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Communicate Your Ideas with a BFA in Art with an Emphasis in Studio Art

Webster University’s BFA in Art with an Emphasis in Studio Art degree is directed specifically for the aspiring professional artist and designer. Our BFA prepares you with the skills and knowledge needed to go on to graduate study or a design career. The creative capacity of students pursuing the BFA in Art degree leads them to express themselves visually while providing access to the materials needed to communicate your ideas.

Our degree curriculum focuses on Studio Art and enables you to determine your artistic identity and expressive voice. We provide you with the tools and means to communicate your creativity through your chosen emphasis. Students will also have opportunities to connect with professionals working in the industry, including art gallery curators, museum docents, studio owners and professional artists to build their network and grow meaningful connections in the artist community.

Webster Student works on sculpture project.

The robust, interdisciplinary curriculum empowers student artists to expand themselves creatively while focusing on the power of art. Through commitment, introspection and consideration, you will learn the theoretical and technical skills to bring your ideas to life, no matter your preferred medium.

As you continue your studies into your senior year, you will be able to participate in the annual Student Exhibition, held at the end of the Spring semester. This exhibition gives students an opportunity to showcase their work, and also learn the behind-the-scene skills required of career artists showing in professional spaces, galleries and more.

Choose Webster for a BFA in Art with an Emphasis in Studio Art

The BFA in Art degree with an Emphasis in Studio Art will:

  • Familiarize you with the rich tradition of the visual arts.
  • Provide an understanding of the tools and materials available to you as a means of personal expression as an artist.
  • Give you an understanding of fundamental concepts, which unify all art, yet allows for infinite variation.
  • Introduces you to alternative ways of looking, seeing, finding and discovering.

BFA Studio Art students explore a wide variety of media, gaining extensive studio experience and learning the techniques and expressive opportunities unique to each. A primary focus of the program is on helping you find your own creative and conceptual voice, and discovering ways to visually communicate your thoughts and ideas.

Webster’s Studio Art emphasis allows you to thoroughly investigate your potential in a single area. You will learn within a professional framework, where the relationship between student and teacher becomes that of apprentice and master. Through this unique teaching relationship, you will develop a high level of achievement in an area of expertise, while further developing your personal creative abilities. Through our program, you will establish a sound basis for significant professional accomplishments in art.

Studio Art Areas of Emphasis

The Ceramics program is designed to support both sculpture and utilitarian ware, hand building and wheel throwing. Students are prepared to build with clay and finish work with ceramic surfaces. However, the program also encourages cross-medium exploration with the intent of honing materials and content to express the integrity of the idea. The program parallels exposure to traditional and contemporary ceramics with the belief that knowledge of the historical/traditional forms of folk and ritual pottery and tribal fetishes contribute to the student's development in making an informed contemporary statement.

 

The philosophy of the Drawing emphasis is to:

  • Promote a love and habit of Drawing that will serve as a foundation for all areas of emphasis in the department.
  • Develop competency in a variety of Drawing media, from traditional to experimental and interdisciplinary.
  • Teach a wide enough range of skills and concepts to ensure individual choice in style or direction, whether figurative or non-figurative.

To achieve these goals, Webster's Drawing program develops sequentially. The lower-level courses function in context with our foundations curriculum. It is because the early Drawing classes are laterally integrated with these required courses that the first few semesters of Drawing can focus on observational Drawing and traditional Drawing media without sacrificing creativity and new directions in art.

Intermediate and upper level Drawing courses encourage conceptual and contemporary approaches to Drawing, as well as interdisciplinary options. Other courses in Drawing provide students with opportunities to focus on specialized skills or directions.

Electronic and time-based art includes performance art, video art, sound and noise art, digital art and installation art. These contemporary art-making practices are unified in their engagement with time and space as a medium and mode of practice. Electronic and time-based art takes an intermedial approach to making art, focusing on modes of practice and the dialectic between media rather than any singular medium, unified by the concept of time as a material.

The teaching philosophy of the undergraduate Painting program at Webster focuses on providing students with the fundamentals and solid foundation in the craft of painting. Students are challenged to sharpen the technical skills of paint handling and archival support preparation while remaining open to experimental and alternative media.

As students develop the basic skills to address subject matter and content, emphasis is placed on the role of painting as a continuing source of conceptual development and expanding visual vocabulary in the context of contemporary art. The program maintains an open policy allowing for the discovery and investigation of individual aesthetic and conceptual directions, interpretations and expressions.

The Photography emphasis considers and approaches the photographic medium as an expressive medium. Students learn the technical skills necessary to create meaningful bodies of work. With guided and self-directed projects, students develop their own artistic practice and do not just take pictures, but they learn to make meaning photographically.

The Printmaking curriculum is designed to provide the opportunity for an introduction to a variety of printmaking processes, including woodblock, intaglio, lithography, screen printing and alternative processes, as well as offering the advantage of advanced and specialized work. The conceptual emphasis is focused on helping students find the means to use printmaking to relevant, timely and evocative work. Although students have freedom to choose from varied technical approaches their common goal is to measure their work by currents in the field and a contemporary standard.

The Sculpture emphasis teaches students to create meaning through three-dimensional work. It introduces the various materials and processes of sculpture, including:

  • Woodworking
  • Metalworking
  • Plaster- and metal-casting
  • Automation

As students develop, they learn qualities of craftsmanship and an understanding of space itself as a medium. Advanced work progresses along a student's particular interest to develop a body of work that explores focused themes, content and techniques.

Abigail Gorline
Student Testimonial

“Not only am I learning and growing, but I’m also enjoying myself and expanding my portfolio. My professors are so passionate and always ready to help me.”

Abigail Gorline
Abigail Gorline

BFA in Art with an Emphasis in Studio Art, Ceramics, '25

Studio Art Senior Exhibition

You will participate in the senior exhibition held at the end of the semester. You will learn how to design, manage and execute a successful group art exhibition, experiencing the work behind the scenes that makes viewing artwork in public possible. You will be involved in all aspects of putting on an exhibition, including:

  • Designing a show card and posters
  • Internet advertising
  • Choosing themes and a title
  • Installing and de-installing work
  • Obtaining donations for food and beverages for the reception 

Get Started on Your BFA in Art Degree with an Emphasis in Studio Art

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Contact the Admissions Office to Find Out More

If you have more questions about the program, your application or other enrollment-related inquiries, contact our Admissions Office.

Call 314-246-7800 or 800-753-6765 or send an email to admit@webster.edu.