With highly specialized and diversified curricula, and degree and certificate programs in Art Education, Art History, Graphic Design, Illustration/Animation, and multiple Studio Art disciplines all under one roof, the School of Art at CSULB is the largest publicly funded university School of Art in the United States, and is the flagship of visual arts education, scholarship, and practice in the CSU system. It is also the first School of Art in the CSU system to offer the MFA degree, and the first public university School of Art in California to be accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.
The School of Art is among the most comprehensive and diverse to be found in any college, university, or art school in the country, public or private. At the undergraduate level, the department offers BA degree programs in Art Education, Art History, and Studio Art, plus eight specialized BFA degree programs in 3D Media (Fiber, Metal & Jewelry, Wood), Ceramics, Drawing & Painting, Graphic Design, Illustration/Animation, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture/4D. At the graduate level, the department offers MA degree programs in Art Education, Art History, and Studio Art, and the MFA degree program in Studio Art. In addition to its degree programs, the department is home to certificate programs in Museum and Curatorial Studies, and Biomedical Illustration. The department also partners with the CSULB Single Subject Teacher Education program to prepare students for the Single Subject Credential for teaching art in California elementary, middle, and high schools.
The School of Art is dedicated to its mission of creating a comprehensive art-school experience within the context of a large publicly funded state university. At the undergraduate level, we provide a diverse population of aspiring artists and art scholars with access to affordable, quality education combining a broad-based liberal arts collegiate experience with a firm historical, theoretical, and practical foundation art curriculum, and specialized study in the areas of art education, art history, and studio art. At the graduate level, our degree programs are designed with a dual emphasis on tailoring programs of study to individual students while fostering shared experience among a community of students.
Over forty full-time and ninety part-time faculty provide instruction to a student population of nearly 2000 majors. Our faculty is committed to the belief that an education in the visual arts and related scholarship can be grounded in tradition while geared toward innovation, can foster both discipline-centered and interdisciplinary activity and discourse, and can achieve a fusion of informed dialogue, practice, and production.
