Clemson University (Department of Art)

Art and artists thrive on the campus of Clemson University. Clemson is a comprehensive university with the resources and facilities to offer students excellent educational opportunities in the visual arts. Our Department of Art is housed in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities (AAH). We offer the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) professional degrees. The Department is also contributing to a new Ph. D. program in Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design (RCID).

We have approximately 100 undergraduates and 18 graduate students enrolled in our visual arts programs. Uniquely, our size allows us to frequently conduct team faculty critiques, which maximizes the exchange of ideas and methods that arise within individual studio disciplines — painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, printmaking and photography/digital imaging.

The curricula are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Our students work and learn in well-equipped studio facilities, and we have an ideal average student-to-teacher ratio of 1-to-12 or better.


Degree Programs

The Department of Art awards the Bachelor of Fine Arts under graduate degree and the Master of Fine Arts at the graduate level. Within each degree students can specialize in any of the studio disciplines offered at Clemson; Paintings, Ceramics, Drawing, Printmaking, Sculpture, or Photography/Digital. The Visual Arts Department also contributes to two new degrees at the graduate level. The Master of Fine Arts in Digital Production Arts is a technical and artistic animation degree that has been pioneered between Computer Sciences and Art. The Art department also contributes to the Ph.D in Rhetoric, Communication and Information Design.


The Bachelor of Fine Arts

Clemson is a place where skills can be refined and minds enriched. Our students are encouraged to explore, achieve and create. The BFA program is small enough to allow the close interaction and free exchange of ideas that are so vital to art. With no more than 15 students enrolled in a studio course, individual instruction is a high priority. Students have direct contact with faculty work in the studio, which allows them to share both technical and conceptual processes.

Our BFA program places strong emphasis on skill development in relationship to creativity. Students gain hands-on experience in facilities for bronze casting, metal fabrication, gas and electric firing, lithography, etching, basic paper-making, photography and digital imaging. An excellent woodworking facility is available to all students in AAH, and the ceramic program has a large wood-fired Anagama Kiln, the only kiln of its kind in the South Carolina.

We educate artists through a curriculum of academic course work balanced with studio art and art history courses. We encourage students to use their elective classes to expand their curriculum into disciplines that will enrich their total education. The freshman and sophomore years are a balance between general University studies and art and design courses.

Students begin to concentrate their studio course work in a specific area of the visual arts in the junior year in preparation for their senior studio. The senior studio is the most significant course work in the undergraduate curriculum, as it reflects a time in which concepts and skills are focused and developed to produce a cohesive body of artwork and a portfolio for graduate study or professional applications.

The student undergraduate experience is enhanced by informal professional activities with faculty; field trips to art centers in Charlotte, Columbia, Atlanta, New York City and Washington, D.C.; interaction with visiting artists; and opportunities for local and regional exhibitions.


The Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts

Clemson's Master of Fine Arts in visual arts is the terminal degree within the studio art discipline. Our program offers concentrations in the studio areas of drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, photography/digital and sculpture. The primary goal of the program is to provide students with opportunities to develop a high degree of professional competence in their chosen area of concentration. Interdisciplinary and collaborative projects are encouraged within the department. The relatively small size of the program (12 to 20 students) encourages students to explore studio areas that will enhance their major area of concentration. In addition, it creates a highly individualized method of instruction. Our students may also take advantage of the opportunity to spend a semester of study abroad in Genoa, Italy, at the University's Charles E. Daniel Center for Building Research and Urban Studies.

Having the Department of Art housed in AAH presents opportunities to interact with various other college disciplines. The M.F.A. curriculum is composed of 60 credits with 15 in art history and art seminar, 30 in studio and 15 in thesis. The thesis hours are primarily art studio in preparation for a final exhibition with written documentation. The Art Department offers assistantships that significantly reduce tuition and also provide a modest biweekly stipend. Additional funds are available to assist students who choose to spend a semester at our overseas center in Italy.

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Department of Art Art School Location

Other art schools in South Carolina

Presbyterian College Art The Art Department at Presbyterian College offers a wide array of courses for the major and non-major alike. For the liberal arts student, cour... Address: 503 South Broad Street

College of Charleston (School of the Arts) The School of the Arts is one of six schools at the College of Charleston. It is divided into Departments of Art History, Music (classical and jazz), ... Address: 66 George Street

Winthrop University (College of Visual and Performing Arts) Mission Statement As the only comprehensive collegiate arts program nationally accredited in all the arts in the State of South Carolina, public or... Address: 133 McLaurin Hall

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