Art and Design

In the spirit of Keuka College’s historical mission, the major in Art and Design represents a marriage between the personal and the practical. It provides students interested in design, visual expression and digital communication with opportunities for creative development and personal exploration, even as it provides them with the skills and experiences essential to a wide range of careers rooted in an understanding of and facility in the principles of design and visual communication.

The Art and Design program’s unifying core emphasis on the principles of design provides a firm foundation in the fundamentals of visual expression and communication. At the same time, an enhanced emphasis on digital media and graphic design which opens up new, cutting-edge possibilities for students, pointing towards an exciting future. The major provides students with opportunities for interdisciplinary work through an optional concentration in Digital Graphic Design or by choosing to declare a Minor.

Students graduating with a degree in Art and Design will do the following:

1. Demonstrate artistic competence and aesthetic sensitivity in multiple media, including both traditional and emerging media.
2. Demonstrate understanding and application of the terminology, history, and major traditions of visual art and principles of effective design.
3. Demonstrate facility in and understanding of the use of technical, conceptual, and communicative skills essential for activities in the visual arts and application of the principles of effective design.
4. Analyze and interpret a range of possible meanings and purposes in works of visual art and communication and how these might reflect and incorporate some of the principles of effective design, using a variety of critical methodologies and theoretical perspectives.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of technology on the production, dissemination, and reception of the visual arts and demonstrate facility in the use of new media and technology in the design and creation of visual art and various forms of visual communication.