In your first year, you will learn to take projects through the full creative process, from idea to critique.

The Studio Foundation curriculum is required of all first-year students before they select a major for their sophomore year. Students arrive at MassArt with varying levels of experience, as well as differing interests and backgrounds. Studio Foundation introduces every first-year student to a wide variety of techniques and media that cut across traditions and technologies; something is new for everyone. 

As a first-year student, you will learn to develop projects through all stages of the creative process, from inception, to design, then construction, presentation, revision, and completion. You will learn how to effectively and wisely critique your own work and the work of others, while learning to situate your studio practice in the historical, social and cultural contexts of artmaking.

Here’s what your Foundation Year, 30-credit curriculum will look like:

• Studio Foundation requirements               15 credits
• Studio Elective                                                 3 credits
• Liberal Arts requirements (Humanities
  & Integrative Sciences & Biological Arts)    6 credits
• History of Art requirements                          6 credits

After completing the Foundation Year, all students continue taking Liberal Arts and History of Art courses, which comprise one-third of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Both curricula are designed to enhance and complement the creativity that occurs during the sophomore, junior, and senior years.