BFA & BA in Studio Art and Design

Study art and design at one of the nation's top research universities.

Whether you want to publish illustrated books, create sculptural installations, design for public health initiatives, launch your own fashion line, produce aerial drone videos, make interactive websites—or dozens of other things!—we will help you forge the educational path to get there.

ADMISSIONS + SCHOLARSHIPS

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take courses like:

drone photography • eco-art • digital game design • design for social impact • sculpting realities • art, environment, culture, + image • the business of fashion • printmaking: propaganda to decoration • enchanted objects: material culture • textile design • letterpress printing • collage: history + practice • art + feminism • material as metaphor • the illustrator’s sketchbook • the painted figure • branding + identity • knitwear design • compositions in clay • architecture through the photographic lens…

AREAS OF STUDY

Bachelor of Fine Arts Program

More studio-intensive experience
65 credits of studio courses (about ½ of your total coursework)
Majors: Studio Art, Communication Design, Fashion Design
Capstone experience + annual thesis exhibition

**Students may also earn the BFA as part of a dual-degree program.

Bachelor of Arts Program

Broader liberal arts focus
30-36 credits of studio courses (about ¼ of your total coursework)
Majors in Studio Art or Design (Communication or Fashion concentration)
No capstone requirement

Second Majors

Major in Studio Art or Design
Open to all WashU undergraduates
Develops essential skills, like visual thinking + creativity

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Minors

Creative Practice for Social Change
Design
Human-Computer Interaction
Studio Art

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The amazing faculty taught me lessons I’ll always carry with me—consideration, fearlessness, failure, hard work—and helped me grow in ways I couldn’t have imagined.

— Jack, Class of 2019 Major: BFA in Art, Second major in Art History & Archaeology

Visiting Artists & Designers

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Faculty

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Study Abroad: Florence

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Art + Design Life

Being a Sam Fox School student is a unique experience at WashU. Everyone’s always a bit more curious (okay maybe jealous) about what’s happening on our side of campus… It’s just weirder down here. And it’s better that way.

6 students observe and take photos on their phones of a student rotating a secured-by-straps Arny like a rotisserie chicken

Since 2000, first-years in Arny Nadler’s 3D class have created “Arnymovers,” contraptions designed to hold + move one Arny. Themes have included carnivals, food, and, um—as seen here—torture.

STUDENT + ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

Alumni spotlight

Adam Rubin, BFA in Communication Design ’05

Adam Rubin is a #1 New York Times best-selling author, a world-renowned designer of optical illusions and impossible objects, and director of puzzles and games for the retail brand Art of Play.

Alumni spotlight

Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, BFA in Studio Art ’08

Kimia Ferdowsi Kline discusses her current practice and the way Family Systems Theory influences her work in this Q&A.

Student spotlight

Q&A with Maggie Miller

Maggie Miller talks about her aesthetic as a designer, how her second major influences her research work in wearable technologies, and more.

Alumni spotlight

Ben Blount, BFA '94

Ben Blount discusses his work as group art supervisor at Razorfish Health and running the letterpress studio MAKE.

Six illustrated children's book covers are displayed against a bright blue background. The top row of three features "High Five," "Dragons Love Tacos," and "Secret Pizza Party." The bottom row features "El Chupacabras," "Dragons Love Tacos 2," and "Robosauce."

Mixed media painting featuring a vibrant, rounded pink and orange X-like figure in the center, with ovular shapes—some appearing to be heads, around the perimeter in black, olive green, yellow, and brown. Composed of ink, acrylic, freshwater pearls, lava beads, fire glass, glitter, abalone, thread, and glass beads on papyrus.

Monoprint with black and gray type that has a jumble of letters.

Adam Rubin is a #1 New York Times best-selling author, a world-renowned designer of optical illusions and impossible objects, and director of puzzles and games for the retail brand Art of Play.