Bachelor of Arts in Art

Montana State University

The School of Art is committed to making available the best possible faculty, curriculum, facilities, and experiences for a professional education in the studio arts, graphic design, art education and art history. On both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the School seeks to prepare students for careers in the visual arts and to enrich the cultural lives of all University students. Additionally, the School recognizes its responsibility to serve as a cultural resource for the community, state, and nation.

As an academic department of the University, the School of Art is a subdivision of the College of Arts and Architecture and is allied with the School of Architecture, School of Film and Photography and the School of Music.

The School's faculty is composed of practicing artists, designers, and scholars, each teaching in the particular discipline of his or her professional involvement. The regular faculty is augmented by graduate teaching assistants and by visiting artists/scholars who are part of an active program of lectures, workshops, and critiques supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Montana Arts Council, the Associated Students of Montana State University, and the MONTS Speakers Program. The Helen E. Copeland Gallery located in Haynes Hall, and the Waller-Yoblonsky Gallery located in the Melvin Graduate Art Studios, display continuous exhibitions covering all aspects of the visual arts.

The curriculum is divided into eight areas of study: art history, ceramics, graphic design, jewelry and metalsmithing, painting and drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Curricula within these areas lead to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design and Studio Arts, and the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Art History, Art Education K-12 Broadfield, and Liberal Arts Studio. Minors are also available in Art History (non-teaching) and Art Education K-12 (available for teaching majors only). The graduate degrees offered are the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art (MFA) and the Master of Arts in Art History (MA). For information on the Master of Fine Arts and Master of Arts degrees, consult the graduate section of this bulletin. The curriculum for art majors is composed of both required and elective courses with the School and supporting course form the other schools and departments of the College of Arts and Architecture and the University. Students may be limited to two studio courses per semester base on space availability and teaching resources. Required courses outside of the School of Art have either specific application to the student's particular concentration or general application to a liberal arts education. The purpose of the curriculum is to develop perceptual and technical skills and to establish a foundation of ideas which gives meaning and direction to this training. The many and varied departments within the University offer the art student a rich source of technical, philosophical and scientific information.