Arts therapy is the broad category encompassing a variety of fields that employ music, dance, drama and the visual arts for healing purposes. Primarily studied at the graduate level, arts therapy programs prepare their students to work in a variety of health care delivery settings. For those interested in using art to further the well-being of others, arts therapy is an area of study and career path to explore.
Book Arts/Paper explores all aspects of the book – from conceptual development, design, paper making, reproduction techniques, and binding. Students of Book Arts programs take courses in the historical and contemporary book making, learning types of paper decoration, adhesion and clasp and enclosure possibilities, German case binding, the clamshell box, and round back binding. Many programs also offer courses in letterpress and typography. Because Books Arts is inherently interdisciplinary,...
With the publication of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind which declared the MFA the new MBA, big and small businesses have turned more and more to artists’ and designers’ innovative thinking to solve business problems and contribute to the success and development of their products and services. In turn, art and design colleges have begun offering degree programs in business administration at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. These programs ground the next generation of innovation...
Ceramics is an area with many outlets. It can range from exquisite, complicated single pieces of sculpture to useful mass-produced household items. Clay can be manipulated in ways that most people cannot imagine. No matter what the end product, working with this material involves not just a solid three-dimensional ability, but a technical knowledge of how clay and glazes function.
City and Regional Planning, also known as Urban Design, is the development and design of plans and programs for the use of urban and regional space. Students of these programs are equipped with the knowledge of theory, technical capacity, collaborative skills, and critical thinking abilities necessary to plan for urban growth, and economic, environmental, and social justice in urban neighborhoods and regions. Graduates will be prepared to work in research, community development, and planning in...
Comic Art is the creation of stylized or simplified drawings for the purpose of telling a story, making a point, or making people laugh. One form of this work is the editorial or humor cartoon, such as seen on the Op Ed pages of newspapers or in magazines such as the New Yorker. Another familiar form is the comic book or graphic novel; dramatic or fantastic stories told through a series of drawings. Good drawing skill obviously is essential in this field, as is an ability to make those drawings...
Community Arts programs prepare students for working in the public sphere on both individual and collaborative projects. They tend to be interdisciplinary in nature and focus on both art-making as well as how to effectively engage with communities. Attention is paid to how artists and designers interact and collaborate with groups and public spaces in order to effectively engage cultural diversity and stimulate social transformation.
Unlike other art forms, computer art and digital arts are relatively new developments, paralleling the rise of the personal computer starting in the mid-80s. The recent dramatic increase in computing power has made this technology ubiquitous in our daily lives and in art and design fields. Digital design was once limited to graphics and publishing, and often functioned as simply a faster and more mechanical version of traditional graphic design. But over the last decade, the field has evolved...
Craft is the area encompassing all or many of the craft areas – book arts; ceramics; enameling, metals + jewelry design; fibers + textile design; glass; and woodworking + furniture design. Schools offering a degree in craft usually offer concentrations in one of these areas above but many will allow broader study. Students graduating from any craft area complete their studies with a profound understanding of the material(s) with which they work and the processes and techniques used for...