The Foundation Studios are recommended as a basis for all other studio art courses. They aim to develop formal, technical, expressive, and problem-solving skills. They stress knowledge of modern and contemporary art and provide a survey of artistic disciplines. Through these courses, students begin to investigate visual thinking. The Advanced Studios build upon the foundation studios and focus on a particular discipline, such as sculpture.
Students develop a formal vocabulary, visual sensitivity, and manipulative skills.
Materials and historical concerns are integral parts of directed and individual investigations. In the Capstone Studios , students pull together the diverse experiences and knowledge they have acquired as studio art majors and focus their newly acquired skills on a specific problem or area of artistic research. In addition to creating this visual work, students read and discuss seminal texts of art theory and probe topics such as postmodernism and the personal and societal values implicit in an artwork. Capstone experiences develop creative autonomy. These courses are excellent preparation for life after Fairfield.