Graduate Catalog

2008-09 Academic Year

College of Visual Arts and Design

Student works on a drawing.

Main Office
Art Building, Room 107
Mailing address:
1155 Union Circle #305100
Denton, TX 76203-5017
940-565-2855

E-mail, Art Education and Art History: aeah@unt.edu

E-mail, Design: design@unt.edu

E-mail, Studio Art: studio@unt.edu

Web site: www.art.unt.edu

Robert W. Milnes, Dean

Bruce Nacke, Interim Associate Dean for Administrative Affairs

Marian O’Rourke-Kaplan, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs

The College of Visual Arts and Design, with more than 2,400 undergraduate and graduate majors combined, is one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive visual arts programs at a public institution.

The college offers degrees in 14 major areas of concentration.

The College of Visual Arts and Design maintains a comprehensive range of professional-level programs in the visual arts for those whose primary interest is art and who intend to make some phase of the scholarship or production of art their life’s work. To achieve this, the College of Visual Arts and Design is staffed with faculty dedicated both to quality teaching and to professional achievement as artists and scholars.

Career opportunities for graduates include employment as professional artists and designers, art teachers, professors and administrators. Career options also include work in art museums and galleries and in art-related positions in business and industry. Library holdings in art include major reference tools and microforms, such as the Marburger Index and Index Photographique de l’Art en France, and comprehensive holdings in art history. Proximity to museum libraries in Dallas and Fort Worth provides access to additional resources.

Teaching fellowships and assistantships are available in all majors. Internships for graduate students may be arranged in communication design, fashion, interior design and museums.

The College of Visual Arts and Design is organized into departments based on the following programs.

Art Education and Art History

The Department of Art Education and Art History offers the BA with majors in art history and in interdisciplinary art and design studies and a BFA degree with a major in visual art studies. The MA is offered in the area of art history, and the MA and PhD degrees are offered in the area of art education. The department offers a graduate academic certificate program in art museum education. Students interested in these degrees may contact the Department of Art Education and Art History in the College of Visual Arts and Design.

Design

The Department of Design offers the BFA degree with majors in communication design, fashion design and interior design and the MFA degree with a major in design and concentrations in communication design, fashion design, innovation studies and interior design. Both the fashion design graduate curriculum and the interior design graduate curriculum focus on the development of creative scholarship. The communication design graduate curriculum is divided into two separate, but related, sequences: pedagogy and studio/research. Students interested in these degrees may contact Cynthia Mohr, chair, Department of Design in the College of Visual Arts and Design.

Studio Art

The Department of Studio Art offers BFA and MFA degrees in studio art with concentrations in ceramics, drawing and painting, fibers, metalsmithing and jewelry, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and watercolor. Students interested in these degrees may contact Jerry Austin, chair, Department of Studio Art in the College of Visual Arts and Design.

Graduate students pursuing the MFA with a studio major may apply for individual studios.

Facilities

The College of Visual Arts and Design offers excellent facilities, including a 90,000-square-foot Art Building with classrooms, computer labs, studios, the University Art Gallery, a visual resources library and a 4,400-square-foot workshop. Oak Street Hall comprises photography, ceramics, graduate studios and the Stafford Art Gallery. The Oak Street Annex houses the Print Research Institute of North Texas Press. Scoular Hall houses a computer-aided design lab, fashion design, fibers, and the Texas Fashion Collection, comprising over 14,000 garments. Bain Hall houses additional graduate studios. Hickory Hall houses printmaking, graduate metals, computer electronic media labs and graduate watercolor.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must meet requirements for admission to the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies. In addition, the College of Visual Arts and Design requires a portfolio review of all applicants for MFA degrees. The portfolio should consist of 20 slides or digital images of recent artwork, at least 10 of which should be in the student’s major area of concentration. Applicants to the MA programs in art history or art education do not have to submit slides; instead, they must submit a recent term paper or a sample of professional writing. Applicants to the PhD program in art education must submit at least two samples of academic or professional writing, or one sample of academic or professional writing and a slide portfolio of approximately 20 appropriately labeled slides of recent artwork. All applicants should submit a brief statement of objectives, a minimum of two letters of recommendation (three letters of recommendation for the PhD program) and scores on the Graduate Record Examination.

Prospective applicants for graduate degree programs must obtain admission forms from the UNT graduate dean and information from the College of Visual Arts and Design. Admission deadlines are as follows:

Students are admitted to the MFA in drawing and painting in fall terms/semesters only. All required materials must be filed by February 1 preceding the fall term/semester for which the student is applying.

Degree Programs

The college offers graduate programs leading to the following degrees:

Concentrations within the MFA are available in ceramics, communication design, drawing and painting, fashion design, fibers, innovation studies, interior design, metalsmithing and jewelry, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and watercolor.

Courses of Instruction

All Courses of Instruction are located in one section at the back of this catalog.

Course and Subject Guide

The “Course and Subject Guide,” found in the Courses of Instruction section of this book, serves as a table of contents and provides quick access to subject areas and prefixes.

Graduate Admissions

(888) UNT-GRAD
(868-4723) (toll-free)
graduateschool@unt.edu

UNT Switchboard

(940) 565-2000