VCUarts

Art Education gives you the skills necessary to train the next generation of artists. You will engage as both artist and educator with art-based service-learning, visual culture studies, critical thinking, exhibition, assessment, curriculum, critical theory and emerging digital technologies. Once you graduate, you’ll be eligible for teacher licensure in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Our alumni work in schools, communities and museums across the country and around the world.

As an Art History major, you will study, interpret and analyze artwork. Your exploration of art history will be interdisciplinary, theoretically informed and grounded in close historical and visual analysis. Hands-on experience with galleries, museums and local art collections will build your skills in curatorial studies and exhibition organization. The skills you hone in this program will help you prepare for a career in academia, museums or galleries.

Our Cinema program is a hands-on, collaborative experience covering the entire scope of narrative filmmaking and what it’s like to work on a film crew. You’ll shoot on location with auditioned actors, follow industry practices and use professional equipment. You’ll gain experience with each step of the process, including screenwriting, directing, editing and distribution.

Explore the powerful and timeless relationship between art, design and storytelling. You’ll develop your skills in your chosen area of focus, whether that’s observational drawing, digital illustration, character design, concept design, comics and graphic novels, storyboarding, visual effects or mixed-media illustration.

Students in the Craft/Material Studies department explore the potential of materials and create objects through both ancient and cutting-edge processes. Honing skills between five main areas of focus—glass, fiber, clay, metal and wood—your work will range from functional to conceptual. A degree in Craft/Material Studies gives you the skills to create a career focused on entrepreneurship, studio work and more.

This pre-professional program will train you in modern and contemporary dance forms, offering courses including ballet, jazz, tap, improvisation and much more. As a Dance + Choreography major, you will have access to eight dance studios with floor-to-ceiling windows and a fully-staffed theater designed for dance. You’ll study both dance and choreography and learn from faculty who are critically acclaimed and recognized in their fields.

This program offers two distinct tracks. In the design concentration, you will hone your creativity, practicing garment processes from conception to execution. In the merchandising concentration, you will further your analytical skills through the lens of the fashion world’s global perspectives. We also offer an accelerated program, in which students can earn a B.A. in Fashion with a concentration in fashion merchandising and an M.S. in Business with a concentration in marketing management in a minimum of five years.

In this program, you will explore design methods, processes, materials and language; broaden your understanding of design practices; and gain experience with collaboration, research, making and cultural literacy. You’ll customize your education while you experiment with modes of making on-site, with letterpress facilities and an in-house production facility (with high-capacity printers, a Risograph and binding equipment) available to you from day one.

As a student in one of the nation’s first interior design programs, you will have an intellectually rigorous studio-based experience and explore the connections between people, culture and the spaces they occupy. You’ll challenge conventional understandings of space and advocate for the betterment of communities through design. Our relationships with design practitioners across the nation offer opportunities and access to professional critiques, visting designers and site visits.

Use both analog and digital technologies to learn traditional and experimental 2D and 3D animation techniques and gain experience with video production tools, sound recording and manipulation. Your interdisciplinary work can venture into web technologies, projection mapping, virtual reality, programming, interactivity or multichannel sound. A degree in Kinetic Imaging prepares you to create art at the cutting edge of technology using both tested and experimental methods.

In the Music department, you can customize your experience. Whether you want to refine your abilities on a specific instrument, prepare to teach tomorrow’s musicians, collaborate with other skilled chamber or jazz musicians, or make music a foundation for other career goals, you’ll study under faculty who are leaders in their fields. You will also have access to acclaimed visiting artists and alumni who regularly visit campus for concerts, masterclasses and clinics.

As a Painting + Printmaking student, you will explore painting, drawing and printmaking and learn socially engaged practices, creative coding, video, performance and more. You will be part of a large, diverse and vibrant community of artists, scholars and students, and have access to lectures and studio visits with artists, curators, and critics; exhibitions; and open studios.

This program offers two distinct tracks. In the Photography concentration, you will have access to a darkroom, digital cameras and lighting equipment, providing you experience with fine art, studio and location photography. In the Film concentration, master the art of moving image production. You will work with various films and cameras to study, write, produce, and edit independent fiction, documentary and experimental films.

As a Sculpture + Extended Media student, you will explore the edges of the art world in a highly flexible, interdisciplinary curriculum. You will have an individual studio space where you can create work through both time-tested techniques like mold making, woodworking and welding and new media like video, performance, sound, installation and 3D digital modeling.

In the Theatre program, students train in the fields of performance; design and technology; and theatre pedagogy. You’ll have the opportunity to participate in award-winning improv teams, make professional connections, work on our mainstage productions and in our student theater. You may pursue a concentration in Costume Design, Lighting Design, Musical Theatre, Performance, Scene Design/Technical Production or Stage Management.