Introduction

Please click here to see general Visual Arts information.

The Art Practices emphasis provides students with a comprehensive education in visual art practices, which includes creative influences, ideas, materials, tools and skills, as well as theory and art history, with an emphasis on current trends in contemporary art. Art Practices is designed for students whose creative ideas move across media and who are looking for a more comprehensive critical approach to developing their practice. Art Practices provides students with focused professional skills in multiple areas of visual art, whereby the student can develop a fully formed body of work with conceptual impact. .

Program Delivery

• This is an on-campus program.

Declaring This Major

• Click here to go to information about declaring a major.

General Requirements

To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.

• CU Denver General Graduation Requirements
• CU Denver Core Curriculum
• College of Arts & Media Graduation Requirements
• Click here for information about Academic Policies

Program Requirements

1. A minimum letter grade is required for each course in the major for the course to satisfy the degree requirement. All grades apply to the major and are averaged to generate the major-specific GPA.
   1. A minimum grade of C (2.0) is required to satisfy degree requirements for any major course taken at CU Denver.
   2. A grade of C- (1.7) or lower will not fulfill a major, minor or certificate requirement, but is calculated in the major GPA.
   3. A grade of S is acceptable only for courses in which the grading basis is S/U. No more than 6 semester hours of P+/P/F is allowed in any given semester. No more than 12 semester hours may be elected as P+/P/F toward the degree.
2. All upper-division visual arts courses must be taken at CU Denver unless approved otherwise by Department of Visual Arts faculty.
3. At least 27 semester hours of visual arts credits (at any level) must be taken at CU Denver.
4. At least 24 semester hours of total visual arts courses must be upper-division.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Arts Foundation
Take all of the following Arts Foundation courses: 1
FINE 1100	Drawing I	3
FINE 1400	Two Dimensional Design	3
FINE 1500	Three-Dimensional Design	3
FINE 2155	Introduction to Digital Photography	3
FINE 2600	Art History Survey I	3
FINE 2610	Art History Survey II	3
Primary Visual Arts Concentration Courses
Take all of the Main Studio Concentration courses from one of the following categories: 1		24
Art Practices: Painting, Drawing, Transmedia Sculpture
Secondary Concentration Courses
Students must take five courses in a second area or discipline, choosing one of those listed below: 2		15
Art History
Illustration 3
Photography
Additional Required Courses
FINE 4990	Contemporary Art: 1960 to Present	3
Electives
Take three semester hours of upper-division Art History elective.		3
Take nine semester hours of Visual Arts electives. 4		9
Capstone Courses
FINE 4515	Advanced Art Practices	3
FINE 4950	Studio BFA Thesis	3
Total Hours		78

¹

Note: Students should choose a Primary and Secondary concentration before continuing with upper-division (3000/4000-level) studio courses. Any 1000/2000-level course may be taken prior to making concentration selections.

²

Note that the Secondary Concentration must be different from the Primary Concentration.

³

Note: Students wishing to select Illustration as a secondary concentration area must participate in the Illustration Portfolio Day. For more information, please click here.

⁴

These may include studio, lecture, internship or art history courses.

Primary Visual Arts Concentration

Take all of the following Primary Visual Arts Concentration courses:

Art Practices

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
FINE 2030	Life Drawing	3
FINE 2500	Beginning Foundry	3
FINE 2510	Shaping Materials	3
FINE 3200	Intermediate Painting and Drawing	3
FINE 3500	Immersive Installation Art	3
FINE 3510	Form and Play	3
FINE 3556	Concepts in Studio Art	3
FINE 4505	Sculptural Drawing	3

Secondary Concentrations

Take all of the Secondary Concentration courses from one of the following categories (Art History, Illustration or Photography).

Art History

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
FINE 4525	Museum Studies	3
Six credits of Art History Elective		6
Six credits of Art History Seminar		6

Illustration

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
FINE 3010	Illustration I: Image Making	3
FINE 3014	The Graphic Novel Workshop	3
FINE 3030	Media of Drawing	3
FINE 3410	Illustration II: Digital Media	3
FINE 3450	Digital Painting	3

Photography

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
FINE 1150	Introduction to Darkroom Photography	3
FINE 3161	The Silver Fine Print	3
FINE 3162	The Digital Fine Print	3
FINE 3171	Experimental Photography	3
FINE 4195	Photography Portfolio I	3

Note that the FINE 3556 Concepts in Studio Art course encompass rotating course topics and can be taken up to four times, with a different topic.

Please contact the College of Arts & Media at CAM@ucdenver.edu for course sequencing, any prerequisite updates and for lists of approved electives and more information about this emphasis.

To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website.