Art, BA

The Bachelor of Arts is a studio-based fine art program that offers an investigation into visual studies and various cultures, giving students a way of developing their own vision of creative practice as well as an understanding of the relationship between form and meaning. To achieve this level of consciousness around arts practice, students are offered a balance between studio courses in drawing/painting and digital media with visual studies courses that focus on the historical, theoretical, and critical interpretation of visual art. This exploration of art methods creates a more visually and conceptually astute student through making. Students’ education, experience, and training in understanding creative practices takes full advantage of the remarkable scope of the College of Arts, Media and Design. Some courses in this program are offered in locations abroad including Iceland, Ireland, Japan, and Galapagos, where students have an intensive and immersive creative experience during five-week summer sessions. 

The Concentration in Art History and Visual Studies examines both the production and public reception of art across regions, contexts, periods, and media, foregrounding arts’ status as both a material artifact and an act of social communication. Courses reflect the active research profiles and professional experience of its distinguished faculty who all prioritize accessibility, collaboration, and cutting-edge research. Lectures and seminars take advantage of Northeastern University's proximity to area museums and cultural centers—including the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts—and campus facilities and initiatives such as Gallery 360 and the Center for the Arts. Other dynamic resources include Northeastern’s own renowned archives offering tangible case studies to consider how criticism coalesces into the historical record. Visual studies introduces students to a broad range of creative careers endemic to the fields of design, publishing, curation, conservation, and scholarship. 

The program uses communal studio space to train students in painting and drawing processes. The department also hosts a fabrication lab that supports a wide range of material-based research for the CAMD community. Beyond the foundation-level courses required for all students, the makerspace provides the resources for prototyping processes ranging from model making, woodworking, CAD, as well as digital fabrication through laser cutting, 3D scanning, and 3D printing.