Degrees and Programs

Degrees Offered

The College of Fine Arts offers a wide variety of degree programs. For undergraduate students who seek professional training in the arts or who feel the need for intensive training in their chosen art, the college offers the degrees of Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Music, and Bachelor of Science in Arts and Entertainment Technologies. These degrees require that approximately two-thirds of the coursework be completed in the major area.

Department of Art and Art History

The Department of Art and Art History offers academic programs in art education, art history, and studio art.

Art Education

Art educators believe art is an essential component of a comprehensive education. The art education program prepares students to serve as teaching artists in schools and community settings. Comprehensive coursework ranges from grounding in the field (its philosophical, historical and social contexts), current art education trends (visual/material culture art education, social justice art education, multicultural art education, discipline-based art education), content knowledge (age appropriate art making skills, art criticism, aesthetics, educational philosophy, educational technology, ethical decision making) and pedagogical strategies (curriculum writing, teaching strategies, standards and evaluation). Field observations and practical classroom teaching in community and school environments are required of all students in the program. Coursework meets state requirements for teacher certification in all-level art (early childhood through grade 12).

Art History

Art history is a discipline that works to deepen and expand our understanding of art and visual expression from a variety of perspectives, from an initial context of making and reception to an ensuing circulation, including collection and display. Students in art history become proficient in visual and cultural analyses, core components of critical thinking and writing, as well as historical interpretation. The art history program is among the nation’s largest and most distinguished, with over 20 full-time faculty who are leading scholars in their respective fields and represent a diversity of critical and methodological outlooks. Our objects of inquiry include all media, historical periods, and geographical areas: from sculpture to digital art, from pre-history to the present, and from every part of the world.

Studio Art

The purpose of the studio art program is to transmit a professional, solid foundation of skills in a wide range of studio practices by providing students with experiences in historical and theoretical models along with a vocabulary to understand and engage in critical discourses of art. Studio instruction encompasses drawing and painting (contemporary and historical practices), photography and media (black/white darkroom, digital, still and moving image), print (intaglio, lithography, serigraphy), sculpture and extended media (casting, hot and cold fabrication, digital fabrication, installation), and transmedia (digital-time art, video art, performance art). Through an exploration of the ideas and forms at the leading edge of knowledge, our students develop the capacity for experimentation and invention, the creation of new forms of studio art.

The University’s extensive resources for art research include the Fine Arts Library, the Blanton Museum of Art, the Perry-Castañeda Library, and specialized collections such as the Harry Ransom Center, the Classics Library, the Architecture and Planning Library, the Benson Latin American Collection, Landmarks, and the University Co-op Materials Lab.

School of Design and Creative Technologies

The School of Design and Creative Technologies offers academic programs in design and arts and entertainment technologies.

Design

The undergraduate design program empowers students with a rich, multi-faceted educational experience that poises graduates for careers in the design professions or an entrepreneurial endeavor. Design is about solving a problem and creating new processes, products, and services for people. It is human-centered; the end-user's needs, wants, and limitations are explored at all stages within the design process and development lifecycle.

Students enjoy the extensive offerings of one of the world's great public universities, while receiving individualized instruction from expert, passionate faculty and local industry professionals in small cohorts of approximately 20 students. Students immerse themselves in various aspects of design and learn to create graphics, objects, interactions, systems, and services.

Arts and Entertainment Technologies

Arts and Entertainment Technologies is focused on professional practice in immersive media, experience design, and interactive systems. Faculty noted for their professional excellence and experience teach a diverse set of courses in design and technology. Students work with faculty and each other to produce state-of-the-art content in an interdisciplinary academic setting aligned with the missions of both the College of Fine Arts and The University of Texas.

Coursework is centered around design methods, coding, game development, real-time graphics, sound design, simulation, collaboration, emerging technology, storytelling, and interconnected modes of production and distribution. Through this curriculum, students are prepared for careers in the fields of real-time technology, mixed reality, and immersive media which are powering new forms of design, education, and business.

Programs of study

Programs of study leading to the following undergraduate degrees are offered in the School of Design and Creative Technologies:

• Bachelor of Arts
  • Design
• Bachelor of Fine Arts
  • Design
• Bachelor of Science in Arts and Entertainment Technologies
  • Arts and entertainment technologies

Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music

Through professional education of the highest caliber, the Butler School of Music prepares students for productive careers as performers, teachers, composers, and scholars, and for satisfying lives as informed and responsible members of a democratic society. In accordance with the University's mission, the School also seeks to extend the boundaries of knowledge and human experience through research and the creation of new music.

Housed in two connected buildings, the physical facilities of the Butler School include performance spaces in the 700-seat Bates Recital Hall with its world-renowned Visser-Rowland pipe organ, Jessen Auditorium, the Recital Studio, and McCullough Theatre. For special events, the school collaborates with Texas Performing Arts for performances in Bass Concert Hall. Other facilities include well-equipped classrooms and faculty studios/offices, multiple large and small rehearsal halls, electronic music studios, recording studios, 130 practice rooms and modules (including dedicated rooms for organ, harp, and percussion), a technology lab, chamber music rooms, two digital keyboard labs, and 250 well-maintained pianos. Also available to music students are libraries including manuscripts, rare editions, and performance collections; a Medieval and Renaissance instrument collection; a Javanese gamelan, and a Music Learning Laboratory.

Department of Theatre and Dance

The Department of Theatre and Dance affords students opportunities for scholarship and practice in all the principal areas of theatre and dance.  Students may choose programs of study leading to a variety of academic and professional goals, including teacher certification in both theatre and dance.

The facilities of the department are among the best available to university programs in the United States. In addition to the performance areas, studios, and shops of Texas Performing Arts, the department has the B. Iden Payne Theatre, the Oscar Brockett Theatre (a flexible space black box theater), a 100-seat laboratory theater, two workshop performance spaces, an extensive costume collection, five dance studios, a drafting studio, a design studio, as well as numerous classrooms and rehearsal studios in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building. Of special interest to students pursuing theatre research is the Performing Arts Collection, housed in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, which contains one of the world’s most important collections of theatre material.

Applicability of Certain Courses

Physical Activity Courses

Physical activity courses (PED) are offered by the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education. A limited number of these courses may be counted as electives toward degrees in the College of Fine Arts, but only at the discretion of the dean. All physical activity courses are counted among courses for which the student is enrolled, and the grades are included in the grade point average. For further information, contact the Office of Student Affairs.

Bible Courses

Bible courses may be counted as lower-division electives in College of Fine Arts degree programs that have room for such electives. No more than 12 semester hours of such work may be counted toward any degree offered by the University.

Courses Taken on the Pass/Fail Basis

Regulations concerning courses taken on the pass/fail basis are given in General Information. For most degree programs in the College of Fine Arts, a very limited and restricted amount of coursework may be taken on the pass/fail basis. To be assured that a course taken on this basis will apply to the degree, the student must consult the Office of Student Affairs before enrolling in the course.

Credit by Examination, Correspondence, and Transfer

Credit that a student in residence earns by examination, correspondence, or extension will not be counted toward a degree in the College of Fine Arts unless specifically approved in advance by the dean.

Professional Development Sequence

For those seeking certification for art education, all-level:

Requirements		Hours
EDC 331S	School Organization and Classroom Management in Secondary Schools	3
EDC 332S	Designs for Instruction	3
EDC 370S	Secondary School Subjects	3
EDC 951W	All Level Teaching Practicum (Topic 2)	9
PSY 301	Introduction to Psychology	3
ALD 322	Individual Differences	3
Three credit hours in human development chosen from the following:		3
PSY 304	Introduction to Child Psychology
PSY 309	Personality
HDF 313 & HDF 113L	Child Development and Child Development Laboratory
EDP 350G	Adolescent Development

For those seeking certification for theatre education, all-level:

Requirements		Hours
EDC 331S	School Organization and Classroom Management in Secondary Schools	3
EDC 332S	Designs for Instruction	3
EDC 370S	Secondary School Subjects	3
EDC 951W	All Level Teaching Practicum (Topic 1)	9
PSY 301	Introduction to Psychology	3
ALD 322	Individual Differences	3
Three credit hours in human development chosen from the following:		3
PSY 304	Introduction to Child Psychology
PSY 309	Personality
HDF 313 & HDF 113L	Child Development and Child Development Laboratory
EDP 350G	Adolescent Development

For those seeking certification for dance education, secondary:

Requirements		Hours
EDC 331S	School Organization and Classroom Management in Secondary Schools	3
EDC 332S	Designs for Instruction	3
EDC 370S	Secondary School Subjects	3
EDC 951W	All Level Teaching Practicum (Topic 3)	9
PSY 301	Introduction to Psychology	3
ALD 322	Individual Differences	3
Three credit hours in human development chosen from the following:		3
PSY 304	Introduction to Child Psychology
PSY 309	Personality
HDF 313 & HDF 113L	Child Development and Child Development Laboratory
EDP 350G	Adolescent Development

For those seeking certification for music studies, all-level:

Requirements		Hours
EDC 331S	School Organization and Classroom Management in Secondary Schools	3
EDC 332S	Designs for Instruction	3
EDC 370S	Secondary School Subjects	3
EDC 951W	All Level Teaching Practicum (Topic 4)	9
PSY 301	Introduction to Psychology	3
MUS 354C	Children's Music Literature and Performance I	3
Three credit hours in human development chosen from the following:		3
PSY 304	Introduction to Child Psychology
PSY 309	Personality
HDF 313 & HDF 113L	Child Development and Child Development Laboratory
EDP 350G	Adolescent Development