Program Overview

Art and Art History

The Art and Art History program at Colorado State University offers a comprehensive education in the visual arts, with a focus on artistic expression, technical skills, and critical thinking.

Undergraduate Programs

• BA in Art History: This program provides students with a deep understanding of the history of art, from ancient to contemporary, and the theoretical frameworks that underpin it.
  • Art History Certificate (Majors): Available to students majoring in Art History, this certificate program allows for specialized study in specific areas of art history.
  • Art History Minor (Non-Majors): Open to students from other disciplines, this minor program introduces the principles and methodologies of art history.
• BA in Integrated Visual Studies: This interdisciplinary program combines studio art, art history, and visual culture, enabling students to explore the intersections between artistic practice, historical context, and contemporary issues.
• BFA in Art Education: Designed for students who wish to teach art, this program focuses on both artistic development and educational methodologies.
• BFA Studio: This program offers concentrations in various studio arts, including:
  • Drawing
  • Electronic Art
  • Fibers
  • Graphic Design
  • Metalsmithing
  • Painting
  • Photo Image Making
  • Pottery
  • Printmaking
  • Sculpture

Graduate Programs

• Master of Fine Arts: This advanced degree program is designed for students seeking to further their artistic development and prepare for careers in the arts or academia.

Fibers Concentration

The Fibers concentration within the Art and Art History program explores the medium of fiber, including techniques, materials, and expressive possibilities. Students develop skills in visual communication, study fiber media within contemporary art and design, and engage with the language and theories of textiles.

Who We Are

The Fibers program encourages expansive, interdisciplinary, self-driven study for imaginative and globally-minded students. It investigates the interactions of traditional fine art, craft, and digital technologies, and explores how fibers have shaped and responded to human history, commerce, and domestic life.

Student Work

Students in the Fibers program have access to a rich textile culture with unique resources, including opportunities for networking and employment in Northern Colorado's robust textile community. They participate in special events, conferences, internships, and community-outreach programs, and have ties to the Lincoln Center in Old Town Fort Collins and the Denver Art Museum.

Coursework

The Fibers program transforms the everyday into the extraordinary, encouraging students to investigate the language of textiles as global phenomena and individual artistic practices. Students explore weaving, surface design, and other textile techniques and mixed-media processes, gaining experience with materials and methods, long-term project management, and articulating and receiving feedback.

Facilities

The Fibers studio occupies 3,400 square feet of dedicated space, including a weaving studio, fabric-printing area, and dye room. Students have access to 44 floor looms, a well-ventilated dye room, an interior courtyard for outdoor fabric dyeing and drying, and a nearby conference room with a studio library housing 800 books on fiber and textile subjects. The Digital Fabrication Lab supports the work of all students, and the nearby Gregory Allicar Museum of Art enriches studies with changing exhibitions and its collection of non-Western textiles, beadwork, and baskets.

Faculty

• Elnaz Javani: Assistant Professor of Fibers and Graduate Advisor for Fibers.

Research and Resources

The program enjoys a close relationship with the Department of Design and Merchandising, housed in the Nancy Richardson Design Center, and the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising, which houses more than 20,000 costumes, textiles, and interior and global artifacts. The Morgan Library supports scholarship in art, textiles, fashion, and design, with a donation of the archives of Fiberarts magazine, providing a vivid context for the rich traditions of textile art.