Undergraduate : Graduate

Core Curriculum : Foundations : Academic : Design : Studio

Ceramics
Through interaction with peers, faculty, visiting artists, and individual attention, ceramics students engage in the personal research of ideas and techniques that leads to personal artistic identity, expression, and style. The ceramics program at SIUC is diverse in style, multicultural in composition, and committed to equal gender representation. Students come from all 50 states and numerous countries: England, Serbia, Japan, Korea, Ghana, Indonesia, Taiwan, China, and the Netherlands. Functional pottery, sculpture, and mixed media works all add to the program’s diversity.

For specific degree requirements, please see the Degrees Offered at the School of Art and Design.

Please visit the Studio Faculty list for more information about faculty at the School of Art and Design.

Glass
The Glass experience at SIUC is dedicated to directing students through the development of a personal and professional aesthetic. Strengthening technical and conceptual foundations is emphasized while students are encouraged to develop their work through technical and intellectual investigation. Graduate Glass students have the ability to shape their course of study to suit their needs and goals. In addition, there are many career-oriented opportunities for the graduate student. These can range from support positions to teaching and research assistantships. The program has facilities to support virtually all aspects of cold, warm, and hot glassmaking, as well as a fully equipped mobile glassblowing studio.

For specific degree requirements, please see the Degrees Offered at the School of Art and Design.

Please visit the Studio Faculty list for more information about faculty at the School of Art and Design.

Metals-Blacksmithing
The Metalsmithing experience emphasizes the development of aesthetic values, dialogue, technical skills, and commitment leading to a personal expression using functional and sculptural metalwork. The program seeks students with a diversity of interests, backgrounds, and goals. Media used range from precious metal to monumental iron. A broad spectrum of aesthetic principles is emphasized, from traditional forms within the media to modern experiential approaches.

For specific degree requirements, please see the Degrees Offered at the School of Art and Design.

Please visit the Studio Faculty list for more information about faculty at the School of Art and Design.

Sculpture
Undergraduate classes focus on the basic sculptural issues relevant to object making. Core processes include mold making, welding, wood fabrication, casting and mixed media. More complicated and advanced forms of sculptural investigation such as installation, cross-disciplinary and new genre investigations are encouraged throughout the curriculum when appropriate. Project assignments are keyed to critical issues of contemporary sculpture in order that the student may gain a working understanding through experience. Through all stages of study, the critique process is central. Individual meetings with instructors and class critiques are the primary means by which critical assessment is made, and serve not only to gauge progress, but also to encourage information exchange. As the student progresses through the program and begins advanced study, shared studio space is provided. At this point, the successful student will have developed a personal working approach, with regard to direction and material. Individual research into current approaches and concerns relevant to the discipline of sculpture provide a means by which students may contextualize their efforts and understand that they are part of a larger cultural endeavor. Finally, the thesis component will culminate in the production of a statement and final exhibition, which will provide the basis for further study at the graduate level.

The graduate sculpture program is an intense three-year period in which the investigation of current sculpture practice is framed by the drive to establish ones own unique direction and sensibility. The critique process is central, as are individual meetings with the sculpture faculty, and exhibitions, which students organize in the 6,000 square foot Surplus Gallery. Within a wide range of processes and aesthetic approaches MFA candidates define their focus and work to produce their thesis exhibition and statement. The availability of assistantships, which provide teaching experience, rounds out the graduate experience and enhances efforts at post-graduate employment.

Fundamentally, SIUC sculpture is defined by an assumption that object making, while not the sole limiting condition of sculpture practice, is still at the core of our discipline. Material, process and meaning are equally important to those of us who share the desire to make our ideas concrete and our vision real.

For specific degree requirements, please see the Degrees Offered at the School of Art and Design.

Please visit the Studio Faculty list for more information about faculty at the School of Art and Design.

Two Dimensional: Drawing, Painting and Printmaking
The MFA experience in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking is integrated and inclusive, situating the student’s experience within a studio dynamic that broadly investigates the combined and collaborative potential of these studio areas. Students are simultaneously encouraged to explore the relationship of their subject area to other disciplines and media possibilities within the resources of the School. Through a process of practical and intellectual engagement, students are encouraged to devise individualized strategies to develop and inform their own work in relation to the broader spectrum of contemporary professional practice. The faculty consequently places considerable emphasis on the opportunity for students to encounter a range of ideas, attitudes, and approaches that are necessary to this development, all of which are further enhanced by a program of visiting artists and relevant critical and historical contextualization.

The printmaking program offers a full range of media choices including: etching, lithography, silkscreen, relief (specializing in woodcut), monoprint, collograph, and significant digital capabilities. The program focuses on both the tradition of printmaking and its fundamental importance within the development of contemporary art. The beginning classes develop media skills and an appropriate aesthetic awareness. The advanced classes are conducted in a seminar format and are predicated on indvidual research and media investigation. The drawing program offers a full range of courses including: figure drawing, still life, landscape and individual expression. The drawing program is traditional in its approach. There is emphasis on the development of skill and rigorous instruction regarding techniques of seeing and depiction. At the advanced level independent research is expected and classes are taught in a seminar format. The painting program offers introductory, intermediate, and advanced classes that focus on various media and subjects, with a special emphasis on the human figure and landscape subjects.

For specific degree requirements, please see the Degrees Offered at the School of Art and Design.

Please visit the Studio Faculty list for more information about faculty at the School of Art and Design.