Area of Focus
  • Arts & Media
Degrees Offered
  • B.A.
  • M.F.A.
Academic Division
  • Arts
Department
  • Art

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Program overview

The Art Department offers an integrated program of study in theory and practice exploring the power of visual communication for personal expression and public interaction. Students are given the means to pursue this exploration through courses that provide the practical skills for art production in a variety of media within the contexts of critical thinking and broad-based social and environmental perspectives.

Art student painting

Learning Experience

Courses are offered in drawing, animation, painting, photography, sculpture, print media, critical theory, digital art, public art, environmental art, social art practice, and interactive technologies. Elena Baskin Visual Arts Studios provide world-class facilities for art production in these areas. The Art Department is committed to pursuing a continuing dialogue about what constitutes basic preparation in the arts while offering students experience in established practices, new genres, and new technologies.

Study and Research Opportunities
  • B.A. in studio art and M.F.A. in Environmental Art and Social Practice.
  • On-campus student galleries: The Eduardo Carrillo Senior Gallery, the Mary Porter Sesnon (Underground) Gallery, and two Mini-galleries in the art department courtyard.
  • Digital Arts Research Center (DARC) – A multimedia complex housing extensive digital printmaking/photography facilities as a resource for art students.
  • Our program offers students the opportunity to utilize painting and drawing studios, dark room, wood shop, printmaking studios, metal shop, and bronze foundry throughout the major. Studio classes have a maximum capacity of 25 students. 
  • ArtsBridge is a program available to Art undergraduates that prepares them to be arts educators. ArtsBridge works in tandem with the Santa Cruz County Office of Education to identify and place undergraduate and graduate students into K-12 (kindergarten - high school) public schools to teach an arts discipline.
  • Opportunities to study abroad during the junior or senior year through the UC Education Abroad Program or UCSC Global Seminars led by UCSC Art Faculty

First-Year Requirements

First-year students interested in the Art major do not need prior art experience or coursework to pursue the major. A portfolio is not required for admission. Students interested in pursuing an art major should enroll in Art foundation courses (Art 10_) their first year. Declaring the art major is contingent on passing two of the three foundation courses that we offer. Additionally, two of the three foundation classes are prerequisite to the lower-division (ART 20_) studios. Consequently, it is essential that students interested in pursuing the art major take the three foundation courses in their first year.

Find more information on first-year requirements
Art student outside

Transfer Requirements

This is a non-screening major. However, transfer students complete one of two options in order to pursue the Art BA. The portfolio review is one option, or students can take two Art foundation courses at a community college. Transfer students should identify themselves as potential art majors when applying to UCSC to receive information on the portfolio deadlines (early April) and materials required for the review. In addition to two foundation courses, it is advised that students complete all three of their lower-division studios at a community college. Transfers should also complete two survey courses in art history (one from Europe and the Americas, one from Oceania, Africa, Asia, or the Mediterranean) before transferring to UC Santa Cruz. Use assist.org to see equivalent California community college courses to UCSC’s Art major requirements.

Find more information on transfer requirements
Student book sewing

Learning Outcomes

Students who earn a B.A. in Art will gain the skills, knowledge, and understanding that will enable them to:

1. Demonstrate proficiency in a range of techniques and media.

2. Demonstrate the ability to imagine, create and resolve a work of art incorporating research with an awareness of contemporary and historical practices, approaches, and cultural perspectives.

3.  Demonstrate the ability to discuss and revise their own and other students’ artistic process and production based on a foundation in forms and ideas with a knowledge of diversity through multiple historical and contemporary contexts, cultural perspectives, and approaches.

4. Demonstrate the ability to communicate in writing analysis of a work of art using vocabulary that reflects a foundational knowledge in the diversity of forms and ideas encompassing multiple historical and contemporary contexts, cultural perspectives, and approaches.

Student painting mural

Internships and Career Opportunities

  • Professional artist
  • Art and law
  • Art criticism
  • Art marketing
  • Arts administration
  • Curating
  • Digital imaging
  • Edition printing
  • Industry consultant
  • Model maker
  • Multimedia specialist
  • Museum and gallery management
  • Museum exhibition design and curation
  • Publishing
  • Teaching

Program Contact

Art Department

 

 

apartment Elena Baskin Visual Arts Studios, Room E-105 
email artadvisor@ucsc.edu
phone (831) 459-3551

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