The Department of Art & Design is dedicated to offering our students unique experiences through a curriculum that encourages students to become proficient artists in their respective disciplines.
The artist, designer, and scholar with professional concerns should be prepared to meet the modern world with both technical skills and the capacity for innovation. The Department of Art & Design stress individualized development in the use of concepts and skills.
As an Art & Design student, you have the opportunity to chart your own paths through a wide range of artistic styles and media. From traditional techniques that are thousands of years old, to generating digital works that look to the future of visual art. Art history, theory, and criticism courses engage you in the analysis of creative works from the prehistoric to contemporary trends in the field. Class sizes are intentionally limited giving you opportunities for individualized attention and focused concentration.
The Art & Design faculty come from a variety of backgrounds with a wide range of experiences and skills. They believe that creativity and freedom of expression are central to the welfare of an enlightened global society.
What you do after PLU is important to us. Art & Design is proud to have alumni who are self employed as studio artists, freelance photographers, graphic designers, consultants, and gallery directors. Others are teachers and administrators in public or private schools, art museums, vocational programs, and government art and recreation departments.
Our graduates are also employed as graphic and product designers, technicians, art directors and editors, photographers, and many more.
The Department of Art & Design will also prepare you for graduate study in fine or applied art, conservation, art publishing, museum studies, art history and criticism.
The various fields of art are competitive and demanding in terms of commitment and effort. Nonetheless, there is always a place for those who are extremely skillful and highly imaginative. The department’s program stresses both, attempting to help each student reach that ideal. Instructional resources, when coupled with dedicated and energetic students, have resulted in an unusually high percentage of graduates being able to satisfy their vocational objectives.
Students may choose among a generalized program leading to a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art degree; a more specialized program for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in either Ceramics, Graphic Design, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, or Sculpture, in which each candidate develops a specialized area of competence; or a Bachelor of Arts in Art History that prepares students for a future of art criticism and historical study opportunities at various levels.
The Department of Art maintains two galleries in support of its programs. You may be one of the qualified students selected to work as gallery assistants.
The University Gallery presents a stimulating exhibition calendar featuring work in all media by professional contemporary artists of regional, national and international stature. The Wekell Gallery displays student work throughout the academic year. Additional student work is informally displayed throughout Ingram Hall, the home of the School of Arts & Communication.
As a graduating senior, your work will be showcased in both the University or Wekell Galleries.
Students interested in study in the Department of Art & Design can choose:
It is recommended that students interested in majoring in art declare their major early to insure proper advising. The status of a transfer student shall be determined at their time of entrance.
For a list of course offerings and other information, view a PDF of the catalog »
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a degree designed to prepare students for a career in art or for admission to graduate school. Students may choose to specialize in one of three emphasis areas: