Art and Design Department

The Department of Art and Design offers an undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree or a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education Certification, K-12. For successful completion of both B.A. degree in art and art education certification, K-12, each student is expected to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and understandings within the following five categories (No. 5 pertains to the B.A. in Art Education Certification, K-12):

Promote visual literacy; e.g., the understanding of a work of art through its connections with history, criticism, aesthetics, culture, style, and the formal elements.
Demonstrate the ability to create and solve the production of original, visual forms of expression in different media designed around a theme and to promote the interdisciplinary importance of art making as a method of knowing.
Develop critical thinking in strategies of inquiry, iconology, and comparative studies that will promote cross-cultural and ethnically diverse methods of art making.
Establish methods of working and understanding the creative process and production in a variety of two- and three-dimensional media-graphics, computers, painting, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, and conceptional/interdisciplinary work styles.
Develop methodology for effective teaching; creating lesson plans appropriate for a variety of academic venues; learn how to communicate effectively; be able to demonstrate effective technical skills; and understand the role of art education in human development.

Foundation Portfolio Requirements

After admission to the art major and art education certification (K-12) programs, students must present a portfolio of their original artwork for review to the art and design department faculty. Specific requirements for content of this portfolio can be requested from the art department chairperson, departmental secretary, or the art department website at www.ship.edu/art. The Foundation Portfolio is a required component of the art and design department for all freshmen and transfer students from other colleges or internal transfers within SU. The Foundation Portfolio Review is given one time per year, the third Tuesday of September. All new and transfer students will participate in this review the first September after they have become an official art or art education major.

Yearly Student Art Exhibit

Each year art majors are required to submit a minimum of two pieces of art for the annual student art exhibit. These works of art must be properly framed or mounted using appropriate materials for display.

Senior Art Seminar and Exhibit

The Senior Art Seminar is a three-credit capstone course which is a two semester sequential program beginning in the fall semester of each academic year. Students may not enter the course mid-year and must plan their schedule accordingly. Students planning to graduate in December must complete this course the academic year prior to their graduation. Students enrolled in the Senior Art Seminar examine contemporary artists, art movements and influences which directly impact their work and area of concentration. Emphasis will be placed on creating a portfolio of work with a specific focus conceived by the student. These works will be presented in a public exhibition, which is juried and held annually the week before graduation. Participation in this exhibition is required for graduation. Résumé preparation and developing a career portfolio will also be included in this course.

Art and Design Features

The Department of Art and Design offers an undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree in art or Bachelor of Arts in Art Education Certification-K-12. For students who wish to pursue a career in graphic design, the department offers a Certificate in Graphic Design and an interdisciplinary concentration in computer graphics with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Students may enroll in one or both of these programs of study. Because of the department’s variety of courses and degrees, its cooperative programs with two major institutions, the Art Institutes International (AII) and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), the Shippensburg art graduate has a wide range of career opportunities.

The Department of Art and Design has a strong and effective advising program which encompasses the entire educational experience of every art and art education major. Twice yearly, advising meetings bring alumni back to the university for panel discussions and “real-life” dialogue. Continual development of selected topics, visiting artists’ programs, trips to Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, and credit-bearing trips to foreign countries provide students with ample opportunities to view the world of art.

Other options: With the 33 credits of free electives, many students choose a number of different options. The student can double major, minor in another field such as business, or strengthen their art major by taking additional unrestricted art electives. Selecting a double major, including art/communication, art/business or art/psychology, increases career options. Programs such as the Interdisciplinary Arts degree allow students to create a program to match their needs.

Students who transfer into the Art Education Program from outside or from within Shippensburg University must complete an Application for Professional Standing. The requirements necessary to become an art education major include: passing the required Praxis I examinations, maintaining a 3.0 QPA, and attending an interview with art department faculty where a basic art portfolio demonstrating specific competencies is presented. Specifics of this portfolio are available from the chair or secretary, as well as from the art department website at www.ship.edu/art. Art education majors will complete some of their courses in the Department of Teacher Education in the College of Education and Human Services. Candidates will complete a 15-week student practicum and pass the PRAXIS II exam prior to graduation and certification. All Art Education majors are subject to the rules and regulations set forth by the Office of Field Services at Shippensburg University. A post baccalaureate program in Art Education Certification is offered through the College of Education and Human Services. These programs are regulated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Internships provide important real-life experiences. Some students serve as interns in galleries, museums, advertising agencies, or art supply stores. Some art students, especially those in the art education program, assist in local community art centers by helping to teach classes for adults and children. Others have worked as apprentices on art projects in the Department Art and Design’s Golden Apple Computer Lab or Sculpture Studio, or in computer graphics agencies. Some students have apprenticed with professional painters, ceramicists, and sculptors. The department is continually developing a pool of sources for internships in both the public and private sector.

Three Department of Art and Design organizations give students an opportunity to have some first-hand experiences in the field. One organization, the Student Art League, holds weekly “art making and critiquing” studios. The Visivo Club creates a professional artistic publication yearly using the computer creatively to design and lay out the work for the book. Through this publication students gain practical experiences in design, photography, writing, editing, and printing. The Art Exhibitions Committee gains practical gallery training through organizing and staging eight exhibitions yearly.

Art students who may one day wish to own and operate their own businesses are encouraged to take the Business Minor offered through the John L. Grove College of Business.

Art Career Opportunities

Art is actually used in any circumstance that requires visual discrimination: What looks better, this or that? The fine artist attempts to make a visual statement through a painting or a piece of sculpture by continuously discriminating with the art elements. All of the design fields actively engage in visual decision making-industrial, fabric, fashion, interior, graphic and advertising design.

Courses provide students with a sound fine arts background in studio experience, art history, and art criticism. Computer design courses prepare students’ marketability in industry, publishing, and advertising. They can prepare for a number of art-related careers. Our graduates are museum curators, art educators, gallery directors, illustrators, photographers, practicing and exhibiting artists/craftspeople, graphic designers, fabric designers, and antique dealers. A number of our graduates have opted to go on for advanced degrees in art, particularly the Master of Fine Arts degree. These graduates are practicing and exhibiting artists, and some teach at colleges and universities. Students are well prepared for their careers.

Cooperative Art Programs

A cooperative program has been established between Shippensburg University and the Art Institutes International, which are the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and six additional Art Institutes in Houston and Dallas, Texas; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington. This plan is for students interested in pursuing specialized careers in commercial art who also want the advantage of an academic degree. Under this program students may select a junior year optional program in either visual communications, interior design, photography/multimedia or computer animation/multimedia, and then return to Shippensburg University for their senior year.

Art majors at Shippensburg University who wish to enroll in the junior year option at one of the Art Institutes must have junior status and have completed all foundation courses and other required art course work.

Following the completion of one of the above junior year options, students would return to Shippensburg University to complete the senior year of their program. Students electing to enroll in one of these options would, in addition to the 30 credit hours of specialized instruction completed at one of the Art Institutes, also complete all specifically required art courses at Shippensburg (37 credit hours: 22 credit hours of required art courses and 15 credit hours of unrestricted art electives), the prescribed distribution of general education courses (48 credit hours), plus 5 credit hours of free electives at Shippensburg University. The total number of hours required for graduation would remain at 120. Junior option courses would be accepted for transfer upon receipt of an official transcript from the Art Institute (only C grades or above will transfer).

There is also a reciprocal agreement for graduates of an Art Institute. Any student from one of the Art Institutes who has successfully completed a two-year program in either visual communication, interior design, photography/multimedia, or computer animation/multimedia would be accepted into the baccalaureate degree program in art at Shippensburg University. Art Institute graduates would be accepted with 45 credit hours of transferred credits, with C grades or better, applicable toward the 120 credits required for graduation. These students would complete 19 credit hours of art (as determined by the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the chair of the Department of Art and Design) and 48 credit hours of general education course work as required for graduation and 8 credits of free electives.

A visiting student program has been established between Shippensburg University and the Fashion Institute of Technology of New York City, N.Y. This program offers art majors the opportunity to take courses at FIT in order to supplement the art program at Shippensburg University without the necessity of a formal transfer. The areas in which art majors may apply are fashion design, advertising design, textile/surface design, and accessories design. The same policy of transfer credits applies as with the Art Institute previously stated.

Programs

Major

Minor

Art Minor

Certificate

Graphic Design Certificate

Courses

Art and Design