Program Overview
Art & Design Program at Asbury University
Do you enjoy creating new things? You can personalize your creativity by studying Art & Design at Asbury.
At Asbury University, you can study painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, drawing, multimedia, graphic design, photography and art history. All Studio students are provided with studio space and complete a public senior exhibit prior to graduation.
Our mission is to provide a foundation for theological, theoretical and artistic practice. We strive to infuse our appreciation of art with our desire to know the Creator Himself. Not only is the process of our work important, but also how the content reflects the larger, invisible realities of our universe and our experience in it. Ultimately our art and craft is driven by inspiration and creativity. We seek to glorify Christ, the Master Storyteller, by helping you merge your creative spirit with your work.
+GRAD Program Options
Asbury’s Undergraduate +GRAD program allows you to finish an undergraduate degree, then earn a master’s degree with significant time and cost savings.
Art & Design students may be interested in completing one of Asbury’s related master’s degree programs in:
- Master of Arts in Digital Storytelling (30 hours)
- Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television Production (42 hours)
- Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting (42 hours)
Why Study Art & Design at Asbury?
Mentoring: As an art student, you can enjoy exceptional mentoring via contained class sizes, faculty advisors, Junior Review, and weekly meetings with professors and peers during your junior and senior years as you develop your art practice.
Broad thinking: Understanding and appreciating a broad range of perspectives on any topic increases our ability to think with flexibility. Also, students are challenged to developed empathy as well as the ability to critically evaluate those perspectives.
Windgate Scholarship: Talented incoming Art & Design students may also apply to our Windgate Scholars program. Selected applicants receive as much as $4,000 per academic year to help cover tuition.
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.
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.
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.
Art & Design Department Chair
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
Alumni Stories
Only at Asbury
