Imaginative. Impactful. Interdisciplinary.
Program Overview
The Studio Arts program in the Patti & Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance provides students with a comprehensive studio experience that includes both traditional and technology‑based approaches to artmaking. The curriculum emphasizes creative development, technical proficiency, and critical thinking across a broad range of media. We offer a BA in Studio Arts and Technology and a BFA in Integrated Studio Arts which serve very different student goals.
BA in Studio Arts and Technology is designed for students who want to combine studio art with technology, media, or another academic field. It intentionally leaves room for interdisciplinary study and experimentation across disciplines such as digital media, robotics, photography, video, interactive art, and traditional studio practices.
BFA in Integrated Studio Arts is Purdue’s professional fine arts degree, intended for students who want deep, sustained immersion in studio practice and plan to identify primarily as artists. The program emphasizes conceptual development, material mastery, and professional exhibition experience.
Side-by-Side Summary (click here for accessible text alternative)
|
Feature |
BA Studio Arts & Technology |
BFA Integrated Studio Arts |
|
Degree type |
Liberal Arts |
Professional Fine Arts |
|
Portfolio required |
No |
Yes |
|
Studio intensity |
Moderate |
High |
|
Credit flexibility |
High |
Low |
|
Double major friendly |
Yes |
Rare |
|
Focus |
Art + technology + interdisciplinarity |
Studio mastery + professional practice |
|
Typical outcomes |
Creative tech, media, interdisciplinary careers |
MFA, galleries, professional artist paths |
Areas of Study
Ceramics
Ceramics is an area of study that covers physics, chemistry, history, design and fabrication, and is rooted in a comprehensive ability to handle a specific material in various stages. The technical expertise in the ceramics area is firmly established in order to enable the student to use this knowledge to expand into conceptual and fine arts-based work, interdisciplinary work with other media (jewelry, sculpture, industrial design,) and installation work. Ceramics students are encouraged to work with all other area in the Crafts and Material Studies program to expand their ideas and push beyond any perceived boundaries and limitations of the discipline. In their research and art practice, CaMS students interested in ceramics learn the fundamentals of all techniques including throwing on the wheel, hand-building, mold-making and slip-casting, firing in oxidation and reduction (atmospheric) kilns. Students do extensive research into making clay bodies, including earthenware, stoneware, porcelain and casting slips, and glaze calculation. Students are encouraged to make all the surface applications required in a contemporary ceramics fine art practice, including all types of glazes, lusters, decals, screen printing. In addition to ceramics the advanced students are encouraged to experimenting with glass slumping and pate de verre.
WCAG 2.2 Video Alternative Description
Drawing
Purdue’s Drawing students learn to successfully communicate ideas or concepts visually through the use of this direct and immediate form of expression, as well as, through the study of historical and contemporary approaches to drawing. The curriculum first stresses the importance of aesthetic fundamentals and then becomes more open and experimental as students advance. Students employ a variety of traditional and non-traditional drawing materials, and digital technology provides an additional set of potential tools that students are encouraged to explore. With regular feedback from peers and artist/research faculty, students learn to work through the creative problem-solving process and are given the opportunity to develop their own artistic voices through focused studio practice.
Electronic and Time-Based Art
In their research and art practice, ETB students explore the creative and expressive potential of electronic and time-based media such as digital video and sound, real-time computer graphics, interactive digital systems, augmented and virtual reality, physical computing and robotics. The goals of the program are to provide an interdisciplinary laboratory for the exploration and creation of new forms of art, the exchange of ideas and concepts across disciplines and the critical investigation of emerging technologies. The program’s curriculum promotes individual inquiry and collaboration across the different divisions and departments of the Rueff School of Design, Art and Performance (such as Art & Design, Music, Theater and Dance) as well as encouraging and supporting links to academic partners and resources outside of the school.
Jewelry
Students interested in Small Metals and Jewelry learn the fundamental processes in this discipline. Emphasis is placed on mastering foundational metalworking techniques and skills such as sawing, soldering, forming, casting, and stone setting using non-ferrous metals. Working with small metals and jewelry is rewarding. Its traditional, hands-on nature of Small Metals and Jewelry allows students to develop deep focus, dexterity, and discipline and feel the satisfaction of making something tangible and long-lasting with their own two hands.
The field of jewelry and small metals today encompasses a wide variety of metalworking and non-metals processes for making jewelry, sculpture, vessels, mixed-media works, installations and more. An extraordinary variety of materials, from powerfully symbolic to delicate and ephemeral, have historically been used in small metals and jewelry and this mixed media exploration is encouraged.
Painting
In their research and art practice, Painting students explore the creative and expressive potential of painting and hybrid forms of artmaking. The goals of the program are to provide an interdisciplinary studio environment for the exploration and development of a variety of painting media such as oil, encaustic, acrylic, watercolor, assemblage, and alternative materials, the exchange of ideas and concepts across disciplines, and the critical investigation of historical and contemporary concepts and methods. The program’s curriculum promotes individual inquiry and collaboration across painting, printmaking, and drawing, as well as across the different divisions and departments of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, as well as encouraging and supporting links to academic partners and resources across Purdue University at large.
Photography and Related Media
The Studio Arts Photography Area defines photography broadly as a lens-based medium. The curriculum offers a multifaceted approach focusing on contemporary issues in photography discussed through the understanding of a historical and material relationship to fine-art photography. In the Studio Arts and Technology BA and Integrated Studio Arts BFA programs, courses offered include darkroom photography, digital imaging, studio lighting, alternative processes, documentary photography, and constructed image. In these programs, there is an emphasis on developing the student’s perspective within the medium through critique, technical expertise in courses offered, and interdisciplinary exploration.
Printmaking
Contemporary printmaking has evolved into rich and complex art forms. The field includes alternative processes, mixed media and collage. Students are encouraged to express ideas in visual form. The program emphasizes self-exploration, individual expression, conceptual issues, and hybrid art forms. Professional practice is a significant part of the program. Students exhibit their work at Purdue, as well as nationally and internationally. An exciting range of courses in printmaking, silkscreen, relief, etching, lithography, monoprint, digital, are offered. Mixed media, alternative processes, painting, drawing and art history are included. Additional studio courses in computer art, photography, and other media are available as electives. Career positions for arts professionals are available in galleries, museums, education, illustration, publishing prints, selling and exhibiting art.
Sculpture
The sculpture program strongly encourages students to explore, define, and develop personal artistic expression while thinking critically within the context of the world of contemporary sculpture as well as their major area of study. Coursework emphasizes concept development rather than the acquisition of technical skills. The student is permitted to incorporate any materials available to them into their sculpture practice, and an interdisciplinary approach towards including performance and video is highly encouraged.
Textiles
Department of Art and Design Student works Playlist on YouTube