All Visual Arts students at Assumption engage in hands-on creative work and acquire an in-depth foundation in art history that enables them to understand and appreciate theory and practice.
Students who wish to study the visual arts have interesting opportunities:
Studying Visual Arts at Assumption also provides you with a broad-based liberal arts education and develops your critical thinking and communication skills. Whether you stay in the field of art or take your talents in a different direction, you’ll have the foundation that enables Assumption graduates to succeed in their professions and lives.
Many Visual Arts majors also choose to concentrate in education so they can teach art at the elementary, middle or high school level.
Opportunities outside the Classroom
- Art exhibitions: Students’ works are exhibited on campus and in local galleries.
- Art club: The club organizes art projects on and off campus, visits to museums and critiques of student work.
- Graphic design club: This group works to improve the overall aesthetic quality of campus publications, as well as give students interested in design a place to meet and talk about upcoming contests, critique one another's work and discuss historical and contemporary design.
- Museum visits: Opportunities are available for students to visit local, regional and national museums. Faculty teach courses based on collections at the renowned Worcester Art Museum, only two miles from campus.
- Internships: Students have had internships for credit at places like the Worcester Art Museum, Davis Publications, Preservation Worcester and Museum Action Corps.
- Study abroad: Assumption offers a number of study abroad options that complement art history. Assumption places students at schools such as AIFS (American Institute for Foreign Study) in Florence, Italy; IFSA (Institute for Foreign Study) in England; the University of the Arts in London and the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughn, Ireland; and in other programs around the world.
Concentration in Studio Art
Studio art students take 11 art courses and may focus their academic interests in drawing, painting or graphic design. Using a range of traditional media along with the latest computerized design programs and equipment, they develop skills and knowledge of the elements, principles, and practice of design that prepare them for careers in academia, publishing, and the graphic arts. Their studies culminate in a public exhibition of their work during their senior year.
Concentration in Art History
Art history students take 11 art courses to complete their concentration. As part of their program they complete a semester-long independent research project and present it during their senior year. Students with a concentration in art history may become teachers, museum staff or curators, art critics, gallery work, art historians, researchers or arts managers.