Department of Art + Architecture

Welcome

With accomplished faculty, small studio classes, and an innovative focus on social justice and community engagement, the Department of Art + Architecture holds unique appeal among educational institutions in the Bay Area. Committed to the education of students as whole people, the faculty aims to prepare them for a complex world in which their artistic gifts are needed more than ever. Growing since its inception in 2003 to 300 student majors, the department offers a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Architecture and Community Design, Art History/Arts Management, Fine Arts, or Design. The curriculum is composed of 48 units of broad grounding in the fundamentals of visual art and design, together with upper-division courses in the chosen major.

We recognize the gift of our urban location in San Francisco and encourage students to make the city their classroom. Students are introduced to the field of arts management through a flourishing internship program, and to cutting-edge approaches to the shaping of “green,” sustainably built communities in the architecture program. Highly skilled design faculty lead students into the professional design world of the 21st century with training in the latest technologies and design concepts in our state-of-the art computer laboratories. The fine arts faculty is made up of dynamic and diverse practicing artists offering expertise and mentorship in the mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, and community arts. The focus is on the integration of traditional genres with contemporary applications and concepts.

Students in the department have many opportunities to exhibit their work, share their developing expertise, and interact with professional artists, both on campus and in the community. The university maintains two on-campus galleries. The Crossroads Gallery, located in the University Center, is designated solely for student work. The Mary and Carter Thacher Gallery, located in the Gleeson Library, hosts up to five exhibitions each year, bringing in extraordinary regional and national artists who interact with students and offering opportunities to students to participate in exhibition planning. Every year, the Thacher Gallery collaborates with Arts Management students to produce the Thacher Student Showcase, a juried show featuring juniors and seniors from USF's studio and media arts programs. Other exciting on-campus resources include a sculpture garden, visiting artists programs, and mural projects.

The department also maintains creative working relationships with a number of arts organizations. Students benefit from a partnership with one of the finest museums in the nation, the de Young Museum, located within walking distance in a spectacular new facility in Golden Gate Park through on-site classes, internships, and special events. Mutually enriching collaborations with community non-profit groups expose students to new alternatives to the traditional ways of making a living and a life as an artist, designer, or architect. They design graphic materials for non-profit organizations, curate shows at local galleries, participate in well-recognized public art and design projects, and develop successful art programs for organizations serving those who might otherwise never be able to experience art.

Whether a student plans further training at the graduate level, entry into the professional world, or a self-made life as a fine artist in the studio and in the community, the mission of the department is to provide the foundation for achieving these goals, as well as for the lifelong process of continuing to realize goals still to be imagined.