Program Overview

Introduction to the Yale College Art Major

The Yale College Art Major is a Bachelor of Arts degree program offered by Yale University, allowing students to concentrate on a medium such as painting/printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, photography, or filmmaking.

Program Overview

Students in this major will develop an understanding of the visual arts through a studio-based curriculum, apply fundamentals of art across a variety of media and disciplines, relate the practice of making art to the fields of art history and theory, and gain a high level of proficiency in at least one artistic discipline.

Course Structure

• Courses at the 1000 level stress the fundamental aspects of visual formulation and articulation.
• Courses numbered 2000 through 4999 offer increasingly intensive study leading to greater specialization in one or more of the visual disciplines such as graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, filmmaking, and sculpture/4-D.
• Interdisciplinary practice is supported.

Admission Requirements

The prerequisites for acceptance into the major are:

• A sophomore review (occurring in the spring semester of sophomore year), which is an evaluation of work from studio courses taken at Yale School of Art.
• Five terms of introductory (1000-level) courses.
• Students should be enrolled in their fifth studio course by the time of the sophomore review.
• Visual Thinking (ART 1111) and Basic Drawing (ART 1514) are mandatory.

Graduation Requirements

For graduation as an art major, a total of fourteen course credits in the major field is required. These fourteen course credits must include:

1. Five prerequisite courses at the 1000 level (including Visual Thinking and Basic Drawing).
2. Four 2000-level and above courses.
3. The Junior Seminar (ART 3995).
4. The two-credit Senior Project (ART 4995 and ART 4996).
5. Two courses in the history of art, film and media studies, or other electives related to visual culture.

Suggested Program Guideline

A suggested program guideline is as follows:

• First year: Studio courses, two terms.
• Sophomore year: Studio courses, three terms; HSAR, FILM, or other visual culture elective, one term.
• Junior year: Studio courses, three terms including the Junior Major Seminar; HSAR, FILM, or other visual culture elective, one term.
• Senior year: Studio courses, four terms including the yearlong Senior Project.

Additional Information

• Permission of the instructor is required in all art courses.
• A student may repeat an art course with the permission of the DUS.
• Graduate courses, in some cases, may be elected by advanced undergraduate art majors who have completed all undergraduate courses in a particular area of study and who have permission of the DUS as well as the course instructor, but only when space is available.
• Undergraduates are normally limited to credit for four terms of graduate- or professional-level courses (courses numbered 5000 and above).