Students receive holistic and profound training in the visual arts, while enjoying opportunities to specialize in ceramics and sculpture, painting and drawing, or digital media (including photography and video).

In the final semester, every student creates independent work under the personal supervision of art faculty, culminating in a group B.F.A. show. Students may choose to develop a fine arts portfolio and to undertake commercial art projects. Students are guided to field work projects that may offer income or lead to employment after graduation.

The goal of the B.F.A. is that students become self-sufficient in the process of learning through alternating studio practice with reading, writing and speaking about art; building skills for artistic self-evaluation; exposure to traditional and contemporary art through field trips to major museums and centers for the arts; and exhibiting works of art.

Painting and Drawing Courses

Explore painting and drawing as a special means to see and express one’s self in relation to the world. Explore the nature of painting — its forms, tools, materials, and processes. Develop a deep knowledge of the language of painting and the overarching visual principles that connect all forms of painting. Learn from in-depth interactions with faculty in small classes. More 

Ceramics Courses

Relate the knowledge and experience of ceramics to the growth and evolution of one’s own consciousness. Develop knowledge of materials, processes, and traditions that have fostered the creation of clay pottery, sculpture, and tile. Work in a fully equipped studio, which allows students to develop experience with a variety of methods of working in clay — including handbuilding, wheelthrowing, and moldmaking; firing methods include low-fire, high-fire stoneware, soda, and raku. More 

Sculpture Courses

Learn the underlying principles that apply to the space/mass, proportion, size, scale, light, and the formal language which is fundamental to sculpture. Gain knowledge of materials, structure, and forming methods. Address a range of topics that include knowledge of the figure, surface possibilities in relation to form, narrative development, installation, and site-specific outdoor work in nature. Use facilities for plaster, clay, wood, and metal work. More 

Digital Media Courses

Develop a deeply interdisciplinary perspective, which prepares you for the digital, communications-intensive career world. Become proficient in advanced techniques in the field by interacting with computer lab software, by learning digital enhancement and manipulation, and by synthesizing photographic images. More 

Photography Courses

Develop fundamental photographic skills in well-equipped facilities, which include group B/W darkroom, photo studio, film processing room, and advanced color darkroom; and learn the basic principles and techniques of digital commercial photography. More 

Video and Communications and Media Courses

Explore contemporary digital techniques in video production using powerful Macintosh computers and camcorders for video and the Web. Write, direct and produce your own videos. Video students can take courses in photography, video production, narrative, documentary film-making, the history of film, computer graphics, and digital editing, and may participate in internships working at video production and design companies — preparing them for careers in the fields of film, video, animation, advertising, and Web design. More 

Improvisational Dance/Movement Courses

Improvisation becomes most truthful, spontaneous and enjoyable when the mover acts from the deepest part of himself. These courses focus on building confidence, strength, flexibility, range of movement and the experience and understanding of the mechanics of the creative impulse, so that dancers or actors can explore movement in the context of themselves, music, other students, and the environment of the theater. Students examine fundamental principles of movement, performance, masque-building, the physiology of exercise, and anatomy; with the goal of developing perfection in the body-mind continuum. More 

Maharishi Gandharva Veda Music Courses

The University offers a special dimension of music available through the Department of Maharishi Vedic Science: courses in the classical music system of the ancient Vedic civilization. This system trains musicians and composers to create enjoyable music whose goal is to elevate and harmonize the performer, the audience, and the environment. Some of India’s finest musicians serve as artists-in-residence, teaching and performing bamboo flute, sitar, tabla, and voice. For course descriptions of music courses, please see the Department of Maharishi Vedic Science. More