Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Fine Arts
| 1 YEAR Foundation |
| 3 YEARS Fine Arts |
- American-accredited Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Language of instruction: English
Interdisciplinary at its core, the Fine Arts Department operates as a site of artistic research where media, methods, and ideas intersect. The program cultivates expansive studio practices that move between material, conceptual, and technological approaches, supporting the development of individual artistic languages. Embedded within Paris’s dense cultural ecosystem, the department situates studio work within a broader field of institutions, exhibitions, and artistic networks that actively shape creative inquiry
– Véronique Devoldère, Chair of Fine Arts
Set within Paris as an exceptionally rich cultural context, the PCA Fine Arts Department fosters the development of artistic practice through the cultivation of technical skill, creative inquiry, and critical awareness of how contemporary art intersects with visual, cultural, and societal concerns. The program supports the formation of artists whose work is grounded in both historical knowledge and experimental engagement with current practices.
The curriculum provides a strong foundation in artistic traditions through both established and emerging media, supporting expanded capacities for communication, expression, and conceptual development. Traditional practices in drawing, painting, and sculpture are studied in depth alongside extensive explorations in video, installation, performance, photography, and digital imaging. Students select a 2D, 3D, or 4D orientation during the junior year, allowing for focused development while maintaining interdisciplinary flexibility. Elective courses across departments further expand methods, processes, and conceptual approaches, encouraging cross-disciplinary inquiry and the development of individual artistic languages.
The integration of theory and criticism shapes critical, analytical, and reflective modes of thinking and making. Art History and Critical Studies courses, along with critiques, debates, tutorials, and the extensive cultural resources of Paris, support informed engagement with both historical and contemporary art practices. Museum and gallery visits are embedded within the curriculum, positioning direct encounters with artworks, exhibitions, and institutions as a central component of the learning environment.
Through this structure, the program cultivates independent artistic research, interdisciplinary practice, and the development of sustained, critically engaged studio work, situating student practice within a broader cultural, historical, and contemporary framework.
Faculty
Curriculum
Foundation
fall
Ways of Seeing: Drawing or Photography
In the Foundation year, students develop essential observational and visual analysis skills through focused study in drawing and photography. In the fall semester, students majoring in Communication Design, Fashion, Fine Arts, and Interior Design enroll in Drawing I, continuing with Drawing II in the spring. Photography majors take Black and White Photography in the fall, followed by Color Photography in the spring. Students in the Pathways to Paris program complete two consecutive semesters of Drawing.
Materials and Dimensions I
This course introduces students to material processes across 2D, 3D, and Photography. Throughout the semester, students rotate through three disciplinary areas, spending approximately one month in each. A shared theme connects the projects, enabling ideas and skills to develop progressively across the course.
Students participate in interdisciplinary critiques and gain hands-on experience with tools, materials, and making processes. Workshops may include book-making, basic printmaking, black-and-white photographic printing, an introduction to space and form, and the safe operation of woodworking machinery.
City as Studio
Students explore their immediate neighbourhood and the city at large as a site of inspiration. The city and its spaces become an extended classroom. Students respond to a theme designed to encourage interaction and integration with their surroundings and new, unexpected ways of looking at their environment. Site visits, walks, lectures, readings, and practical exercises guide students through different approaches to the creative process with the aim that they develop their own methodologies and engage with the city as potential artists and/or designers. In the final project, students respond to the brief using the medium of their choice.
Introduction to Digital Media I
This course aims to equip all first year students with the necessary skills and confidence to be able to use digital tools. The curriculum is project-led and structured so that students can apply their growing skill-set to realize their ideas. All projects are contextualized with examples of work by contemporary artists and designers who are working with digital media. Students are introduced to the possibilities for digital tools as part of their creative work.
Introduction to Art & Design
This course aims to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation of various visual art forms. It fosters the ability to closely analyze visual materials and explore the range of questions and methods used to examine and interpret artworks. Moreover, the course emphasizes understanding art as a visual language and encourages students to express their understanding verbally, both orally and in writing. The course is structured around four thematic modules that correspond to specific geographical locations and major art historical periods. These modules do not provide comprehensive surveys of the art of each culture or era. Instead, they concentrate on specific themes and objects to enhance our understanding and appreciation of visual art forms.
Critical Thinking & Writing I
This year-long course is designed to improve critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students learn to understand the inherent argument and logic of a text, to think more systematically and critically, and to write more effectively by developing skills in the structure, grammar, and mechanics of writing. Students also work toward the more focused goal of situating design and art practices within larger intellectual, historical and philosophical frameworks by exploring the indissoluble connection between ideas and the products of human culture. This is achieved by introducing students to texts representing and describing various methodologies applicable to art and design, which can then be used to critique and analyze visual and material artifacts.
spring
Ways of Seeing: Drawing or Photography
In the Foundation year, students develop essential observational and visual analysis skills through focused study in drawing and photography. In the fall semester, students majoring in Communication Design, Fashion, Fine Arts, and Interior Design enroll in Drawing I, continuing with Drawing II in the spring. Photography majors take Black and White Photography in the fall, followed by Color Photography in the spring. Students in the Pathways to Paris program complete two consecutive semesters of Drawing.
Introduction To Digital Media II
Students develop projects with a growing complexity, employing the computer less as a tool and more as a medium to be manipulated with greater confidence and control. The aim of the course is to create an awareness of the potential for digital techniques to solve visual and communication problems. Advanced skills are taught during the Semester that support and encourage an ambitious approach to the digital field. Students integrate digital and non-digital practice and explore mixing different softwares and media. All projects are contextualized with examples of work by contemporary artists and designers who are working with digital media. By the end of the course all students are confident to use digital tools as part of their creative work.
Materials & Dimensions II
Depending on the individual student’s interests they will enroll in either the 2D or 3D focus of Materials and Dimensions II:
Materials and Dimensions II: Printmaking
Building on the practical knowledge acquired in ‘Materials and Dimensions I’, students develop their ideas with more autonomy, through more personal projects, whilst being supported by the technical expertise of their instructor.
The course focuses on the relationship between design, process and final outcome in two dimensions through color. Students are taught to search for the most effective and pertinent way to communicate their ideas.
Through printmaking explorations students investigate image-making as a multi-layered creative process that enables them to transform and push their work forward in all areas of 2-dimensional image-making.
Materials and Dimensions II: Photography
Building on the practical knowledge acquired in ‘Materials and Dimensions I’, students develop their ideas with more autonomy, through more personal projects, whilst being supported by the technical expertise of their instructors.
The course focuses on the relationship between design, process and final outcome in two dimensions in photography. Students are taught to search for the most effective and pertinent way to communicate their ideas.
Explorations of analog and digital techniques encourage students to investigate image-making as a multi-layered creative process which will enable them to transform and push their work forward in all areas of 2-dimensional image-making.
Materials and Dimensions II: 3D
Building on the practical knowledge acquired in ‘Materials and Dimensions I’, develop their ideas with more autonomy whilst being supported by the technical expertise of their instructors.
With a specific focus on ‘The Body’ students are introduced to the many ways that the human form is central to art and design practices, whether it is in the design of clothes, products, buildings, or furniture. Students gain an understanding of the different possibilities for 3D Design (architecture, fashion, product design, furniture, fine art sculpture).
Projects are based on investigations into how the physical structure, dimensions, and the functions of the human body inspire and direct the design of forms. The influence of context and environment on the generation and development of ideas will be essential to the work. Students experiment with the potential and limitations of materials and different material combinations through a study of color.
Foundation Year Departmental Elective
In addition to the required curriculum, in the spring semester students are encouraged to take an elective in the area of study they are considering entering in sophomore year. The Chair of Foundationwill advise students individually according to their interests.
Paris Yesterday and Tomorrow
This course acquaints students with the neighborhoods, cultures, people, customs, institutions and organizations in Paris through a thematic approach based on three main modules: the city and its history; the literary and artistic representations of the city; the city, its citizens, and its future. Students will learn about key moments in French history, from the Romans on, via the Middle Ages, the Revolution, Haussmannization, and May 1968; they will be introduced to such themes as political migrations and colonialism, and will explore the city from a variety of points of views including literary and artistic exchanges, urban history, architecture, and ecology. Active exploration of the environment is strongly encouraged and learning is accomplished through a variety of means: site visits, the examination of texts and images, and first-hand encounters with museums, galleries, and libraries, as well as other art and design-related resources in the city.
Critical Thinking & Writing II
This year-long course is designed to improve critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Students learn to understand the inherent argument and logic of a text, to think more systematically and critically, and to write more effectively by developing skills in the structure, grammar, and mechanics of writing. Students also work toward the more focused goal of situating design and art practices within larger intellectual, historical and philosophical frameworks by exploring the indissoluble connection between ideas and the products of human culture. This is achieved by introducing students to texts representing and describing various methodologies applicable to art and design, which can then be used to critique and analyze visual and material artifacts.
Sophomore Year
fall
Sophomore Studio I
The Sophomore Studio I course introduces students to contemporary studio practices, pushing their foundational understanding of art towards a practical engagement which gives them the space to begin to build their own studio
practice. Learning from artistic concepts spanning the 1970s avant-garde to current practices, students explore how artists use strategies like appropriation, narrative construction, and intervention, and apply these frameworks to the development of their own work through a focus on material exploration, experimentation, and risk taking. Through a cross-media and cross-form approach, students develop technical skills across various mediums and disciplines. Through structured assignments that balance guidance with creative freedom, students learn about different concept development methods and begin to more deeply investigate the relationship between idea, execution, and form. Students learn to engage critically with current discourses and artistic trends, beginning to identify their own interests and concerns, and pulling these towards the development of their work. Regular critiques and presentations help students learn to discuss artistic work, fostering peer dialogue and helping students develop their ability to discuss their artistic work within a professional context. By semester’s end, students complete multiple finalized pieces demonstrating their developing technical abilities and conceptual engagement.
Sophomore Sculpture I
The course will revolve around presentations and assignments to create a platform for analyzing your own emerging practice and learning how to pinpoint and develop themes from within it. The second half of the course will encourage the development of your personal areas of interest through dialogue, peer review and personal tutorial. Sculpture will be approached as a process of materializing and actualizing connection to Spaces and Objects (including politics, humans, histories…) and will reassess classical connotations of sculptural form by opening them to a wider range of issues coming from video, architecture, document and research approaches to art-making.
Prerequisites : Foundation Core studios
Sophomore Drawing I
The Sophomore Drawing I studio-based course explores drawing within contemporary fine art practices, building on existing technical knowledge while introducing experimental approaches to the medium. Students investigate drawing as concept, subject matter, and source for developing personal expressive language. Workshops focus on the conceptual and contextual frameworks of the drawing process, examining how mark-making and visual vocabulary emerge through experimentation with unfamiliar materials and processes. Emphasis is placed on building an individual inventory of lines, forms, and visual signs through conscious and unconscious creative approaches. Students explore the physicality and flexibility of drawing mediums and surfaces, engaging with notions of context, scale, and intensity. Research methods are introduced to support project development and encourage critical engagement with ideas and each assignment introduces conceptual frameworks and artistic references that guide students’ experimental work while allowing maximum creative freedom. The course encourages discovery and the unexpected, providing a terrain for accident and invention that differs from linear or logical creative processes.
Prerequisites : Foundation Core studios
Moving Image I
The Moving Image I studio-based course introduces the moving image as both an artistic language and a space for technical experimentation. Drawing on film theory, video art, digital media, and contemporary art practices, students explore montage and long takes, narrative construction, appropriation, artistic intervention, and genre-based experimentation. They acquire practical skills in Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects to produce and share moving-image work. Practical exercises include shooting and editing video, screen recording, desktop performance, looping GIFs and cinemagraphs, time-lapse, working with found footage, rotoscoping, and stop-motion. Projects are contextualised through examples by contemporary artists working with moving images. Screenings and readings are paired with weekly mini-assignments, ensuring that theory directly informs practice. The course foregrounds collaboration, research, oral presentation, and professional studio methods. Editing is introduced as a creative and technical practice, with attention to how images are assembled and experienced. By the end of the course, students are expected to demonstrate a foundational understanding of moving-image language, basic technical proficiency in editing workflows, and the ability to develop and articulate short experimental works.
Prerequisite: Foundation Core studios
Introduction To Visual Culture
This interdisciplinary course explores the rise of visual media, communication and information, within the context of a broad cultural shift away from the verbal and textual toward the visual, which has taken place since the advent of photography and cinema in the late 19th century, through the birth of television, to the present proliferation of digital media worldwide. We will consider the critical practices of looking, historicizing and interpreting that have accompanied this ‘visual turn’. Our readings will primarily address the theoretical foundations of the study of visual culture, which is understood to incorporate a variety of visual media and visual technologies: painting and sculpture, scientific imagery, material culture, the internet. If everything can be visual culture, what remains of traditional notions of medium specificity? What critical tools must be invented to analyze visual events from a visual cultural perspective? The relationship between the visual arts and visual media, especially with respect to the ‘global’ contemporary visual landscape, will be a focus of this course.
spring
Sophomore Studio 2
Building upon concepts introduced in Sophomore Studio I, this course offers an in-depth exploration of fine arts media through process-driven and research-oriented studio practices. Students advance their understanding of material inquiry and sustained artistic investigation, working through assignments conceived as interconnected contexts rather than isolated projects.
The course emphasizes the development of a cohesive body of work over the semester, allowing ideas, materials, and forms to evolve through repetition, revision, and critical reflection. Students engage in both short-term experimentation and long-term research, learning to revisit, transform, and challenge their work across different stages.
Through continued studio production, theoretical research, artistic references, presentations, and critiques, students deepen their conceptual and technical engagement while developing the language to articulate their processes, work, and ideas using
references, keywords, and reflective analysis, demonstrating a maturing understanding of studio practice. The course establishes an understanding of creative practice as an extended, iterative process, preparing students for increasingly independent and ambitious studio work in their continued studies.
Prerequisites: Foundation Core studios/2D Studio 1
Sophomore Sculpture II
Following the first semester’s discussions on independent practice, the spring semester will focus on strengthening students’ personal artistic language and ability to locate and isolate relevant research topics either through intuitive, logical or thematic thinking.
Sculpture will be approached as a process of materializing and actualizing connection to Spaces and Objects (including politics, humans, histories…) and will reassess classical connotations of sculptural form by opening them to a wider range of issues coming from video, architecture, document and research approaches to art-making.
Prerequisites: Foundation Core studios/Sophomore Sculpture 1
Sophomore Drawing II
Building upon concepts introduced in Sophomore Studio I, this studio-based course offers an in-depth exploration of fine arts media through process-driven and research-oriented studio practices. Students advance their understanding of material inquiry and sustained artistic investigation, working through assignments conceived as interconnected contexts rather than isolated projects. The course emphasizes the development of a cohesive body of work over the semester, allowing ideas, materials, and forms to evolve through repetition, revision, and critical reflection. Students engage in both short-term experimentation and long-term research, learning to revisit, transform, and challenge their work across different stages. Through continued studio production, theoretical research, artistic references, presentations, and critiques, students deepen their conceptual and technical engagement while developing the language to articulate their processes, work, and ideas using references, keywords, and reflective analysis, demonstrating a maturing understanding of studio practice. The course establishes an understanding of creative practice as an extended, iterative process, preparing students for increasingly independent and ambitious studio work in their continued studies.
Prerequisites: Foundation Core studios/Sophomore Drawing 1
Liberal Studies Electives
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Math/Science Elective
Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Junior Year Option — 2D Focus
fall
Studio Concepts I
The Studio Concepts I studio-based course challenges students to explore diverse and unknown creative processes spanning all media and form, from painting and drawing to photography, video, sculpture, installation, and experimental propositions. The course encourages students to develop ideas that emerge spontaneously through experimentation and process-oriented investigation. Students work across disciplines, researching and testing approaches that may be unfamiliar, while learning to justify and document their conceptual development through critical engagement with contemporary art discourse. Projects emphasize the relationship between concept and process, encouraging students to develop context and ideas through hands-on exploration. The course introduces various models of studio practice, from traditional workspace-based approaches to practices requiring minimal infrastructure and “Hors le Mur” investigations like the search for ideas outside conventional studio settings. Through practical classes, guided research, and exposure to professional artistic methods, students experience how contemporary artists develop work from initial conception to realization. The course aims to enable students to create individual and critical responses to ideas and tasks while establishing connections between their investigations and their evolving personal practice. Regular critiques and discussions support students in constructing and deconstructing their chosen areas of focus.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios
Painting: Interactions I
In order to evolve and discover new pictorial horizons painting today must remain open to the possibility of a dialogue with the wide range of multidisciplinary influences that are available. Where once the field of exploration was defined by the rigueur and strict dictates of a formal training.
The strength of painting today lies in its flexibility to use such training and adapt to the influences of other 2D and 3D disciplines and the pictorial possibilities that they offer as art experience. The possibility to create an art experience through research, experimentation and interaction are the key components in the junior year in painting. With this as a core component the dynamics of painting are explored through a variety of set projects designed to stimulate the individual imagination.
Prerequisites: Sophomore year painting
Creative & Experimental Drawing
The Creative and Experimental Drawing studio-based course focuses on drawing as a process of investigation and experimental practice, encouraging students to discover new forms of expression, possibilities for mixing media, and ways to appropriate the act of drawing. Through workshops and assignments, students explore drawing beyond conventional approaches, engaging with perception, materiality, and process in unexpected ways. The course draws inspiration from diverse models, including surprising examples from nature and science, to encourage students to dismiss purely rational thinking and locate artistic activity at the intersection of sensory experience and material exploration. Students investigate different senses, attentiveness to unexpected effects, and the impact of evaluation during the creative process. The first half of the course introduces experimental methods and enriches students’ toolboxes for working with materials, situations, processes, and contexts. In the second half, students develop individual experimental projects, consolidating methods for sustaining experimental workflows in their broader artistic practice. The course includes collaborative exercises, events both inside and outside the school, generating new ways of thinking about drawing’s expanded possibilities.
Prerequisites: Sophomore year drawing, advanced drawing skills
Image Semiotics
Art History Elective
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
spring
Studio Concepts 2
Building upon the investigative approaches introduced in Studio Concepts I, this studio-based course advances students’ understanding of studio practices through a rhizomatic approach that addresses the complexity of contemporary artistic production. Students work practically, producing work through methodologies aligned with professional artistic practice while exploring different conceptual models of the studio itself. The course examines practices requiring minimal infrastructure alongside traditional studio formats and expanded “Hors le Mur” approaches, where ideas are sought through urban exploration, site visits, and engagement with contexts beyond the studio walls. Students study concrete examples of exhibition production, from initial conception and sketches through technical development, simulation, and final realization. The course continues to challenge students to explore creative processes across all media while deepening their ability to justify conceptual decisions and document developmental processes. Students refine their capacity to create individual and critical responses to ideas spanning all disciplines, strengthening the underlying connections between their investigations and their personal artistic practice through sustained engagement and reflection.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios/Studio Concepts 1
Painting: Interactions II
In order to evolve and discover new pictorial horizons painting today must remain open to the possibility of a dialogue with the wide range of multidisciplinary influences that are available. Where once the field of exploration was defined by the rigour and strict dictates of a formal training, the strength of painting today lies in its flexibility to use such a training and adapt to the influences of other 2D and 3D disciplines and the pictorial possibilities that they offer as art experience. The possibility to create an art experience through research, experimentation and interaction are the key components in the junior year in painting. With this as a core component the dynamics of painting are explored through a variety of set projects designed to stimulate the individual imagination.
Prerequisites: Sophomore year painting/Painting Interactions 1
Studio Elective in 2D
You may select a studio elective focusing on 2D from the various offerings in
the Fine Arts department.
Liberal Studies Electives
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Junior Year Option — 3D Focus
fall
Studio Concepts I
The Studio Concepts I studio-based course challenges students to explore diverse and unknown creative processes spanning all media and form, from painting and drawing to photography, video, sculpture, installation, and experimental propositions. The course encourages students to develop ideas that emerge spontaneously through experimentation and process-oriented investigation. Students work across disciplines, researching and testing approaches that may be unfamiliar, while learning to justify and document their conceptual development through critical engagement with contemporary art discourse. Projects emphasize the relationship between concept and process, encouraging students to develop context and ideas through hands-on exploration. The course introduces various models of studio practice, from traditional workspace-based approaches to practices requiring minimal infrastructure and “Hors le Mur” investigations like the search for ideas outside conventional studio settings. Through practical classes, guided research, and exposure to professional artistic methods, students experience how contemporary artists develop work from initial conception to realization. The course aims to enable students to create individual and critical responses to ideas and tasks while establishing connections between their investigations and their evolving personal practice. Regular critiques and discussions support students in constructing and deconstructing their chosen areas of focus.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios
Junior Sculpture I
The Junior Sculpture I studio-based course introduces students to key issues in contemporary sculpture while providing the technical and conceptual means to develop a personal artistic language and identity. Students engage with sculpture as an exploratory medium, experimenting with different approaches, materials, and concepts that extend beyond traditional definitions of the form. The course encourages investigation of technical skills necessary for conceiving and executing sculptural work across various scales and contexts. Through structured assignments and ongoing studio practices, students explore how identity forms gradually through time, memory, language, and place, concepts that may become material for sculptural investigation. Students examine how sculpture and installation can serve as tools to explore personal and cultural layers, investigating the relationship between material choices, form, and meaning. The course considers how textures, gestures, and spatial relationships can evoke experience without relying solely on narrative or figurative representation. Over the semester, students develop and pursue a personal sensibility within their artistic research, building confidence in making conceptual and formal choices. Regular critiques and discussions contextualize student work within contemporary sculpture practices while encouraging individual artistic development.
Prerequisites : Sophomore Sculpture
Ceramic Sculpture: Materials
This studio-based course will focus on the making of sculptural form and installation work with clay, in the art context, and shall encourage the use of varied mediums and materials to combine with clay. It is based on the exploration of different subject matters and the acquisitions of technical skills. This second semester will be focusing on production of sculptural or installation works.? The program is set up to help each student to develop a personal vision through sculpture and installation in clay: – By discussing their motivations and contextualizing their work. – By developing their abilities to choose the most suitable technique and the most appropriate medium to use for a project.
Prerequisites: Sophomore year sculpture
Image Semiotics
Art History Elective
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
spring
Studio Concepts 2
Building upon the investigative approaches introduced in Studio Concepts I, this studio-based course advances students’ understanding of studio practices through a rhizomatic approach that addresses the complexity of contemporary artistic production. Students work practically, producing work through methodologies aligned with professional artistic practice while exploring different conceptual models of the studio itself. The course examines practices requiring minimal infrastructure alongside traditional studio formats and expanded “Hors le Mur” approaches, where ideas are sought through urban exploration, site visits, and engagement with contexts beyond the studio walls. Students study concrete examples of exhibition production, from initial conception and sketches through technical development, simulation, and final realization. The course continues to challenge students to explore creative processes across all media while deepening their ability to justify conceptual decisions and document developmental processes. Students refine their capacity to create individual and critical responses to ideas spanning all disciplines, strengthening the underlying connections between their investigations and their personal artistic practice through sustained engagement and reflection.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios/Studio Concepts 1
Junior Sculpture 2
Building upon the investigative approaches introduced in Studio Concepts I, this studio-based course advances students’ understanding of studio practices through a rhizomatic approach that addresses the complexity of contemporary artistic production. Students work practically, producing work through methodologies aligned with professional artistic practice while exploring different conceptual models of the studio itself. The course examines practices requiring minimal infrastructure alongside traditional studio formats and expanded “Hors le Mur” approaches, where ideas are sought through urban exploration, site visits, and engagement with contexts beyond the studio walls. Students study concrete examples of exhibition production, from initial conception and sketches through technical development, simulation, and final realization. The course continues to challenge students to explore creative processes across all media while deepening their ability to justify conceptual decisions and document developmental processes. Students refine their capacity to create individual and critical responses to ideas spanning all disciplines, strengthening the underlying connections between their investigations and their personal artistic practice through sustained engagement and reflection.
Prerequisites: Sophomore year sculpture/Junior Sculpture1
3D Studio Elective
You may select a studio elective focusing on 3D from the various offerings in
the Fine Arts department.
Liberal Studies Electives
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Junior Year Option — 4D Focus
fall
Studio Concepts I
The Studio Concepts I studio-based course challenges students to explore diverse and unknown creative processes spanning all media and form, from painting and drawing to photography, video, sculpture, installation, and experimental propositions. The course encourages students to develop ideas that emerge spontaneously through experimentation and process-oriented investigation. Students work across disciplines, researching and testing approaches that may be unfamiliar, while learning to justify and document their conceptual development through critical engagement with contemporary art discourse. Projects emphasize the relationship between concept and process, encouraging students to develop context and ideas through hands-on exploration. The course introduces various models of studio practice, from traditional workspace-based approaches to practices requiring minimal infrastructure and “Hors le Mur” investigations like the search for ideas outside conventional studio settings. Through practical classes, guided research, and exposure to professional artistic methods, students experience how contemporary artists develop work from initial conception to realization. The course aims to enable students to create individual and critical responses to ideas and tasks while establishing connections between their investigations and their evolving personal practice. Regular critiques and discussions support students in constructing and deconstructing their chosen areas of focus.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios
4D Studio: Video I
The 4D Studio I is a project‑based studio course that introduces students to contemporary hybrid practices at the intersection of fine arts and technology. The course provides foundational instruction in new media art, time‑based media, and emerging artistic frameworks, with an emphasis on how artistic practice engages with technological culture and contemporary social contexts.
Through a structured progression from initial ideation to fully realized projects, students develop foundational technical competencies while exploring a range of production methodologies. Instruction introduces diverse technologies and processes—including interaction design, introductory programming, artificial intelligence, and robotics—alongside media forms such as video, three‑dimensional environments, and electroacoustic work. Technical exploration is integrated with critical inquiry, supporting students in developing reflective, research‑informed approaches to artistic production.
Teaching is delivered through face‑to‑face, one‑to‑one studio instruction in the instructor’s studio, providing individualized mentorship that supports skill development, conceptual clarity, and professional studio practice. By the end of the course, students demonstrate an introductory level of proficiency in four‑dimensional artistic processes and an emerging ability to articulate artistic intent within contemporary technological discourse.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Video 1 & 2
Art Beyond The Human: Creative Collaborations
The Art Beyond The Human: Creative Collaborations studio-based course is a hands-on art course exploring multispecies creativity, material storytelling, and ecological entanglements. How can art move beyond human perspectives to engage with the living, material, and technological worlds around us? Art Beyond the Human is a practical course that invites artists, designers, and creative thinkers to explore collaborative and experimental approaches to making art with and for non-human entities. Through workshops, discussions, and individual projects, students investigate how plants, fungi, animals, objects, and materials can become active participants in the creative process. The course blends artistic experimentation, ecological thinking, and speculative storytelling to challenge traditional notions of authorship, agency, and representation. Students engage with contemporary discourse surrounding multispecies practices, material agency, and ecological art while developing projects that test boundaries between human intention and non-human participation. Through practical experimentation and critical reflection, students explore what creative collaboration might mean when extended beyond human-to-human interaction, developing work that considers how art practices can acknowledge, engage with, and respond to the more-than-human world.
Art History Elective
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Image Semiotics
spring
Studio Concepts 2
Building upon the investigative approaches introduced in Studio Concepts I, this studio-based course advances students’ understanding of studio practices through a rhizomatic approach that addresses the complexity of contemporary artistic production. Students work practically, producing work through methodologies aligned with professional artistic practice while exploring different conceptual models of the studio itself. The course examines practices requiring minimal infrastructure alongside traditional studio formats and expanded “Hors le Mur” approaches, where ideas are sought through urban exploration, site visits, and engagement with contexts beyond the studio walls. Students study concrete examples of exhibition production, from initial conception and sketches through technical development, simulation, and final realization. The course continues to challenge students to explore creative processes across all media while deepening their ability to justify conceptual decisions and document developmental processes. Students refine their capacity to create individual and critical responses to ideas spanning all disciplines, strengthening the underlying connections between their investigations and their personal artistic practice through sustained engagement and reflection.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios/Studio Concepts 1
4D Studio: Video 2
4D Studio II builds directly upon the technical, conceptual, and methodological foundations established in 4D Studio I. This project‑based course advances students’ engagement with contemporary hybrid practices at the intersection of fine arts and technology by developing more complex, independent, and conceptually rigorous studio projects.
Students apply and extend prior technical competencies while engaging in advanced production methodologies, including interaction design, programming, artificial intelligence, and robotics, across media forms such as video, three‑dimensional environments, performance, and electroacoustic practices. The course introduces expanded approaches to time‑based and spatial work, including live video production, live performance, and interactive installation, with critical attention to temporal modalities such as real‑time, deferred, linear, and non‑linear processes and their impact on spatial relationships and audience experience.
Through an extended project development cycle from ideation to completion, students integrate technical experimentation with sustained critical inquiry, demonstrating increased autonomy, risk‑taking, and conceptual resolution. Emphasis is placed on professional studio practice, iterative refinement, and critical reflection. By the conclusion of the course, students produce mature four‑dimensional artworks that evidence advanced technical execution, conceptual coherence, and a developed personal artistic direction responsive to contemporary technological culture.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios & Digital skills
4D Studio Elective
You may select a studio elective focusing on 4D from the various offerings in
the Fine Arts department.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Core Studios & Digital skills
Liberal Studies Electives
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
Senior Year
fall
Senior Studio Exploration
This first semester will engage in the development of individual and collective projects structured around a series of lectures/critics/discussions. The aim is to help students develop studio practices that stem from a process of research and development. The structure of the semester will create a supportive space for continuous exchange of views; encouraging students to develop skills and methods for articulating ideas in speech and work presentation. Various practical exercises on distinct thematics will punctuate the course for students to experiment with new mediums and thought processes. The seminar format and subject will change every two to three weeks including some reading suggestions, exhibition visits, and group critiques of student works to encourage a sense of community and sharing of experiences.
Senior Studio Concepts
The Senior Studio Concepts course challenges and encourages the students to consolidate their ideas and personal working processes. The course will help students to negotiate the development of an independent studio practice, respecting their chosen focus and with emphasis on advanced research methodologies.
A course designed to support each student within their artistic practice and projects, through regular individual and group tutorials. A studio course based on research, process, the actual making and contextualization of their work within a given reality, space, or “white cube” situation. A course, encouraging new ways of making, revealing experimentation, developing ideas until the students feel confident to engage with professional realities.
Workshops, gallery visits, relevant museum exhibitions will help students to situate their own practice within the contemporary art context.
Prerequisites: Junior Core Studios
Senior Thesis
This seminar provides the theoretical and methodological foundation necessary for completing a senior thesis in the departments of Fine Arts, Photography, Communication Design, Interior Design and Design Management. Over the course of the semester, students will continue to conduct research and write their thesis for the Bachelor degree. The Senior Thesis course includes individual and group tutorials, peer assessments, and research and writing workshops. This course is intended to guide students through the final stages of the thesis (from finalizing the written submission to preparing the oral defence) and it seeks to make the thesis process and oral defence as painless (and, ideally, as enjoyable) as possible.
Studio Elective
You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.
Liberal Studies Electives
You may select an elective from the many liberal studies course offerings. Go to the Liberal Studies department page for more information.
spring
Senior Studio Realization
Studio Realization will continue to create a supportive space for the exchange of views and ideas and will be dedicated towards practical working sessions for the end of the year degree projects. Individual tutorials and group critiques will help support your research and project development for the final juried exhibition. Through regular discussions, students will have to prepare how to present and promote work individually and collectively for the audience? How to build a strategy for an eventual presentation of the work in an exhibition? Students will be informed about the main actors of the development of their careers illustrated by selected examples of curators, artists, institutions, and private foundations.
Prerequisites: Junior Core Studios.
Senior Degree Project
The Senior Degree Project course challenges and encourages students to consolidate their ideas and personal working processes. The course will help students to negotiate the development of independent studio practice, respecting their chosen focus and with emphasis on advanced research methodologies. In the spring semester, the students will be encouraged to develop their personal practice and research to build a body of work for the final senior degree exhibition. The course is studio-based and relies on the actual research and the making, as well as the desired final presentation, or curatorial concerns. Projects “in situ”/”site-specific”, conceptual or non-material, abstract or concrete, performance, installation, multimedia…the student will be encouraged to explore any media within their artistic practice and choices and develop their ideas until they feel confident to engage with the work and public presentation.
Prerequisites: Junior Core Studios/Senior Studio Concepts
Studio Electives
You may select an elective from the many course offerings in your department or in other departments with the approval of your department chair.
Senior Portfolio Development
The Portfolio Development class focuses on student’s research skills based upon the first semester written thesis paper to be combined with their final degree project. Its purpose is to improve each student’s capacity to express the relationship between their visual/text-based research and studio practice. Working on their personal identity and projects, the class will concentrate on the student’s portfolio, as well as consider issues of self-editing, display and public presentation. Areas covered will include portfolio content, presentation ideas and practical solutions, self-branding, biography, artist statements, business cards and portfolio leave-behind cards. It also includes preparation for graduate degree applications, grants, residencies and specific professional competitions.
This course seeks to provide in-depth information and hands-on practice in developing the visual, textual, and oral aspects of portfolio presentation. We will look at content, selection and presentation of artwork. Students will learn the basics of writing methodologies for artist statements, project proposals, curriculum vitae building, grant applications, and more. Students will be taught to conduct effective research on potential opportunities, and learn the importance of tailoring their presentation to meet the specific requirements of each endeavor. Weekly mandatory homework assignments will offer ample practice and necessary feedback for progress, fine-tuning, and perfection of the students’ presentation skills.
We will examine how to navigate databases, websites and/or publications in order to locate opportunities consistent with the student’s art form, objectives and career goals: exhibition calls (solo, group, juried), calls for projects, artist and educative residencies, as well as other professional opportunities in France, Europe, and abroad. The “dos and don’ts” of the trade will be addressed, including how to avoid pitfalls and scams. Portfolio presentation and promotion of one’s artwork will be examined, spanning from a virtual (digital) perspective (websites, social media, registries) to face-to-face meetings with galleries, exhibition spaces, curators, and collectors. The fundamentals of print solutions will be invoked.
Fine Arts Thesis Titles
Recent graduates in Fine Arts have written theses on the following topics:
- “What Micro Art Imposes on the Viewer – Nano Spectrum,” Etryscan Avygnon
- “Stitching Stories: Textile Art as a Medium of Social Commentary,” Jaime Campbell
- “I Think Ur A Contra: Vampire Weekend, Twilight and Progressive Neoliberalism,” Sam Holzberg
- “Masonic Propaganda in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis,” Mercedes Loyd
- “Archives and Art: Process, Structure and Ambiguity,” Yigu Lu
- “Art as a Catharsis for the Childhood Trauma of Contemporary Artists,” Miranda Mazuki
- “Weaving Identity: Hair in Contemporary Art,” Kalyani Mukkudakattil
- “The Hidden Roots of Japanese Manga and Anime,” Ryoto Oe
- “The Equivalence of Fine Art and Furniture Design,” Mia Isabel Domenech Puras
- “Romanticizing Realism: The Personal Narratives of Jonas Mekas and Pina Bausch,” Tara Tess Vatanpour
- “Contemporary Artists Combat Food Waste,” Electra Winter
- “Unraveling the “Meaning of Life” in Contemporary Art,” Chuhui Xi
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