Art Degree at University Of California Santa Barbara
The Department of Art offers programs leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Fine Arts. The department is committed to creative research that investigates the relationship between inquiry and practice and how this dynamic manifests itself in contemporary and historical approaches to cultural production in a continually changing world.
The two-year program provides graduate students with the opportunity to explore studio production and theoretical work in a flexible structure that encourages individual development within an interdisciplinary context. The department stresses the importance of a rigorous understanding of the conditions in which art is produced. Students are exposed to methodologies of inquiry that foster innovative and problem-solving skills necessary for artistic development and creative production.
The program’s internationally accomplished faculty are actively engaged in a range of disciplines and areas that include art and cultural theory, art history, film, video, sound, architecture, digital media, print media, photography, performative studies, painting, spatial arts and related courses in the Humanities, Sciences and Engineering. A significant number of the permanent faculty hold joint or affiliate appointments with other departments such as the Media Arts & Technology graduate program, History of Art and Architecture, Asian American Studies, Comparative Literature and Film Studies. The department also maintains affiliate appointments with current faculty in History of Art and Architecture, English and German & Slavic Studies.
Students are given the opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty who are involved in a wide range of research practices. In conjunction with an intensive curriculum which includes theory, studio critique seminars, professionalism, a range of directed media research courses, and the department’s visiting artist lecture symposia, the study program provides graduate students with direct exposure to professional artists who visit individual graduate students’ studios.
The department wishes to attract motivated students who will benefit from interaction with a diverse and challenging faculty in an environment that offers focused research within a compelling natural setting while gaining exposure to the opportunities presented in the urban centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco.