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California Institute of the Arts
The School of Art at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the areas of art, graphic design, and photography and media. The undergraduate programs lead to a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree and the graduate programs to a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree.
Faculty, Resident Artists, and Alumni The School’s faculty is made up of innovators and leaders in contemporary art practice. Since all faculty members are working artists with an abundance of real-world experience, they prepare students for the creative and professional demands of contemporary art and design.
A faculty mentor serves as each student’s artistic adviser, guiding them through the program and assisting the student in customizing a curriculum to fit their personal interests and artistic goals. To supplement the expertise of the faculty members, the School of Art regularly invites a wide range of visiting artists, designers, photographers, performers, writers, and theorists to share their experience and vision with students. The School of Art alumni are prominent in the art and design communities at the local, national, and international levels and can often be found on faculty rosters of some of the most esteemed colleges.
Programs of Study Admission into the programs of study within the School of Art is focus-specific. Students must apply directly to the area of interest with a portfolio that demonstrates technical and conceptual interest and ability. The School of Art at CalArts does not have a general foundation year; students begin their studies within their chosen program.
Encompassing both studio practice and theory, The Program in Art offers instruction in a wide range of media, including but not limited to painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, digital imaging, sculpture, installation, video, film, writing, and performance. The program does not require students to concentrate on a particular medium; instead, it relies on a flexible structure of individualized instruction and mentoring to emphasize the articulation of ideas.
The four-year B.F.A. curriculum begins with a selection of foundation course options, along with critical studies, where students investigate various media, art-historical traditions, and theoretical positions. Additional course work includes a combination of seminars, group critique classes, technical workshops, and independent studies. By the third year in residence, undergraduates are expected to pursue independent projects.
The Program in Graphic Design prepares students for a wide range of professional options—from Web design and motion graphics to editorial design and environmental graphics, from film title and broadcast design to exhibitions and careers in education. The program emphasizes both practical and conceptual skills and enables each designer to integrate a command of visual language with imagination, theory, and new technology. The highly structured B.F.A. curriculum begins with courses covering basic design principles, imagemaking, typography, history, and theory.
The Program in Photography and Media is committed to educating independent artists in a world where photographic imagery and new media representations and strategies are omnipresent. The program encourages debate and experimentation, and students are encouraged to challenge conventions in a genre that includes many new practices. The B.F.A. curriculum begins with a year of intensive photographic foundation work, followed by a mixture of courses that includes classes on specific issues in photography, video and Internet practice, the histories of photography and film, and media theories and semiotics as well as critique classes, technical workshops, and independent studies. Students are welcome work in darkroom photography, digital imaging, time-based formats, and beyond.
Program Facilities The MacLab is used for creating digital and print-based work, including drawing, painting, photo manipulation, editorial design, type design, 3-D rendering, motion graphics, sound design and Web, and CD and DVD authoring.
The Photography and Media Lab includes high-capacity black-and-white and color processors, a 52-inch capacity Cibachrome color processor, black-and-white printing bays, and individual color darkrooms, including an 8-by-10-inch color mural enlarger. The digital photography and video lab is equipped with eight Final Cut Pro Stations, digital imaging software, a negative scanner, and two large Epson digital photographic printers.
The Print and Media Lab is used for producing multiples through silk-screening, etching, lithography, and letterpress. It contains light tables, work tables, paper cutters, an exposure unit, various presses, and a digital imaging lab with a large output capacity printer and a vinyl cutter.
The Super Shop is the Institute’s main sculpture studio and features work areas and equipment for woodworking, metalworking, machining, sandblasting, spraying, and mold making.
The Video Lab offers an assortment of high-quality equipment for time-based media production and post-production, as well as facilities for classroom instruction and student use. Digital video and Hi-8 cameras, tripods, microphones, lighting kits, mini-disc sound recorders, and other production equipment are available for checkout.
Beginning undergraduates in the Programs in Art and Photography and Media have shared studios, while most upper-level undergraduates work in individual studios. Graphic design students have individual workspace cubicles in larger studios that have adjoining critique rooms.
Student Performance/Exhibit Opportunities School of Art students exhibit their work in seven on-campus galleries, and in various unconventional or informal settings around campus. First- and second-year undergraduates participate in several group shows, while upper-level undergraduates are required to mount solo exhibitions. Shows are often accompanied by opening receptions, which are organized by students and open to the public as well as the CalArts community.
Application ProceduresDeadline--freshmen and transfers: January 4. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: April 1. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, portfolio, personal statement. Recommended: 2 letters of recommendation, video (if applicable). Auditions held 1 time. Portfolio reviews held continuously on campus and off campus in National Portfolio Days; the submission of slides may be substituted for portfolios (slides preferred).
ContactMs. Taryn Wolf, Assistant Director of Admissions, California Institute of the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, California 91355; 661-255-1050, fax: 661-253-7710.
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