What majors and minors are
offered?
Why should I major in Art?
Are your programs accredited?
Why is it important that the program is accredited?
What type of graduate schools and programs are
your graduates attending?
What are the admission requirements for the program?
As a high school student, how should I prepare
for an Art degree?
What is the typical class size?
How do students work together with faculty?
What student organizations are available?
What type of awards have your faculty and students
received?
What majors and minors
are offered?
Western’s
Department of Art offers four bachelor’s degrees. Students
may elect the Bachelor of Arts, which is
designed for the future art historian or a student interested in a liberal arts degree with an interest in applied art; the Bachelor of
Fine Arts in Studio, intended to train professional, practising artists in a variety of media; the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design that prepares students for a career in graphic design; and the Bachelor of Science in Art Education for students who wish to teach art in the public school system.
In addition, the Department of Art offers a graduate degree in applied media and convergent media through the Masters of Applied Arts in Integrated Media. The curriculum covers a wide range of critical and technical issues that encompass the full range of electronically mediated human experience. It has been specifically conceived as an interdisciplinary laboratory where students combine the traditional foundations of design and visual communication, video and music with a view towards developing fresh creative strategies. The Master of Applied Arts in Integrated Media at Missouri Western State University is a professional degree program focused on producing technically sophisticated, artistically talented graduates who are sought after by corporations, advertising agencies, graphic design studios and by the growing electronic arts industry.
Why should I major
in Art?
An Art degree prepares students to practice art on a
professional level. You may want to major in Art if you feel compelled
to express your ideas, thoughts and feelings through art. The
Western Art Department offers you the opportunity to explore a
wide variety of media.
Are your programs
accredited?
The Art Education program is fully accredited by the
National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education.
Why is it important
that the program is accredited?
National accreditation is one way to ensure the quality
of the program you choose. The organizations providing accreditations
ensure the program meets certain standards of quality.
What
type of graduate schools and programs are your graduates attending?
In addition to our own graduate program in integrated media, many art graduates earn Master of Fine
Arts degrees, and those with Art Education degrees often earn
advanced degrees in that field. Recent graduates have earned degrees
from Kansas State University, University of Maine and College
of Staten Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.
What are the admission
requirements for the program?
Students must complete three courses,
ART 110 Beginning Drawing, ART 120 Two-Dimensional Design, and
ART 130 Tools and Techniques, with a 2.5 GPA before declaring
a major in the department.
As a high school
student, how should I prepare for an Art degree?
If you are considering an art major in college, complete
the high school core curriculum, and take all the art courses
available at your high school. Also, visit art museums and enroll
in art programs or seminars. You may want to look into volunteering
at a museum.
What is the typical
class size?
Academic classes may contain up to 30 students, but studio
classes are 20 and under in number. Faculty members work closely
with students individually and in small groups throughout their
college careers.
How do students work
together with faculty?
Faculty members are actively involved in students’ college
experiences, helping them plan their coursework and careers. Students
in studio classes can be assured that professors demonstrate processes
or procedures in class and on an individual basis outside of the
classroom if a student needs additional help.
Professors also work one-on-one with students or
in small groups on research projects.
What student organizations
are available?
The Griffon
Art Society is a student organization open to anyone
interested in art. The Society holds periodic meetings throughout
the year and sponsors social functions, field trips and community
projects.
What type of awards
have your faculty and students received?
- A professor was invited to hold a printmaking workshop at the Southern Graphics Council Conference, which is the most prestigious, as well as largest print gathering in the world. His lecture and workshop drew over 600 fellow printmakers.
- A professor has artwork for the second year in the mint Mini-Print International of Cadaques, Spain. The exhibition travels from Cadaques to Barcelona and then on to Paris, France.
- A professor delivered a paper on Vittorio de Sica and Alfred Hitchcock to the acclaimed Midwest Art History Society Convention.
- An art professor had a print
on exhibition at the Sharjah Art
Museum in
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
The print is part of a suite of
prints
that documents the French-Algerian
War of the 1960s. The work is in
conjunction with the development
of a graphic novel, and the print
was
acquired by the museum.
- Last year, students and faculty
had 38 works shown in 28 exhibitions
across the United States. Awards
for those exhibitions included
six first-place awards, two second-place
awards, two honorable mentions,
one merit award, one purchase award,
and one juror’s award.
- Five professors had inclusions
in books, publications or research
studies. One professor’s
ceramic sculpture was one of 250
chosen from nearly 20,000 entries
as an illustration for a book, “Making
Marks.”
- An art professor had his ceramic
sculpture selected for the 48th
annual Delta Exhibition. Forty-five
works by 44 artists were chosen
from 630 pieces submitted by 351
artists.
- A professor’s color photographic
triptych was one of 43 photos selected
from over 1,700 entries for the Texas
Photographic Society 13: The National
Competition.
- Two students had photographs
included in the 24th Annual
Student Photography Contest and
Publication. Only 5% of the
31,000 submissions were selected
for publication.
- Four students had a total of
11 photographs juried and accepted
into the 20th annual Five-State
Photography Competition. One
of those students won a first place
award and a cash prize.
- One student was juried into a
nine-state show called Artists
of the 21st Century. She received
first place and a cash award.
