Fine Arts
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) Visual Arts degree program provides students with comprehensive knowledge and practice in the field of Visual Arts. The core of the B.F.A. degree is a strong studio curriculum with small class sizes focusing on a well-rounded program of visual art practice, art history, and critical theory supporting the ideas and technical processes of producing contemporary art. The diverse needs of visual art students are met in a dynamic environment with outstanding faculty, facilities, studios, and exhibition spaces. In addition, there are student exchange and field school programs, a visiting artists program, and opportunities for working within the community.
Our program develops innovative and critical thinkers who are flexible and adaptable to a wide range of career paths in today's emerging creative economies. Our B.F.A. graduates are prepared to pursue advanced degrees in Fine Arts and Arts Education, to enter directly into the creative industry sector, or to pursue a contemporary professional practice immediately upon graduation.
Our courses take place across multiple campuses with core classes located at the Surrey Campus. Additional courses are offered on a rotating basis at the Richmond Campus to service the wider KPU student body. Surrey Campus houses individual studio spaces for 4th year students, a large exhibition space, and a multimedia gallery. Fine Arts at KPU offers a variety of disciplines including: drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, print media, digital media, photography, art history, and art theory.
Disciplines in the Fine Arts Department:
Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Print Media, Digital Media, Photography, Art History and Theory
In this section
Student Profile
Students entering our programs come to us from diverse backgrounds with varying levels of artistic experience and skill. Whether it be a high-school graduate looking to acquire and refine skills for a career in art or art education, a current KPU student looking for breadth courses in studio and art history, an individual returning to university to update their artistic skills, or a budding artist pursing an entirely new phase of their creative and professional lives, our department welcomes students with many different academic and career goals.
What unites our students' interests is the unique environment that KPU's Fine Arts Department offers: a focus on intensive studio training in small classroom settings; access to dynamic and active faculty; lecture and seminar courses on the history of art, visual culture, studio practice, and theory; an interactive, engaged, and vibrant community of art students; and an opportunity to participate in art exhibitions, field schools, and student exchange programs.
Career Opportunities
Employers are looking for creative, innovative individuals with a well-rounded, advanced education that enables them to adapt to various environments. Recent studies by Statistics Canada have confirmed that cultural industries rely on high-quality, university-based education to ensure the excellence of its practitioners and facilitators. The visual arts sector, in particular, has been identified as a growing and dynamic area of the Canadian economy with potential for continual growth and adaptation to global change.
Upon completion of the program, students will be prepared to work as self-employed, professional artists. Students will also have the skills to excel in numerous visual arts related fields and industries such as museum and gallery work, art curation, advertising, electronic and digital arts, web design, architecture, art therapy, theatre, TV, film, education, journalism, publishing, and graphics. A Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts degree can also be the stepping-stone to further studies such as specialization certificates or post-graduate studies in a variety of arts related disciplines and professions.
B.F.A. Visual Arts graduates will acquire skills to develop a career creating and exhibiting their own work. Specific course offerings in art professionalism will enable students to be self-employed in art-related fields such as product design, crafts, public art, and murals. They will be able to capitalize on market opportunities and derive income from a variety of sources such as sales, royalties, consultation fees, copyright, exhibition, and lecture fees. Their success will come from an awareness of the need to manage their careers as self-employed individuals with a commitment to continuous personal development.
The visual arts field has always been eager to adopt and utilize new technologies such as imaging and audio software, digital video, and web-based art. Visual artists are becoming more involved not only in the application of new technologies to art but also in their design. The degree program reflects this dynamic interaction between the arts and current and emerging technologies and prepares graduates for employment opportunities in the growing industry of the electronic and digital arts.