First Year Experience

Begin your Studio Art journey here

The First Year Experience is an engaging variety of eight-week thematic workshop-structured art courses, designed as an experiential initiation into professional artistic practice, creative methodology and studio work ethic. First Year Experience courses are required for:

BA Studio majors
BFA Studio majors
BFA Art and Visual Culture Education majors

You not only will engage in the making of art but also in a critical dialog with faculty and peers to explore how your art communicates what it does — as well as strategies to sharpen this connection between the art object and its meaning.

Integrated projects and processes, rather than isolated design exercises, encourage personal investment. The focus of the program is to foster inventive and resourceful students who can express complicated ideas in a manner that is both technically and conceptually sophisticated. The First Year Experience challenges, inspires and empowers students with the basic artistic sovereignty required to pursue an art degree.

Thematic Workshop Modules
Facilities
Faculty

Thematic Workshop Modules

Beyond the three required themes — Mapping, Space and Surface — you will custom-build your own experience with three additional workshops to fulfill First Year Experience requirements. These courses will help students develop critical thinking and communication skills through engaging group critiques, individual critiques and written components.

The half-semester workshop courses break up the semester into smaller, more focused and digestible packages — helping you to feather your professional art practice, while also promising more variety of practice and instruction. The 16-week semester is divided into two eight-week Phases: Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Figure Drawing

For a description of these courses, please review the University of Arizona General Catalog.

You can read an article featuring the program at UANews.org.

Contact an academic advisor to learn more about School of Art programs and admissions.

Facilities

Our state of the art First Year Experience studios — digital, 3D, Drawing and 2D — are ready for making, and most are accessible to FYE students 24 hours a day.

View Our FYE Studios