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Art

What will I learn?

After completing an Associate’s degree, with an emphasis in Visual Art, you will be able to:

  • read analytically, with the ability to interpret literal, figurative, impressionistic, creative and critical uses of language and ideas in the context of the visual arts (especially after taking Art History/Art Appreciation)
  • express yourself artistically, with a wide range of emotional effects in different two and three dimensional media
  • create works of art that explore a multitude of formal and technical issues and that reflect a wide range of human personality, idiosyncratic behavior, and psychological states
  • understand the historical development of all the visual arts and their role in society

What is the occupational outlook?

The growth in jobs for artists and graphic designers and for Teaching K-12 art (after earning a Bachelor’s in Art Education) is predicted to be as fast as the average for all occupations until 2014. Overall in relation to other post-secondary teaching positions, teaching studio art at the college or university level (after receiving an MFA in a studio discipline) or teaching art history (after receiving a PHD in art history, especially at the university level) are predicted to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014. The number of positions for artists and related workers is predicted to grow as fast as average for all occupations through 2014. Thus, there will be new positions for those conducting media-specific workshops; working as full-time staff or free-lancing as a photographer, illustrator, graphic designer, theatrical designer, fashion designer, interior designer, or decorator; working as a self-employed ceramicist, exhibiting and selling at local and regional art fairs; working as a technician at a bronze foundry, casting statues for other artists; working in arts management, as a director of a gallery or a museum, a curator, or a preparator; writing reviews of art, art shows, artists and art books as a critic; and working as an architect (after earning a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture).1

What are my options

You can take Art courses simply to develop your ability to draw, paint, sculpt, throw ceramic pots, take photographs, etc. create computer graphics, and, especially if you take Art History or Art Appreciation courses, think critically in order to support your study in other interest areas. Making art helps you think creatively, problem solve and to think outside of the box. It teaches you to value and develop your own ideas from conception to realization.


  1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006-07 Edition, Graphic Designers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos090.htm (visited July 9, 2007)