Ceramics Overview
The School of Art and Design offers the B.F.A., B.A., B.S., or A.S. degrees. Most students elect the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program (B.F.A.) which allows you to take up to 20 hours of specific ceramics classes. Additional work can be pursued by electing to use the Directed Studies series. As an incoming freshman, you would take AD 122 Ceramics: Handbuilding Techniques.
The initial courses emphasize the investigation of various construction
techniques used in ceramic production. Subsequent courses motivate
the student to become involved with the other aspects of the ceramic
process, such as glaze calculation, kiln building, firing procedures,
etc. At the upper levels greater emphasis is placed on developing
and refining the technical and conceptual aspects of each students’
work. The Art and Design Department does not specify any one approach
to the ceramic process, but rather organizes problems to allow the
students to investigate and discover their personal approach to
the medium. Senior B.F.A. work in recent years has included utilitarian
wheel-thrown pottery, slip-cast vessels, hand built figurative work,
large-scale sculpture, and ceramic installations.
We offer well equipped studios and at the upper levels we attempt
to make available to the ceramic major a personal studio space.
A year-round program of exhibition is to be seen in the University
Art Museum, which is supplemented by workshops and lectures by visiting
artists. Recent visiting artists include Julia Galloway, Stephen
DeStaebler, Jane Shellenbarger, Keisuke Mizuno, Kurt Weiser, and
Akio Takamori. Ceramics students have also made field trips to Minneapolis/St.Paul
and Detroit to visit established ceramic artists/potters, galleries,
and museums.
The Art and Design Department consists of 12 full-time faculty who are practicing artists and designers, exhibiting their work at the regional, national, and international levels. Each instructs an area of specialization such as ceramics, drawing/painting, photography, etc., and often teach our core courses as well. Our size and ratio of students to faculty allows for a more personal and in-depth teaching approach than can be found in larger universities and should be considered in your choice of schools.

