All Studio Art majors at the School of Art will begin their journey with the First Year Experience.

The First Year Experience is an engaging variety of 8-week thematic workshop-structured art courses, designed as an experiential initiation into professional artistic practice, creative methodology, and studio work ethic. Here, you will engage not only in the making of art but also in a critical dialog that explores how your art communicates what it does – as well as strategies to sharpen this connection between the art object and its meaning.

The faculty works closely with you from the generation of the idea through the realization of the object. 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. While situated in this supportive community, you will develop critical thinking and communication skills through engaging group critiques, individual critiques, and written components. The First Year Experience challenges, inspires, and empowers students with the basic artistic sovereignty required to pursue an art degree.