Art & Design, B.A.


Availability: On-Campus
Degree: Bachelor of Art (B.A.)

Art & Design Emphases


Our Ceramics emphasis offers you both the application of skills as well as theoretical assessment of the ceramic form. Skills and topics covered include use of the potter’s wheel, hand-building techniques, surface design, as well as exploring design, structure, and function. All this culminates in the experiential Senior Art Thesis, which gives you the opportunity to exhibit your work in one of our campus galleries.

Our Drawing emphasis uses a variety of materials and methods of drawing offering you the chance to learn observation while applying and expanding your drawing skills and how to assess them. All of this culminates in the experiential Senior Art Thesis, which gives you the opportunity to exhibit your work in one of our campus galleries.

Our Graphic Design classes feature experience in industry-standard layout and image editing. With these tools, you will learn about the basic concepts and techniques that will give you an identity as a graphic designer. Working through processes, problem-solving projects, and taking a critical approach to various graphic design and its impacts on culture, you’ll have a thorough exposure to various aspects of graphic design as a form of expression, as well as a viable career. All of this culminates in the experiential Senior Art Thesis, which gives you the opportunity to exhibit your work in one of our campus galleries.

Our Painting program offers a chance to use acrylic and oils to learn observation and the illusion of space. You’ll also learn how to apply and expand your painting skills, along with a solid and informed understanding of how your own vision and aesthetic fits in to the growing pantheon of painting’s history. All of this culminates in the experiential Senior Art Thesis, which gives you the opportunity to exhibit your work in one of our campus galleries.

Photography is a versatile and ubiquitous field. Asbury Faculty will guide you as you learn the history of the medium, best practice in equipment and methods, and help you to think critically as your body of work emerges. Our goal is for you to learn both historic techniques as well as new ones, providing a well-rounded and experienced skill set that can approach any photographic project with confidence and intentionality.

Our Sculpture emphasis offers both application of skills as well as theoretical assessment of form in a particularly wide set of materials. The study of sculpture can lead beyond the studio to master-level work and career opportunities in architecture, interior design, engineering, museum studies, and teaching. Your studies at Asbury would culminate in the experiential Senior Art Thesis, which gives Sculpture emphasis Majors the opportunity to exhibit your work in one of our campus galleries.

Student artist in a studio

Life-Changing Experiences

The Art & Design major is designed to give you strong exposure to foundational media in the creative core–a collection of studio, history, and theory courses that all of our majors take. As you progress through the major, you begin to make self-directed artwork under faculty direction and develop proficiency within a media. The major culminates with a Sr. Exhibit or Thesis project.

As a studio art student, you mount a solo exhibition of a body of work in the college gallery or other designated on-campus space.

Where you’ll Learn

The McCreless Fine Arts Center includes a series of classroom and lab spaces, and in the Art Annex you’ll find our ceramic studio, woodshop + maker’s space, and 10 studio spaces for advanced students.

We also have multiple art galleries and exhibition spaces in public areas throughout campus.

Asbury art students work at ceramic stations in the art annexAsbury art students work at ceramic stations in the art annex

Meet our Art & Design faculty

Approachable, friendly, challenging, well-informed, well-read, highly motivated, sought-after, widely exhibited and interesting faculty who hold degrees in the discipline they teach. From idea generation to finished artwork, faculty come alongside students to help them form a vision and then to “realize” it.

Margaret Park Smith, M.F.A.
Professor, Art & Design
Art & Design Department Chair
Keith Barker ’91, M.F.A.
Professor of Photography, Gallery Director
Josh Smith, M.F.A.
Professor, Graphic Design
Linda Stratford, Ph.D.
Professor, Art History
Director, Paris Semester

Outcomes

What Our Alumni Do

Our Art & Design students complete internships at places like:

  • Awesome Inc.
  • Bullhorn
  • LV Harkness and Co
  • Zigler Stained Glass
  • Pavé d’Orsay Gallery in Paris, France
  • The Académie de la Grande Chaumière (figure drawing studio in Paris, France)

Asbury art students enjoy a high rate of acceptance into graduate programs of their choice, including:

  • Slade School of Fine Art—London
  • Columbia University
  • Savannah College of Art & Design

Our Art & Design graduates have been hired to work in many types of careers, including:

  • Photography studios
  • Gallery and museum positions
  • Freelance illustrators
  • Art teachers
  • Graphic designers
  • Art directors

Only at Asbury

Regularly scheduled departmental trips to major art collections in Lexington, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, and New York.


You also can study art in Paris and explore world-renowned art collections, castles and cathedrals in the Loire Valley and within Paris itself.


Individual studios for junior and senior art majors, as space allow.

Questions?
We’d love to help!


Undergraduate Admissions