General Information
Mission
The College of Fine Arts was established by the state legislature in 1937; in the decades since then, the college has grown with The University to become a leading center for arts study. Both students and faculty members of the College of Fine Arts have regularly received national and international recognition for their achievements; such recognition indicates the degree of academic and artistic excellence to which the college is dedicated.
The College of Fine Arts strives to prepare students for the practice, study, criticism, and teaching of the arts; to lead in developing the arts through research and the creation of new works; and to provide performances and exhibitions that deepen the understanding of the arts, expand audiences, and develop a better quality of life in the University, community, state, and nation. The college prepares students and audiences for the coming decades by emphasizing cultural diversity and technological advancement and by exploring the interrelationships among all the arts.
Facilities
The Office of the Dean of the College of Fine Arts is located in the E. William Doty Fine Arts Building, at the corner of 23rd and Trinity streets. General inquiries about the college should be directed to this office. The mailing address is The University of Texas at Austin, Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts, 2301 Trinity Street D1400, Austin TX, 78712.
Within the college are four academic units—the Department of Art and Art History, the School of Design and Creative Technologies, the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, and the Department of Theatre and Dance. Inquiries about a particular unit should be directed to that unit.
The Visual Arts Center
The Visual Arts Center (VAC) is a 13,000 square foot gallery space located in the College of Fine Arts. We provide a platform for artists, curators, and educators to experiment, test ideas, and take risks. We aim to spark generative conversations about art and contemporary society through our exhibitions and public programs that take place throughout the academic year.
For more information on the VAC's exhibitions and public programs, please visit http://www.utvac.org.
Texas Performing Arts
One of the nation’s largest campus-based performing arts organizations, Texas Performing Arts is the university's primary performing arts presenter, an anchor for Austin's arts community, and a major force in the region's cultural landscape.
Texas Performing Arts offers hundreds of performances annually, from College of Fine Arts productions to international touring artists, and is the home of Broadway in Austin. Its venues range from the 244-seat Brockett Theater to the 2,900-seat Bass Concert Hall, and include state-of-the-art production shops for the creation of new work.
Every aspect of Texas Performing Arts is a professional learning laboratory for UT students, who receive $10 tickets, work side-by-side with professional staff and visiting artists, and connect with others through Hook ‘em Arts, a student-led arts advocacy group.
Computer Facilities
In addition to the computer facilities available to all students at the University, the College of Fine Arts maintains facilities with special hardware and software for its own undergraduate and graduate majors. These include central laboratories and media-enhanced classrooms in each of the four academic units, and extensive wireless Internet coverage throughout the college.
Because of the rapidly growing importance of computers in College of Fine Arts curricula, students are strongly encouraged to come to the University with their own computers. In some programs of study, laptops are required. Students should contact the area of academic interest for more information.
Fine Arts Library
Located on levels 3 and 5 of the E. William Doty Fine Arts Building, the Fine Arts Library supports research and instruction in the College of Fine Arts, including the Butler School of Music, the School of Design and Creative Technologies, and the Departments of Art and Art History and Theatre and Dance. The Fine Arts Library is also home to The Foundry, a makerspace for all members of the campus community, equipped with 3D printers, a laser cutter, a vinyl printer cutter, mills, high-end Macs for writing video games, a collaborative video station, a virtual reality space, and a recording studio. For more information, including hours and contact information, go to: https://www.lib.utexas.edu/about/locations/fine-arts.
Services include information and research assistance, instruction in getting the best from library databases including online and full-text journals, circulation, and course reserves (for checking out items). The Fine Arts Library offers computing hardware and software to support the study of the fine arts, a high-end scanner, as well as media equipment and digital cameras. Carrels can be assigned to students seeking a specific location. A full range of support is provided for The Foundry's equipment. More details can be found here: https://www.lib.utexas.edu/foundry.
The art collection includes materials on most art and design movements and schools, photography, and art education. Artists of most periods and nationalities and studies of their work are represented, as are most media and techniques. Art works on display include a large pre-Columbian pottery collection and modern prints. The Visual Resource Collection contains over 100,000 images from art, architecture, the performing arts, and fashion, and is accessible, with a UT EID, at https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/visualresources.
The music collection includes materials on performance, composition, history, ethnomusicology, music education, and music therapy. Most historical periods and geographical areas are covered in both classical and popular idioms, and while the emphasis is on the Western classical tradition, many other musics are represented. Tens of thousands of scores are available for both study and performance. A streaming audio service with access to over 10 million tracks is available, and students can stream movies, documentaries, and musical performances via the Library Catalog, at http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/.
The theatre and dance collection includes materials on performance, especially play production, theatrical design, playwriting, theatre education, and dance. Materials on other types of theatrical presentations, such as magic, circuses, and pantomime, are also included. The Fine Arts Library holds texts of major plays written in English or translated into English, with contemporary plays collected most heavily. The Perry-Castañeda Library also holds texts of plays in English and other languages, with emphasis on plays as a literary form and on literary criticism.
Special collections include artist's books, zines, materials from the Austin Theatre Alliance—Paramount and State Theatres, and the Historical Music Recordings Collection, which includes over 300,000 items in older formats such as 78rpm and LP records, and open-reel tapes.
Financial Assistance Available through the College
Students in the College of Fine Arts are eligible for a variety of scholarships and awards. Most scholarship aid in the college is offered through the academic units (art and art history, design and creative technologies, music, and theatre and dance). For information about scholarship procedures and deadlines, the student should contact the academic unit of interest.
Student Services
Student Affairs
The Office of Student Affairs, a division of the Office of the Dean, offers a variety of student services, including academic advising, maintenance of student records, degree auditing, and other undergraduate student support services. Students should contact the Office of Student Affairs for answers to questions about degree requirements, graduation, or College of Fine Arts and University of Texas policies and regulations. This office is also a good source of referral for University-wide student support offices.
Academic Advising
Each academic unit in the college (art and art history, design and creative technologies, music, and theatre and dance) has at least one full-time staff adviser. Questions about advising policies and procedures should be directed to those offices. Senior academic advisers and Student Affairs personnel are also available to undergraduate students in the centralized Student Affairs Office.
A student enrolled in the College of Fine Arts is required to meet with a designated adviser before registering for any semester or summer session. The student’s proposed schedule of classes must be approved by the adviser. Subsequent changes or corrections in the schedule must also have the adviser’s approval.
Career Services
Career Advising
Fine Arts Career Services, a division of the Office of the Dean, helps fine arts majors explore career options, plan for careers, and develop strategies for seeking jobs upon graduation. More information is available at https://finearts.utexas.edu/careers. Career advising and planning services are also available from Texas Career Engagement and the School of Undergraduate Studies' Vick Center for Strategic Advising and Career Counseling.
The University makes no promise to secure employment for each graduate.
Education Career Services
Candidates for teacher certification in the College of Fine Arts are eligible for Education Career Services in the College of Education. Education Career Services assists students who are seeking positions in education-related occupations at the elementary school and secondary school level. Additional information is available on the Education Career Services website at https://education.utexas.edu/about/college-offices/career-services.
Student Organizations
In each of the units of the College of Fine Arts are various student organizations, including honor societies, professional associations, and service organizations. For information about current organizations and their eligibility requirements, contact the appropriate academic unit or the Office of the Dean of Students.
The Fine Arts Council is the official student organization of the college.
Study Abroad
The College of Fine Arts offers many opportunities for students to study abroad:
Learning Tuscany program offers arts instruction by University faculty members at the Santa Chiara Study Center in Castiglion Fiorentino, near Florence. Students take both studio art and art history courses and focus on the culture of central Italy through class time and numerous field trips to nearby cities. More information is available from the undergraduate advising office in the Department of Art and Art History.
Urban Art and Design: Mexico City is a fall semester program that focuses on Mexico City's contemporary art and design scenes. Mexico City is one of the most vibrant, welcoming, boisterous, dissonant and ultimately dazzling cities in the world. With nearly 9 million residents, it is one of the planet's great urban laboratories where social, artistic and ecological problems meet solutions every day. Mexico City is a global hub of art, architecture and communication full of creative people and big ideas.
Casa Herrera is a research, conference, and teaching facility located in the heart of Antigua, Guatemala, operated by the Department of Art and Art History. As an extension of the department's Mesoamerica Center, Casa Herrera focuses on the varied and inter-related disciplines that contribute to the study of Pre-Columbian art, archeology, history, and culture.