A MassArt Education
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Programs → Undergraduate Programs
Undergraduate Curriculum
One comprehensive undergraduate curriculum. Infinite creative and career possibilities.
MassArt’s undergraduate curriculum is designed to maximize every student’s learning. Through diverse coursework that spans the full spectrum of creative and academic disciplines, our students become well-rounded artists and designers with practical skills to support and foster their creative practice. Along the way, they gain analytical, critical thinking, and communication competencies that serve them well after graduation in whatever career path they choose.
Your first year at MassArt will open your eyes to things you never saw coming.Marc Holland Department Chair, Studio Foundation & '00 BFA
In you first year, you’ll dive into our Foundation Year curriculum—an immersive introduction to the tools, techniques, and creative skills you’ll build on throughout your studies. It’s your chance to explore new media, experiment widely, and discover what excites you most before choosing your major in your sophomore year.
After Foundation Year, you’ll continue taking Humanities, Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts, and History of Art courses. These classes make up about one-third of your BFA and are designed to broaden your understanding of the world while strengthening the creative work you do in our studios, labs, and workshops.
Undergraduate Credit Requirements
To earn you Bachelor of Fine Arts at MassArt, you’ll complete 120 credits–typically 30 credits per year over four years. If you’re pursuing an Art Education track, you may complete up to 126 credits to meet licensure requirements.
General Credit Requirements
| Curriculum Breakdown | Credits |
|---|---|
| Drawing (Figurative/Breadth) — two semesters | 6 |
| Visual Language (2D) | 3 |
| Time (4D) | 3 |
| Form Study (3D) | 3 |
| Studio Elective | 3 |
| Thinking, Making, Writing | 3 |
| Freshman Seminar | 3 |
| Intro to Western Art | 3 |
| History of Art Elective | 3 |
| Total | 30 |
| Curriculum Breakdown | Credits |
|---|---|
| Major requirements | 12 |
| Studio/Open Elective* | 6 |
| Humanities/Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts/History of Art Electives | 12 |
| Total | 30 |
| Curriculum Breakdown | Credits |
|---|---|
| Major requirements | 12 |
| Studio/Open Elective* | 6 |
| Humanities/Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts/History of Art Electives | 12 |
| Total | 30 |
| Curriculum Breakdown | Credits |
|---|---|
| Major requirements | 12 |
| Studio/Open Elective* | 6 |
| Humanities/Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts/History of Art Electives | 12 |
| Total | 30 |
Major Requirements
View each program area’s major requirements:
- Animation, BFA
- Architecture, BFA
- Art Education, BFA (Breadth Requirements)
- Art Education, BFA (Specialization Requirements)
- Ceramics, BFA
- Communication Design, BFA
- Fashion Design, BFA
- Fibers, BFA
- Film/Video, BFA
- Glass, BFA
- History of Art, BFA
- Illustration, BFA
- Industrial Design, BFA
- Jewelry & Metalsmithing, BFA
- Painting, BFA
- Photography, BFA
- Printmaking, BFA
- Sculpture, BFA
- Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM), BFA
College-wide Learning Goals
The MassArt community aspires to prepare our graduates with the following undergraduate learning goals.
The MassArt community aspires to prepare our graduates to achieve the following:
- Generate a personal focus and contribute an independent voice to the world
- Work effectively within the tenets of art, design, and scholarship
- Seek opportunities and be ready to work as professionals in architecture; art education; art history; design; fine arts; and related fields
- Skillfully use a variety of materials, processes, tools, media, and strategies to serve their intent, learning more as needed
- Communicate clearly, creatively, and critically across a range of forms and contexts
- Connect ideas effectively within and across media and disciplines
- Refer to the fullest range of historical and contemporary art and design sources from across cultures and time
- Engage in ongoing cycles of critical and creative thinking, investigation, making, reviewing, and revising to realize ideas and works
- Evaluate, question, and challenge conformist thinking and create new paradigms
- Apply a wide range of research methods and technologies in gathering and analyzing information(e.g., texts, objects, images, events, behaviors) for art, design, and scholarship
- Engage effectively in individual and/or collaborative approaches to work
- Interact proactively and constructively with diverse local, national, and global communities
- Seek and incorporate sustainable practices for professional work
- Advocate for architects, art educators, art historians, artists and designers as important contributors to society
Each academic department has also created specific learning goals for specific majors that can be found under each BFA program. These departmental goals link to some or all of the undergraduate learning goals, and derive from the learning happening in departments’ course offerings.
Each department has also prepared learning outcomes for their programs. These departmental goals link back to some or all of the college-wide learning goals. They derive from the learning happening in departments’ course offerings.
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