专业描述

The School of Visual Arts was established as a professional school at Boston University in 1954. With a faculty composed of practicing professional artists, the School offers an intensive program of studio training combined with liberal arts studies leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Master of Fine Arts (MFA), and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. Programs are offered in painting, graphic design, printmaking, sculpture, studio teaching, and art education. Graduate admission is highly selective and limited class size ensures that students get individual attention from faculty mentors. Required courses offer an intensive foundation in the studio disciplines of drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. This broad base of experience provides students with a solid introduction to the visual arts disciplines before they elect major areas of specialization. Courses at the foundation level, as well as in advanced fields of concentration, prepare the student for future study or professional practice in art education, graphic design, painting, printmaking, or sculpture. Studio classes are limited in enrollment to ensure a high degree of student-faculty contact in the courses. Students are given the opportunity, through elective courses, to continue in other studio areas—printmaking, glassblowing, photography, ceramics, multimedia design, and animation—as well as in liberal arts studies. Visits from distinguished artists and lecturers as well as a widely varied program of exhibitions in the on-campus galleries—the BU Art Gallery, the 808 Gallery, the Commonwealth Gallery, Gallery 5, and the Sherman Gallery—broaden and enrich each student’s educational experience. The Artist Development Series jump-starts students’ art careers by providing panel discussions by prominent arts professionals and offering a range of workshops on topics ranging from how to write a grant to how to build a professional online gallery. Facilities available for graduate students include a computer lab, media room, welding shop, wood shop, art education resource repository, and painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, and photography studios. All graduate painters and sculptors have individual studios. The intellectual and cultural resources of BU and other leading universities in town, combined with internationally renowned art museums, galleries, theatres, and orchestras, make for a stimulating, challenging, and inspiring environment. Students do not merely observe the Boston art scene, but work in the midst of it, redefining it with their perspective, vision, and energy.