The Foundations Program, our dynamic and innovative first year experience for all freshman and transfer student Art Majors, is unlike any other freshman year art and design program you’ll find. Two integrated, team-taught courses invite students to solve creative problems while working in small groups with faculty from the various sub-disciplines of Design, Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.
Students explore traditional materials and develop basics skills and knowledge, such as observational drawing, color theory and 2D and 3D design, just as they would in many other foundations programs. But in the AU Art Department, our Foundations students go further—they also develop their own unique creative ideation processes, learn to think and express in symbolic modes, and are able to solve complex conceptual problems.
A range of experiences address competencies within the Art Department’s five art major program goals: Exploration of Tools, Materials, and Techniques; Creative Visual Problem Solving; Exploration of Form; Communication; and Investigation of History, Theory and Methodologies. By the end of the challenging, integrated studio sequence, freshmen are well-prepared for successful work in the upper level studio art and design courses.