Studio Arts BFA
What is studio arts?
LMU’s intensive, four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Studio Arts leads to a professional degree and career opportunities in art and design media. Students enrolled in this program must develop the knowledge, skills, concepts, and sensitivities essential to the professional life of an artist and designer.
The BFA program is intended for students who will later pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree, be a professional artist or designer, and/or teach studio arts with a selected specialization. The following concentrations are available for students in the BFA program: 3D Studies, Art Education, Drawing, Multimedia Arts, Painting, Photography, and Visual Communication Design (Graphic Design).
The Studio Arts program is enriched both by LMU's location in Los Angeles - an international art center - and by the university's studio arts facilities. The latter include darkrooms, sculpture yard, print room, computer graphics and photography labs, and studios for ceramics, sculpture, and printmaking.
What do studio arts majors do?
Studio Arts majors, regardless of emphasis or concentration, spend time in the classroom and the art studio. Studios are open to enrolled students 24 hours a day. Students who choose the Fine Arts emphasis explore a wide variety of forms of visual expression, with instruction geared toward a balance of discipline and discovery.
The 3D Studies concentration equips students with proficiency in three-dimensional processes and materials for a life-long creative practice.
The Art Education concentration is designed to create reflective, informed, caring, and capable artists who are skilled in using interpersonal and creative tools for a career in education.
The emphasis in Drawing fosters students in developing a practice that can be applied to many future endeavors, including using their skills as a visionary or illustrators to benefit society and transform the field.
Multimedia Arts concentration fosters students in a future of authoring and designing in a world of new media and emerging technologies.
Peer feedback and critique are a consistent part of all courses in the Painting concentration. Students begin by mastering formal and technical skills, color mixing, and theory. Advanced courses encourage a diversity of practice, innovation, and experimentation, hoping to enable a personal voice.
The Photography emphasis provides a strong technical understanding of all digital and analog photography while encouraging conceptual thinking, innovation, and experimentation.
Visual Communication Design (Graphic Design) emphasizes design as a tool for the greater good. Through typography, image making, and visual storytelling, student designers will visualize societal issues and pose innovative solutions with the potential to affect change on a local, national, and global scale.
Is this major right for you?
You might be a Studio Arts major if you:
- Want to focus on a specific emphasis or specialization
- Are a photographer or designer
- Are interested in big ideas
- Care about aesthetics
- Like visiting museums and galleries
About our faculty
Our faculty members are experts in fields such as digital media, painting, drawing, video, photography, performance art, installation art, art education, frescoes, communications design, sculpture, printmaking, silkscreening, animation, design, and packaging.
Faculty members are working artists, filmmakers, visual effects experts, and designers. They exhibit their artwork in museums, galleries, and biennales worldwide. Their works are held in public and private collections. Faculty members win awards and honors and serve on boards. Their work has appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine and in Artweek, Art in America, Afterimage, American Photographer and other publications.
About our students and graduates
Our students are able to take advantage of a wealth of public art and museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions in Southern California - including the university's Laband Art Gallery. Additionally, the students enjoy exhibition space in the new student-run Thomas P. Kelly art gallery. These institutions provide myriad opportunities to directly experience art, both at its traditional best and at its experimental frontier.
LMU students who pursue a BFA in Studio Arts will be prepared to start their careers as illustrators, artists-in-residence, UX/UI designers, filmmakers, visual merchandisers, photographers, mural artists, video artists/directors, printmakers, 3D artists, reporters, editorial designers, motion designers, and more!
Representative courses
Our courses have included:
- Form as Art
- Ceramic Sculpture
- Advanced 3D Studies
- Figure Drawing
- Portraits in Clay
- Media and Color Workshop
- Experimental Media
- Experiencing Art and Social Justice
- Typography
- Motion Graphics
- Visualizing Literature
- Silkscreen Printmaking
- Portfolio Workshop
- Design Entrepreneurships