To study Fine Art at Art Center is to undertake a journey of visual self-discovery, one in which the interplay of the eye, the hand and the mind learn to free the imagination.

We emphasize an artist’s creative, conceptual and technical growth through the exploration of many genres—including painting, photography, sculpture, installation and experimental film and video. And we challenge assumptions.

A core faculty of exhibiting and visiting artists and scholars lead our innovative classes and workshops.

Students explore everything from intimate personal works to large-scale public installations. In critical seminars, students contemplate the implications of their art, and learn to articulate a work’s significance and meaning within a theoretical, historical and global context.

Our curriculum stimulates creativity through focused reading, writing and research—and at the same time encouraging experimentation and constructive play.

Each student works closely with a faculty member who monitors their progress through the art program and acts as an individual resource and mentor.

We offer three tracks of study:

• Fine Art Core offers a wide range of media and creative opportunities, and has the maximum curricular flexibility.
• Fine Art Painting and Illustration emphasizes specific drawing and pictorial skills for representational painting that can additionally support a fine art career through illustration.
• Fine Art Photography and Imaging emphasizes acquisition of advanced photographic and digital imaging skills through study with the College’s renowned Photography faculty while primarily working with Fine Art instructors to explore and refine the content, implications and aesthetic of a student’s work.

Through opportunities to work on projects abroad, our department reflects the global nature of art, in which a significant work created in one city can have an immediate influence on artists throughout the world.

Our students frequently collaborate with colleagues from other departments at Art Center through Transdisciplinary Studios and Designmatters projects.

Find out more about our department at artcenter.edu/fineart.