Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design - Illustration & Animation

at Shorelight Group - University of Kansas USA

The Department of Architecture emphasizes design education through diverse experiences which include learning through making, collaborative research, and community engagement. Our mission is to provide our graduates with an educational foundation for exemplary professional practice and personal career fulfillment; to prepare them to be critical thinkers and problem solvers who will serve, enrich, and sustain their professions and communities.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design program is a four-year interdisciplinary course of study. Graduates of KU’s Industrial Design program are particularly attractive to potential employers because of our well rounded and rigorous curriculum. Our students find career opportunities in a wide variety of disciplines including product design, furniture design, exhibit design, package design, human factors, design research and product planning. Check out a selection of student work.

The variety of products and systems that fall within the potential scope of an industrial designer's work is extremely broad. Examples range from household appliances to aircraft interiors and from furniture to major electronics equipment, transportation vehicles, and myriad other product areas. Consequently, some industrial designers choose to specialize in particular area, e.g., automobile or furniture design, while others prefer to divide their efforts among several product areas that fall within their own design interests.

Practice is directed toward the creation and development of concepts, designs, and specifications, that optimize the value, function, convenience, safety, utility, and appearance of manufactured products and systems for the mutual benefit of both users and manufacturers of those products.

While the pandemic has changed the way KU delivers a world-class education, our Chemistry students and faculty continue to passionately pursue their goals to advance discovery and change the world. Your support of KU Chemistry is always needed, but even more important right now.

Our Department will introduce you to histories, cultures and societies in Africa and its Diasporas, with due attention to the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.  Our degrees, with opportunities for fieldwork in Africa or the African Diaspora, encourage students to engage in independent study to maximize their academic and research potential, and prepare for careers in these geographic, cultural, and policy areas.

In 1968, San Francisco State University established the nation's first Black Studies department. In 1970, the University of Kansas created the Department of African Studies, which became African and African-American Studies in 1986. Like any department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, our goal is to prepare students to succeed in a wide range of professions including the arts, business, education, foreign affairs, medicine, law, science, and the like. Yet we, along with many of the similar African and African American Studies departments around the country.

The Environmental Studies Program at the University of Kansas, established in 1971, is one of the oldest environmental studies programs in the country. It is an interdisciplinary program, with faculty from professional schools, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

The program provides students with the tools they need to investigate environmental phenomena, including soil sampling and freshwater ecology to policy-making and social science. Environmental Studies students learn how to put together what other disciplines take apart.

The Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies (REES) program offers students a broad background in the languages, arts, literatures, histories, politics, and cultures of Russia, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and countries of the West Slavic (Poland, Czech Republic) and South Slavic (Balkan) regions. The program is interdisciplinary and draws on over 45 faculty members and courses from 14 different KU departments and schools.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art is a four-year, 120 credit hour degree program. The first year is spent in Foundations where students focus on the development of their creative and technical skills.

After the foundation year, students select five introductory courses from across the seven studio areas; Ceramics, Expanded Media, Metalsmithing/Jewelry, Painting/Drawing, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Textiles/Fibers.

The intent is for students to explore a variety of mediums in order to determine how they would like to focus their advanced studies. In addition, fundamental concepts and strategies of artmaking are reinforced, even as new techniques and approaches from various disciplines are introduced.

The B.G.S. degree in the Department of Religious Studies is a research, analysis, and writing intensive program that features close work with faculty in small classroom settings. The B.G.S. develops a foundational knowledge of the world’s diversity of religious cultures in students, while accompanying a secondary field of academic study (a second major, co-major, or minor). Through the study of specific religious traditions and settings, students come away with a background that is invaluable to understanding and working with people of other cultures, whether in international business, medicine, law, or simply as an informed global citizen.

The Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies (REES) program offers students a broad background in the languages, arts, literatures, histories, politics, and cultures of Russia, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and countries of the West Slavic (Poland, Czech Republic) and South Slavic (Balkan) regions. The program is interdisciplinary and draws on over 45 faculty members and courses from 14 different KU departments and schools.

The String Area is comprised of nationally and internationally recognized artists. Students study with faculty who are in demand as featured soloists with orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and the world, and who are equally active as university faculty and master class teachers.

All four faculty members have a wide experience in symphonic and chamber music, as well as an extensive list of solo performances. Orchestras in which they have participated include the Cleveland Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and Montreal Symphony. Their music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival in Vermont, Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival, and International Musical Arts Institute.

KU string alumni have gone on to important teaching and performance careers and have appeared as soloists with orchestras throughout the region, as well as nationally. They currently serve on faculties at universities such as Penn Sate University, Mercer University (GA), Harrisburg University (PA), and the University of Utah (Logan). They are members of professional orchestras, such as the Buffalo Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.