Old Dominion University (College of Arts and Letters)

About ODU

Located in historic Norfolk, Va., the 188 acres of the Old Dominion University campus stretch from the Elizabeth River to the Lafayette River. Although situated in a metropolitan setting, the University offers a small-college look and feel, with tree-lined walkways, a mix of old and new buildings, and colorful gardens and ponds. Founded in 1930 as a division of the College of William and Mary, Old Dominion has grown into its own over the years and is now one of only 101 public universities with a Carnegie/Doctoral Research-Extensive distinction.


College of Arts and Letters

Art Department

The Art Department offers its majors the benefits of a small liberal arts college coupled with the resources and visibility of a major university. The major is open to any undergraduate student who has met the required prerequisites for the declaration of a major at Old Dominion University. We also offer a program for graduate study in conjunction with the Fine Arts Department of Norfolk State University that leads to a Master of Arts degree or a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies.

A faculty committed to teaching provides students with individual attention in small to medium-sized classes.

Members have achieved national recognition for their scholarly and creative work. Their fields of expertise include art and architectural history, art education, and such studio areas as drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, graphic design, sculpture, fibers, clay, and metalsmithing.


Department of Communication & Theatre Arts

Theatre Program
Mission
Old Dominion University offers a B.A. in Theatre and a B.F.A in Acting with a full range of courses in performance, design technology, history/theory, and video production. Additional specialization is available in both theatre education and digital filmmaking and production. The resident faculty is augmented every year by nationally recognized guest artists, adding further expertise in specific styles and craft areas, as well as providing students with contacts in the professional theatre world and entertainment industry. The Program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) and Virginia teacher certification is available through the theatre education emphasis.

Old Dominion University Theatre differs from many other programs because it gives students the opportunity to be involved in production throughout all years of study and in all capacities. The faculty works with every student in individualizing a course of study, range of production responsibilities and a professional internship opportunity that addresses that student's specific interests, talents, and career goals. Emphasis is placed simultaneously on attaining the practical tools that lead to successful job placement and on developing an informed context for creative decision making that characterizes serious artistic pursuit.

Old Dominion University Theatre's production seasons offer a mix of classical work, contemporary plays, and world premieres. Theatre majors compete annually for scholarships that support their involvement in theatre productions on campus. Advanced acting students are eligible, through audition, to receive financial sponsorships while earning Actors Equity credit, by assuming main stage roles at the Virginia Stage Company as part of their course of study. Additional financial assistance and practical experience is available through numerous paid work-study positions within the Program's busy production season.

Dance Program
Mission
Human movement is human communication. This nonverbal expression of ideas, feelings, abstraction, and relationships involves both an interior process of self understanding and an exterior decision to share with others. Dance systematizes movement to create visual design, to explore the regular and irregular rhythms of life, and to express the cultural myths and values that define a people. It complements the rhetorical and dramatic exploration and creation of identity, reality, and community.

Touring companies of dancers from other areas of the world, the nature of our own country as a land of migrated people, and the necessity of thinking globally make it imperative that students understand all approaches to nonverbal creativity. Thus, our program explores choreography, kinesiology, dance history, and criticism from a variety of perspectives both theoretical and applies.

In light of the above principles, the mission of the Dance program focuses on intellectual understanding of the systems of motion, performance opportunities for creative expression, and collaborative efforts that create synergy.

Students of dance are equipped to utilize their awareness of dance as communication in many career fields such as dance therapy, education, health, and performance. All interaction with others is enhanced, as well, by an ability to use one's body as an additional communication channel.

Film Studies and Digital Filmmaking Program
The interdisciplinary Film Studies and Digital Filmmaking Programs at Old Dominion University incorporate an international focus that introduces students to traditions and styles from around the world as well as a wide range of cinematic experiences from the commercial to the experimental, in theory and practical applications.

The Film Studies & Digital Filmmaking at Old Dominion University may be approached from many perspectives:
- through the critical and theortical traditions of communication, literature and art;
- through the history of the industry and its relation to other cultural, economic and technological developments;
- and as a practical application of creative and cultural expression through narrative or documentary filmmaking.

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College of Arts and Letters Art School Location

Other art schools in Norfolk

Old Dominion University (Art Department) The Art Department offers its majors the benefits of a small liberal arts college coupled with the resources and visibility of a major university. The... Address: 5215 Hampton Boulevard

Norfolk State University (Fine Arts Department) Located on the campus of Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; the Fine Arts Department offers a program rich in core art courses and electives... Address: 700 Park Av.

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