School of Art & Design Foundations
Foundations is a first-year course based upon rigorous studio practice, teaching philosophies and a broad range of arts topics and discussions. Extending across and beyond artistic disciplines, individual students bring their own experiences and skills into a community of peers.
During the course of this year, Foundations emphasizes posing questions, creative problem-solving, and the synthesis of expanding individual creative experiences in order to make connections between a range of media and ideas. Emphasizing experimentation, group projects and individual aspiration, the Foundations program is a portal to a creative education.
During the fall semester students work with faculty teams from different disciplines and perspectives to tackle vital topics in the education of an artist from form and color to building and drawing to performance and kinetics. The spring semester begins to sharpen conceptual and technical skills through smaller workshops. Throughout the year, all Foundations students meet collectively once a week on Wednesday mornings for films, discussions, group projects, performances and Visiting Artists' talks.