See the benefits.
Villa Maria’s Integrated Arts program can offer you:
Fundamentals
The art foundation program will be a significant component of your first year, refining your artistic skills in the fundamentals while strengthening an aesthetic sense of visual information. These core courses will provide a base of creative techniques and knowledge of art and its history that will serve as the context for inventive, theoretical work.
Freedom to Explore
You will also explore one or more art specialties in the first year, choosing introductory classes in a chosen media. Study will include studio- and lecture-based courses. A well-rounded education. Liberal arts, science and business courses will support your program of study. A senior seminar course followed by a senior thesis course will integrate the learning experiences and culminate in an interdisciplinary project.
Eclectic Interests
The Integrated Arts program allows you to pursue a defined career path, or to explore eclectic interests prior to committing to a specific set of educational goals. If you’re engaged in different disciplines, you will combine skills and concepts that will be applied in a career in which the arts overlap and produce a synergy that will strengthen your capabilities for the complex art world of today.
World of Opportunity
As part of the program, you’ll complete an internship at an external site. You’ll also benefit from the Buffalo area’s rich artistic community which includes a variety of museums and galleries as well as a number of arts-related businesses and organizations.
See for yourself.
Artists belong at Villa. Whether you know exactly what path you want to take with your art career, or you’re eager to dabble in a range of disciplines, our Integrated Arts program makes it possible to do either. Either way, your first year will be spent building a foundation of creative techniques and knowledge of art and its long history that will inspire and direct the path you ultimately choose to take.
The Career Potential
When you complete the Integrated Arts program, you’ll have the knowledge and skills necessary for career mobility and flexibility in the art world. You can tailor program content to your individual career goals designing, a curriculum that will prepare you for employment in your chosen field within the arts.
Some examples of career paths you can choose include:
- Advertising artist
- Storyboard artist
- Educator
- Film/video animator
- Web designer
- Interactive media designer
- Art director
- Creative director
- Publisher
- Entrepreneur/business owner
- Illustrator
- Multimedia designer
- Graphic designer
- Curator
- Freelance artist
- Freelance photographer
- Art conservator
- Gallery director
- Museum administrator
- Fine artist
- Fashion designer
- Textile designer
- Publication/print media designer
You can also pursue advanced study in a graduate program in Fine Arts or another interdisciplinary art program.
The Facilities
- An animation studio complete with the latest software in Mac and PC platforms.
- A graphic design studio equipped with wide screen Apple computers, drawing tables and specialized printers.
- A dedicated CAD-equipped interior design studio complemented by an interior design resource room.
- Numerous fine art studios for drawing, painting and more.
- A fashion design studio for apparel construction along with Bernina Activa 240 sewing stations.
- A photography computer lab complete with Macs and a large format printer, three darkrooms and a specialized photographic studio space.
- A wood-working shop equipped with quality power and hand tools.
- An on-campus art gallery where students have a variety of options for hanging, framing or displaying their art work. The gallery is home to numerous exhibits during the year for visiting artists, faculty and students. Small open display spaces across from the gallery are also used to exhibit student work.
The Requirements
- At the end of your first year, you, in consultation with art faculty and the career services office, will define a specific goal for continued study. This plan of study will include a statement of purpose and a set of Art courses to be taken as well as Liberal Arts and Business courses that will support your goals.
- The individual student plan of study will be reviewed and approved by your faculty advisor, art department chair, and the VPAA no later than the beginning of the fourth semester or completion of 45 hours of undergraduate study.
- You can also pursue advanced study in a graduate program in Fine Arts or another interdisciplinary art program.
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Integrated Arts Curriculum Requirements
Student Work
Villa students are always making new pieces that demonstrate their creativity and the ability to apply relevant skills in practical environments.
Pencil Rendering • Cheri Beitz
Vector Graphic • Cassidy Smith
Photograph • Kimberly Holtyn
Branding • Jessica Puskar
Lithograph • Christopher Franklin
Oil Painting • Shanel Kerekes
Photograph • Bianca Gullotti
Logo-Development • Gina Griffo
Charcoal • Shelbie Hood
Poster • Carl Hunley
Oil Painting • Maria Liegl
Branding • Samantha Lonczak
Join the family.
There’s a lot of pressure to know what’s next. We’re here to say, it’s OK if you’re still figuring it out. In fact, it’s great. Villa is a place where that kind of continual discovery is prized. Because going to college isn’t about having it all figured out. It’s about inventing who you’re going to become. You’ll see.
