Integrated Visual Studies

Identify your role as a maker & a thinker.

Who We Are

Integrated Visual Studies is a studio-focused degree where students have the opportunity to choose a second field of study to gain a broader perspective of how art intersects with other disciplines. Our students are passionate, visionary, and driven to get the most out of their time in a university setting.

You will gain a deep knowledge of the visual arts, refine your studio techniques, reflect on individual experiences, and integrate your learning through an interdisciplinary lens. You will learn how your artform fits into the trajectory of history, thought, and cultural context. You will have the opportunity to find points of overlap or intersection between your artistic explorations and your second field of study, which will allow you to make artistic works that are informed by interdisciplinary research.

You will leave the program with a grounding in the discipline of the visual arts and technical training. Transferrable skills, including written and oral communication, project design, research, and its applications, among many others, support a wide range of careers.

This model can help you prepare for graduate school, as it is akin to the work process that grad school requires.

STUDENT WORK

Darby Hertel -

Mackenzie Looft

Darby Hertel

Gain a grounded discipline of the visual arts & technical training. Transferable skills, including written & oral communication, project design, research & its applications, among many others, support a wide range of careers.

Integrated Visual Studies Capstone Presentations; art by Cheyenne Meyers

As with each of our concentrations, your coursework will be supported by our Foundations Program, where you will learn a visual language and the technical skills to find your voice and participate with a critical eye in our complex contemporary society.

Students synthesize their learning through a capstone project of their own design. Past projects have included performances, exhibitions, debates and conferences, written curriculum, business plans, research papers, and service learning. Check out student portfolios at the links below.

Public Art in Practice by Austin Caswell

Course Journal by Caleb Carpenter (Computer science & Graphic Design)

Collage Inquiry by Devani Ruff (Creative Writing & Collage Art)

YOUR
COURSEWORK

UNITE YOUR STUDIO PRACTICE & ACADEMIC INTEREST

By taking a balance of studio and academic classes, you will foster critical awareness of how society is reflected and produced through visual means. You will explore multiple approaches to visual thinking that affect the shape of culture. Your self-propelled research into different forms of visual communication will support your holistic understanding of a variety of aesthetic, theoretical, scientific, economic, sociological, and historical viewpoints. Coursework is flexible to encourage our students to pursue their academic interests and extracurricular activities with greater intensity while connecting them to artmaking.

view the catalog

Our Facilities

The world is your studio. Students in the Integrated Visual Studies program have access to all studio spaces & laboratories within the 90,000 square foot Visual Arts building. They are strongly encouraged to work with other departments across the university & explore all facilities that CSU has to offer.