Mike Wiggins, Chair    
ACU Box 27987
Abilene, Texas 79699-7987
Don Morris Center, Room 142

Phone: 325-674-2085
Fax: 325-674-2051
Email: mmw03b@acu.edu
Web: www.acu.edu/art

Faculty
Geoffrey Broderick, Associate Professor
Robert Green, Professor
Kenny Jones, Associate Professor
Jack Maxwell, Professor
Dan McGregor, Associate Professor
Ronnie Rama, Associate Professor
Virginia Sadler, Professor
Nil Santana, Instructor
Kathryn Wasemiller, Professor
Mike Wiggins, Associate Professor
Brandon Young, Assistant Professor

Majors: Art (BFA) 
               Graphic Design/Advertising (BA)
               Interior Design (BS) 
               Pre-Architecture (AA)

 Minor:  Art 

Introduction
The Department of Art and Design offers BFA, BA, BS and AA degrees. The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is available in these areas of concentration: all-level teaching, graphic design, two-dimensional studio or three-dimensional studio. The Bachelor of Arts degree is available in graphic design/advertising. The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (formerly FIDER) accredited Bachelor of Science degree is available in interior design. The Associate of Arts degree is available in pre-architecture. A minor in art may be added to other majors. The department owes its outstanding reputation to its faculty, its facilities and its students.

The versatile faculty is made up of award-winning artists, artists who actively produce and exhibit their creative work, artists who are leaders in their various fields of discipline. These artists are also superb educators, educators who love to teach because they love what they teach, educators who teach by what they say and by what they do, educators who motivate, inspire and nurture, educators who become true mentors to their students.

These artist/teachers believe that art is important, that art makes a difference in this world, that art makes this world a better place, a more beautiful place, a more livable place. They are convinced that this world needs more than just artists; it needs Christian artists, artists who use their talent and various forms of creative expression to reflect a dimension of the very nature of God, God as Creator.

This faculty also believes that skills are important, that skills can be taught and that they can be learned. They believe that the most important skills for the art and design student, and any artist, transcend the newest technologies, media and processes. They believe that these most important skills are found in the ability to think creatively, to find creative solutions to difficult problems, to courageously accept challenges and to overcome them. These are the abilities and skills that the faculty of the Department of Art and Design believes are most necessary to become leaders rather than followers, to become the next generation of gifted creative artists, designers and educators, to become art professionals in the ever-growing number of art and art-related careers of the 21st century.

ACU art and design students and the art/design faculty enjoy the advantages of a spacious, well-equipped facility in the Alice Pratt Brown Art Hall, consisting of large functional studios, high-tech computer labs and specialized classroom spaces. The complex includes the Clover Virginia Shore Art Gallery, the heart of the department, an elegant showcase for the works of nationally recognized artists and of our students. The computer lab is state-of-the-art, providing the technology to meet the needs of the continually evolving, and expanding, areas of digital design. Private and semi-private studio spaces are provided on a competitive basis for our advanced students. In the three-dimensional areas, our students have access to the latest equipment and technologies: kilns, specialized welders and cutters, a well-equipped metal casting foundry, and pneumatic tools for the working of metals and the carving of stone and wood. The department wood shop is used for everything from the construction of frames upon which to stretch canvas, to the building of chairs for a three-dimensional design project, to a creative book-binding project for a graphic design course. Art is there to be seen; in the offices, in the classrooms and in the hallways, art is on display. Outside in the sculpture courtyard and throughout the landscaped campus, art is visible

Art and design graduates may pursue specialized post-graduate degrees in areas of interest such as architecture, interior design, industrial design, art therapy, arts administration, animation, illustration, painting, sculpture, etc. Those earning their MFA, the terminal degree in studio art, are eligible to teach art in colleges and universities. And with the proper certification, ACU art and design graduates become educators in elementary and secondary education. ACU art and design graduates work in galleries and in museums as directors and administrators. They work as interior designers, space planners, architects, set designers, as animators, as book illustrators and as graphic designers. They work in advertising as art directors and as creative consultants. Graduates of the Department of Art and Design become full-time creative artists supported by their gallery sales and commissions.

Graduates of the ACU Department of Art and Design also enjoy productive careers in many non-art related fields as well in every aspect of our society. In their respected vocations they may not always use paint and an artist’s brush, but they do use what they learned as art and design majors, to use their minds as a creative tool, whatever the application. For no brush is finer, no stone chisel is sharper and no ink flows more effortlessly than the keen and attentive mind, the spirit of the artist.

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General Departmental Requirements   

Admission Requirements
Before being admitted to a program, a student must satisfy the requirements listed in the ACT/SAT Placement Information section of this catalog.

Scholarships
A limited number of departmental scholarships, based upon evidence of ability, quality of work, and/or need are available each year. Contact the department for applications.

Transfer Students
The transfer student receives credit for art/design courses completed at another college according to a routine evaluation made by the Registrar’s Office. Since a student’s courses vary greatly among schools, exact place in the ACU program can be determined only after he or she has demonstrated, in actual class work, an adequate level of performance commensurate with current classification. Credit hours transferred toward a degree in art or design shall not exceed one half of the credit hours within the major. A minimum of 24 hours of the total advanced hours in studio areas required for the BFA must be done at ACU.

Art and Design Events
All art and design majors are required to attend art related events each semester. These may include but are not restricted to: gallery openings and receptions, artist lectures and presentations, and visits to major museums and exhibitions.

Student Exhibitions
All art and design majors are required to prepare and submit work for a senior show and enter all department sponsored student competitions for which they are eligible.

Permanent Collection
The art/design faculty reserves the right to make selections from current work each year to add to a permanent collection of outstanding student work that is used in public exhibitions. All work done as a part of class work by regularly enrolled students is the property of the department until released, and the department reserves the right to exhibit or to reproduce such work in publications of the university.

Study Abroad Expectations
All art and design majors are expected and encouraged to participate in ACU’s Study Abroad program. Classes may be offered in art appreciation, art history, special topics courses and selected studio areas.

Course Availability
Students should be advised that some listed courses are not offered every semester. Prior to the first class meeting, the department reserves the right to remove non-art/design majors from an art or design course that is full and needed by an art/design major.

Audits
With department head approval, audits are allowed in studio courses with no tuition discount. Audit fees for lecture courses are one-half tuition.

Studio Time
For each studio course meeting 6 hours per week, the student will be expected to devote a minimum of three additional hours of outside class time per week to class assignments.

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Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (BFA)   

The BFA is a studio intense course of study designed for students with a strong commitment to a professional future as graphic designers, studio artists or artist/teachers. The student may, according to his or her interests and career goals, select a major concentration from the areas of all-level teaching certification, graphic design, two-dimensional studio (drawing, painting, illustration and printmaking) or three-dimensional studio (sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry/metals). Those who select the BFA degree plan are expected to exhibit a high level of competence and motivation. Post-graduate or graduate study should be a part of the future plans of the student pursuing a career in art. Those with the goal of becoming college studio art instructors should plan on graduate study terminating in the Master of Fine Arts degree.

Admission Requirements
Prior to admittance in a program, a student must satisfy the requirements listed in the ACT/SAT Placement Information section of this catalog