Majoring in Visual/Verbal Arts

The Visual/Verbal Arts Degree

The visual and verbal art major is designed to develop visual and verbal literacy by combining an emphasis on traditional liberal art goals of written expression, critical thinking and cultural traditions with an emphasis on visual art and analysis. The curriculum integrates practical skill training, including new technological media, theoretical foundations, and multiple aesthetic approaches with an understanding of the processes and effects of both visual and verbal communication. Students will become conversant in the historical and cultural contexts of art and learn to employ a broad selection of interpretive methodologies in assessing these contexts. In addition, students will learn to become acute observers, recorders, interpreters and analyzers of their own visual environment.

The major encourages self-learning and expression. It provides a balance of studio and theory courses organized around a combination of core concepts and skill courses, visiting artist experiences, independent learning opportunities, self-initiated projects and experiential learning opportunities. The program integrates practice and theory, individual production and collaborative processes, skills and projects, products and process, and the expressive and analytical. Students achieve breadth of learning through achievement of the Graduate Outcomes and application of learning through the completion of cognates.

Increasingly, professionals in all fields of work must demonstrate effective oral and written communication, problem solving, researching, organizational, and decision-making skills. The visual and verbal art major is designed to develop these competencies and to thus better position our graduates, whether they are interested in pursuing a traditional career as a professional artist or any number of careers in applied art, to compete in the marketplace.

Drawing upon Keuka College’s 60 years of leadership in experiential education, the visual and verbal art major relies heavily upon directed hands-on and individualized experience. In addition to two Field Periods that help students to test and explore career objectives and learn the training and skill required for a specific job or industry, students will also complete a student-initiated senior project and can elect to complete a full-semester internship. These experiential opportunities will allow our graduates to transition from academia to careers more easily than students from other institutions.

Learn more about majoring in Visual/Verbal Arts at Keuka College.