual culture. Courses combine material practices with cultural theory, deepening aesthetic, critical, ethical, and theological insight and outcomes. Through classroom lectures, discussion, gallery visits, research, and through actively engaging with their chosen visual scholarship and material practices, students grow in their proficiency and knowledge of art while deepening their understanding of the world around them and their place within it.
Art History/Theory
The history and theory of art understands visual practices to be vital, critical, creative engagements with social, artistic, economic and political conditions, which give voice to social aspirations, spiritual beliefs, philosophical ideals, the formation and consolidation of individual and collective identities, and the underlying fears of any given society. Art history + theory investigates the creation and interpretation of art, and how these meanings are dynamic and historically situated.
Honours Thesis Project
The Honours Program allows Art + Design majors to demonstrate exceptional commitment to their practice by conducting an in-depth arts-based or scholarly thesis project under the mentorship of a faculty member. The thesis project can take the form of a solo exhibition, substantial research paper in art history or art education, or major design project. Envisioned as a capstone experience, it is a means by which the student will deepen and extend their practice to increasingly high levels. The Honours Program mentors students into a deeper investment into their practice.
Admissions Requirements
Art + Design BA Program
There are no specific admissions requirements unique to the Art + Design BA program. Email Joshua Hale for more info.
Art + Design BA Honours Program
Prospective candidates apply at the end of second year; admission is also possible in third or fourth year. Admission is determined by portfolio application, adjudicated by Art + Design faculty. Alongside a strong portfolio, a 3.0 grade point average is required.
Email Joshua Hale for more info.