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Department of Art

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Department of Art

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Level

Undergraduate

Commitment

4 years

Campus

Ithaca

Contact

Department of Art

artdepartment@cornell.edu

Learn More & Apply
large red-lit wooden sculpture

The B.F.A. program is designed for students who see themselves as both artists and scholars. The Department of Art provides an intensive studio culture with access to disciplines and classes across the university. Focusing on interdisciplinary relationships and drawing connections, the program prepares students to participate in the world as artistic and intellectual leaders.

The B.F.A. curriculum is designed to be both flexible and rigorous so that students establish an individualized artistic practice early in their education.

Curriculum

B.F.A. Students take 60 credits offered by the department and 60 electives in any area of study at the university. Art credits consist of seminars and core studio courses in:

  • MAPS: Media Arts, Performance, and Sound
  • Drawing
  • Painting
  • Photography
  • Print media
  • Sculpture
  • A wide range of special topics

Electives include art history requirements, Cornell First-Year Writing Seminars, and a range of classes selected by the student. This component provides a truly unique freedom to integrate ideas, interests, and skills into a critically, intellectually, and materially advanced artistic practice.

Students gathered on lawn inside ancient stone structure

Study Away

Cornell in Rome

The B.F.A. program also includes an option to study for a semester in Rome. All courses advance students toward their degree while deepening their knowledge of architecture and urban history, contemporary art and design, and current issues facing major Western cities.

Inside the B.F.A. Program

  • A group of people play outside, with the camera person positioned behind an archway of brambles and sticks.
  • artist installing work in a gallery space
  • people viewing work in a gallery space
  • student sketching a marble bust
  • A person finesses the edges of a curved ceramic sculpture while sitting outside.
  • students discussing work in an outdoor space

Adam Shulman’s (B.F.A. ’23) thesis performance Nature’s Play in the Palmer Woods area of Cornell’s North Campus. Ithaca.

Josephine Cosmosse (B.F.A. ’25) installs her work for the Senior B.F.A. Thesis Exhibition in the Experimental Gallery.

Daeum Sally Yu (B.F.A. ’25) discusses her exhibition Perpetual Gathering in the Tjaden Gallery.

Gwen Gravador (B.F.A. ’24) presenting her work outside the Bibliowicz Gallery.

Faculty

Program Director

Current Teaching Faculty in the B.F.A.