Art and Design

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
Ryan Feerer, Professor
Robert Green, Professor
Kenny Jones, Professor
Kelly Mann, Assistant Professor
Dan McGregor, Professor
Ronnie Rama, Associate Professor
Nil Santana, Associate Professor
Trey Shirley, Associate College Professor
Mike Wiggins, Professor

Introduction

The Department of Art and Design offers BFA, BS, and AA degrees. The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is available in several areas of concentration: All-Level Teaching, Graphic Design, Painting, and Sculpture. The Bachelor of Science degree is available in Graphic Design/Advertising, Art Therapy, and Interior Design. The Interior Design degree (Bachelor of Science) is nationally accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA). The Associate of Arts degree, a 2-year program, is available in architecture. A minor in art, art history, art therapy, graphic design, interior design, or user experience may be added to other ACU majors. The department owes its outstanding reputation to its faculty, facilities and students.

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

These artists/teachers believe that art is important, that art makes a difference in the world, and that art makes this world a better, more beautiful, and 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, and 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, and 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 and 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 and an elegant showcase for the works of nationally recognized artists and of our students. The computer labs are 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. For three-dimensional art, 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 projects from a variety of disciplines including the construction of frames upon which to stretch canvas, the building of chairs for a three-dimensional design project, and a creative book-binding project for a graphic design course. Art exists 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. Students frequently make use of the Maker Lab located in the Brown Library for course assignments.

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, graphic design, illustration, painting, sculpture, etc. Those who earn their MFA, the terminal degree in studio art, are eligible to teach art in colleges and universities. With the proper certification, ACU Art and Design graduates may become educators in elementary and secondary education, work in galleries and in museums as directors and administrators, and work in advertising as art directors and creative consultants. They work as interior designers, space planners, architects, set designers, animators, book illustrators, graphic designers, and full-time creative artists who are 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 as in every aspect of our society. In their respective vocations, they may not always use paint and an artist’s brush, but they do use their minds as creative tools, 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.

Departmental Perspective on Artistic Nudity

As part of our curriculum, certain classes in the Art and Design Department may feature works that contain artistic nudity. This specialized term is used to describe artworks that depict the unclothed human body in non-sexualized ways. Artistic nudity explores the beauty, brokenness, or mystery of the human condition without objectifying or eroticizing its subject. Artistic nudity stands in stark contrast (indeed, in direct opposition to) pornography, which exists exclusively to inflame sinful thinking and to degrade what God has made good and beautiful.

For hundreds of years, devout, faithful Christian artists have made artistic studies of the nude figure a part of their training. We believe in continuing - at least in part - this tradition of training so essential to the development of the practicing Christian artist. Such training is akin to the education of physicians and other medical professionals, all of whom study the anatomy of the nude human figure, both in images and real life.

Consequently, projected or printed images featuring chaste artistic nudity may appear in some (certainly not all) Art and Design classes.

We do not believe that these images would incite lustful thinking (in fact, the visual content of most tabloid magazines is more sexualized than these images). However, students are encouraged to consider this factor before taking Art and Design classes.

General Departmental Requirements

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 courses vary greatly among schools, exact placement 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 Student Requirements

All art and design majors must fulfill the requirements described in the Art & Design Student Requirements & Handbook. Important items include the Study Abroad requirement, Art Event Credits, Yearly Reviews and Student Competitions.

Student Exhibitions

All art and design majors are required to prepare and submit work for a senior show as described in the Art & Design Student Requirements & Handbook.

Permanent Collection

The Art and 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 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 and Design majors from an art or design course that is full and needed by an Art and Design major. Priority will also be given to students who require courses for their concentration over majors and non-majors outside of that concentration.

Audits

With department chair approval, audits are allowed in studio courses with no tuition discount. Standard audit fees apply for lecture courses. Please inquire at the Registrar’s Office.

Studio Time

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

Admissions Requirements

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

Programs

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Bachelor of Science

Associate of Arts

Architecture, AA (ARCH)

Minor

Courses

Art

Design