Foundation Program
Take the first step.
The critical first step for all our students, regardless of major, is the Foundation program. Designed to equip you with the fundamentals of visual thinking and communication, foundation studies will teach you to perceive with freshness and insight and to execute visual ideas with confidence and precision. While focusing on your personal creative process, you will examine a broad range of techniques and media– including the newest digital technology.
Most Foundation classes are small. You’ll get an uncommon degree of personal attention from your instructor, and a sense of bonding with your fellow students that will last throughout your studies. The group critique process is an essential component of all Foundation courses. The Foundation portfolio review, the culmination of your freshman experience, will give you a chance to have your entire first year’s body of work critiqued. And when you display your work at the Foundation Spring show, held in the school’s gallery, you’ll learn about the exhibition process first-hand.
The Foundation Program or its equivalent is a prerequisite for entry into any of the major programs. Non-art majors, undecided majors, and those with fewer than two years of high school art experience seeking to become BFA candidates must complete Foundation Drawing I (ADF S101) and 2-Dimensional Design (ADF S151) and must earn a cumulative grade of 3.0 (B) or higher for those courses (with no grade below B-), in order to petition for a change of major. Such students must also register concurrently for Jumpstart Art (ART 01), in order to help assure their success in studio courses.