Visual Arts (BFA)
Develop your artistic skills with the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts!
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Visual Arts is a four-year program that prepares you for a range of careers in the Visual Arts, creating engaging and meaningful work.
This degree is a good option if you want to specialize in a particular art form such as ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, but ensures a range of study that permits you to combine multiple disciplines into your emerging, contemporary art practice.
With fewer general education and elective requirements, the program includes more art courses at both introductory and advanced levels. These courses provide a deeper understanding of various art forms as well as their historical and theoretical contexts. The program supports creativity and technical skills through studio practice while promoting critical thinking through classroom instruction.
Graduates from this program have pursued careers as artists, teachers, art dealers, gallery managers, museum/gallery educators, and art technicians.
What is Visual Arts?
Visual Arts are creative forms of art primarily experienced through sight. These include ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and digital media. Through visually engaging works, artists express themselves and reflect on their surroundings, communicating ideas, emotions, or narratives.
What are some courses that Visual Arts students take?
ART 325 - Prairie Landscape Photography
The landscape is particularly resonant subject matter in the prairies and has influenced generations of artists in Saskatchewan. This intermediate level course approaches the genre of landscape with critical attention to the human altered land.
ART 342 - Expressive Painting
Explore brushwork and colour as expressive elements of painting. Projects will involve the figure and other image-based subjects, as well as abstraction and non-objective painting. Group and individual critiques and discussions will be ongoing as will investigation into the work of historic and contemporary painters.
ART 357 - Bronze Casting
Students will learn a process invented over 4000 years ago. Utilizing wax pieces created in ART 356, this class will focus on the next steps in bronze casting: investment molds, kiln firing, pit pouring, bronze casting, welding, and patination.
ART 363 - Kiln Firing and Surfaces
Students will learn how to fire kilns, test and make glazes, produce other surface treatments, and make work that deepens skills and knowledge. Relationships between creative content, surface treatment, and firing processes will be investigated.
ART 372 - Lines and Letters
This intermediate level course examines aesthetic and conceptual implications of ink above and below the level of the printing matrix, through advanced instruction in Intaglio and Letterpress printmaking.
ARTH 301 - Art Theory and Art Criticism
History and practice of critical thought, from the classical notion of beauty to contemporary concerns related to the body, power, race, gender, etc. Students will be introduced to conceptual tools and vocabulary of Marxism, semiotics, psychoanalysis and deconstruction.
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Visual Arts Meet Your Faculty
Why Study Visual Arts at the University of Regina?
The visual arts program provides an environment enriched with cultural activities, including opportunities at local art galleries, field trips to major art centres, artists-in-residence, and visiting artists who share their ideas and concepts through workshops and lectures.
Students benefit from small classes taught by experienced instructors who are also professional artists. Smaller class sizes allow for greater engagement with faculty and peers, as well as easier access to studio equipment, facilities, and resources.
Our bright, spacious, and modern facilities create an ideal learning environment for students.Experiential learning
The Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance offers Professional Placement courses, allowing students to enhance their skills and gain career-related work experiences at local art organizations while earning credits towards their degree.Expert professors and instructors
Our faculty members are professional artists who have achieved success in their fields. Many instructors specialize in the areas they teach, providing students with valuable insights and methods from skilled creators and researchers.Equipment and facilities
Students have access to a range of modern visual arts studio equipment and facilities, including:
- Complete sculpture and wood working facilities
- Gas, electric, and outdoor kilns for ceramics
- A variety of printing presses
- The Art Store, located on campus, equipped with the materials and supplies needed for various art courses
Visual Arts Frequently Asked Questions
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts program is designed for students who want to specialize in a specific art form. The BFA requires 78 credit hours of art courses and has fewer critical competency requirements, allowing students to take more studio and art history courses at the 300- and 400-levels. The program finishes with a graduating group exhibition, where students publicly showcase a selection of final projects and artistic achievements.
The Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts program is ideal for students who want to diversify their studies by exploring a variety of courses outside the visual arts. The BA requires only 54 credit hours of art courses, leaving 30 credit hours available for electives.Yes! There are several scholarships offered to students enrolled in the Department of Visual Arts. These scholarships include:
- Alice Rhea Macredie Scholarship in Visual Arts
- Anthony Kay Scholarship
- Betty L Barootes Scholarship in Visual Arts
- Faculty of MAP Scholarships
- Fine Arts Entrance Scholarships in Visual Arts
- Freda Mesbur Memorial Prize in Visual Arts
- Gene B. Ciuca Memorial Scholarships
- Kiley Carlson Memorial Scholarship
- Kiyomi Annette Shoyama Bursary in Visual Arts
- Martha McConica Entrance Scholarship in Visual Arts
- May Estella Rae Husband Intermedia Award in Visual Arts
- P3A/Dr. Joseph Pettick Memorial Scholarship
- Regina Federation of Artists Scholarship in Visual Arts
- Sadie and Norman Ratner Prize in Visual Arts
- Styles Family Foundation Bursary
Students may participate in the Visual Arts Student Association, exhibit in the Fifth Parallel Art Gallery, or join clubs and activities that are open to all U of R students!
Our students are also encouraged to attend art openings and community events around Regina. These events provide opportunities to meet other art professionals, our university partners, and to visit various art organizations.Visual Arts Optional Concentrations
Ceramics
Students will learn the foundations, history, and techniques focusing on hand-building with clay and will also be exposed to the potter’s wheel, glazing, kiln loading and firing.Drawing
Using a wide range of drawing media such as graphite, charcoal, conté, pen, and ink wash, students will develop observational and creative skills studying still life, figure drawing, and expressive drawing techniques.Painting
Explore painting processes and techniques by referencing historical and contemporary examples. Students will study figures and other image-based subjects, as well as abstraction and non-objective painting.Photography
In this program, students will explore the critical and historical contexts of photography while developing technical expertise in camera operation, image editing software, scanning, and professional printing techniques.Printmaking
Students will gain an understanding of artistic printmaking through hands-on experience with diverse studio techniques and assignments. This is complemented by demonstrations and discussions highlighting the historical, cultural, and social significance of printmaking.Sculpture
Explore studio processes, concepts, and the historical foundations of three-dimensional art. Through the lens of contemporary sculptural practices, students will gain hands-on experience working with diverse materials such as clay, fabric, wood, paper, wire, and more.What Can You Do With a Visual Arts Degree?
Upon successfully completing your Bachelor of Fine Arts Visual Arts degree, you will be ready for the next step in your career. Graduates from our program have pursued roles in film, digital media, advertising, architecture, illustration, and art curation. Recent graduates have also gone on to pursue graduate studies to earn their master's degree in fine arts at various universities across Canada.
To explore minors that may be available in this program area, please visit the Academic Calendar or meet with your faculty advisor in the Academic Advising Office after you are admitted.
Graduates go on to jobs such as:- Art Curator
- Videographer or Photographer
- Art Director
- Art Therapist
- Illustrator
- Fashion Designer
- Graphic Designer
- Teacher or Professor
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