Areas of Study

Sculpture

Program Description

A workspace table covered with spray-paint cans and black masks.

Student installing a bear-trap-inspired sculpture on a wall next to other sculptures.

View of the sculpture studio with an anvil, forage, and concrete blocks.

Students installing work in Fort Gorges.

A sculpture of stacked, frosted, framed windows.

Two people sitting, facing each other, wearing large bird masks beneath a green overhang.

A student working on a blacksmith forge.

Installation of floral plaster sculptures emerging from the floor and walls.

A four panel video projected on a wall inside Fort Gorges.

Sculpture studio space with ventilation units and tool storage.

The Sculpture major is a transdisciplinary department where space is the material of inquiry. As a student you will explore the relationships between material, technique, process, scale, and context; while learning the skills needed to articulate your work both visually and verbally.

Working in Sculpture gives you an opportunity to learn about an impressive array of materials and processes that range from video installation to performance, bronze/ aluminum/ copper casting, wood assemblage, welding, mold making and plaster casting, soft sculpture, sound and kinetic sculpture; to a variety of specialized courses in prosthetic make-up, stone carving, and figure modeling.

Our Sculpture Department offers many opportunities for you to find new ways to express yourself—technically, creatively, and conceptually. Our diverse faculty emphasize critical thinking and writing to help you communicate your visions with confidence, while gaining insight into the discipline of sculpture from a historical and contemporary cultural perspective.

Our faculty and staff are composed of practicing and exhibiting artists who are consistently Exhibiting their work worldwide. They will help guide you along as you build technical skills across a range of creative methods, and do the hard work of critically assessing and communicating the conceptual and formal aesthetics of your work and the work of others.

This exchange of ideas with your peers, faculty, visiting artists, and the local arts community will challenge you to advance your journey towards becoming a professional artist and an active learner within visual culture.

Life After Graduation

You will leave the program able to interpret and articulate contemporary modes of creating sculpture within your selected medium or practice in a way that you need to as a professional artist and creative problem solver.

Examples: Studio Artist, Mold Maker, Blacksmith, Tattooing, Artists Assistant, FX Make-up, Video Editor, Teacher, Graduate Studies.

Gallery

Program & Outcomes

Faculty

Sculpture Department Faculty

Sample Courses

SC 105 The Sculptural Imagination: Wood, Steel & Foundry Practices
SC 106 Sculpture in Context: Installation, Multiples, Land Art
SC 112 The Expressive Figure
SC 264 Color Form & Space
SC 267 Phantom Limb: The Art of Transformational Identity
SC 272 Transdiciplinary Video Art Installation
SC 321/322 Junior Major Studio
SC 421/422 Senior Major Studio

Workspace & Tools

Wood shop: SawStop table saws; miter saws; bandsaws; chainsaws; skill saws; drill presses; hammer drills; belt/ disc sanders; angle grinders, die grinders; wire brush grinder; and, other hand tools

Metal shop: MIG welder; TIG welder; arc welder; oxy- acetylene welder; spot welder; plasma cutter; Ellis bandsaw; metal chop saw; sand blasting; propane forge; coal forge; sand casting; and foundry

a/v: 27” iMacs with Logic, Adobe suite, and DaVinci Resolve; multiple video projectors; sound equipment; media players; digital audio and video recorders; and DSLR cameras

Other construction tools: plaster/ mold-making studio; installation rooms; spray booth; industrial sewing machines; resin bonded sand; foundry furnace (240lb / 90lb capacity); crucibles for bronze, copper & aluminum; electric hoist; ladders; and outdoor tools for site work

Sculpture majors each have their own private studios during their third and fourth years with 24/7 studio access.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

Create sculpture that demonstrates the relationship and interdependence of form, material, content, and context.
Speak critically about the sculptural work of others from both historical and contemporary perspectives.
Demonstrate a professional practice within the field of sculpture.
Employ technical skills with regard to traditional and contemporary sculpture techniques.
Develop a creative process that is centered around the investigation of form in space.
Select applicable materials and media to powerfully communicate an idea.
Understand the importance of context in sculpture and its relationship to content and subjective expression.