Department
A.Institutional Goals
Our program is designed for undergraduate students who want to combine intensive and innovative studio art practice with an outstanding education in the liberal arts. A thorough grounding in art history and critical theory helps students explore issues in their own work and that of others. It is a major goal of our program to prepare students for meaning careers in the arts. Our students can also acquire teacher certification by enrolling the certification program offered in the after passing a profile evaluation.
B.Educational Goals
Since the year of 2000 when the Department of Art Education was re-organized to be the Department of Fine Art, our educational goals haven’t been focused so much on educating pre-service art teachers. Instead, our new department has placed its emphasis on training professionals in the fields of art making, art theory, art education, art policy, computer art and design, etc. However, if our students intend to be certified as primary or secondary teachers, they can apply for the teaching certification programs for the primary and secondary education.
C.The Curriculum Features
All students from the Department of Fine Art are required to complete a minimum of 128 approved credit hours, of which 30 hours are general knowledge courses, 50 hours are required courses, and 48 hours are elective. The courses are grouped into two main clusters as listed in the following:
A. Studio Art: 1. Chinese and Western painting: Drawing, Watercolor Painting, Oil Painting, Black Ink Painting, Calligraphy and etc…, 2. 3D and Engraving: Ceramics, 3D modeling, Sculpture, Mix Media, Engraving, Installation Art and etc…, 3. Computer Art and Design: 3D Painting and Application, Homepage Design and Application, Animation and Creation of Computer, Design and Construction and etc….
B. Art Theory: 1. Basic Theory and Art History: Chinese Arts History, Western Arts History, Taiwanese Arts History, Psychology of Arts, Aesthetics, Art Criticism, Color Theory, Modern Art and Contemporary Art, Western and Eastern Art History, Taiwanese Art History, Chinese Art Theory, Folk Arts, Public Art, Sociology of Art, and Research Method and Thesis Writing, etc., 2. Art Education and Art Administration: Introduction to Arts Education, Child Art Developmental Theory, Visual Culture and Art Education, Psychology of Art, Stage Design, Cultural and Arts Policy, Art Administration and Management and etc.
D.Faculty
There are 10 full time faculty members in our department and graduate institute currently. Five of them are full professors, five associate professors, and three assistant professors. There are several part-time faculty memb ers as well.
E.Facilities
The Department of Fine Arts that is well equipped with classrooms, workshops, studios, galleries and office space. The facilities for our computer labs, printmaking studio, and ceramics studio are advanced and updated for newly-developed technical needs. There are also outdoor work areas. The beautiful NCYU-Ming Shyong campus is good for professors to take students to draw, paint or take photography outside, and can be used for exhibitions of installation art.
A new art building has been under construction since August, 2007, and be finished in June, 2008. This is a five-floor building which is designed for multiple functions. The first floor is mainly for studios of plastic art and sculpture; the second floor is for an auditorium and several seminar rooms; the third floor is for painting class and printmaking; the fourth floor is for comprehensive class, studios, and offices; the fifth floor is especially for mix media, installation and big scale of art production.
F.Perspectives
By developing effective curriculum and pedagogy, our department intends to strengthen students’ capacities for making art and applying art theories. Our department also places a strong emphasis on achieving the balance between traditional art media and advanced computer art technology and the integration of art theories and practices. To envision a promising future, our department has been enforcing the research studies and practices of art education, applied arts, and art administration. In the meantime, our department is now planning to establish an art and design center and a traditional art and crafts center.
G. Career Development
Students graduated from our department and graduate institute are prospective to the professionals such as art educators, art administrators, artists, researchers in art relevant fields, computer graphic designers, commercial graphic designers, art administrators, or government officers. They are also well prepared for further graduate programs in related fields.
Master
A. Institutional Goals
Our program is designed for students who wish to pursue the graduate-level of professional training as artists and art teachers in art world, public and private schools, museums, community-based programs, and other alternative art and educational sites. It also prepares students to be innovative researchers, art theorists and advocates of the arts in the fields. Our program in visual arts combines a foundation in critical theory with a solid grounding in practice. It also conceptualizes the artist-teacher as cultural producer, intellectual, and activist. With special focus on both western and eastern arts and their social contexts, our curriculum emphasizes a multicultural approach. Students are trained to view arts within philosophical, historical, political, and sociological contexts. It is a major effort of our MA program to educate students being reflective and critical in making and teaching of arts.
Being more specifically, the mission of our Graduate Institute is fivefold: (1) educating students to be professionals in visual arts as well as to be enthusiastic about participating in our society’s art-cultural development, (2) strengthening the quality and quantity of research in visual arts, (3) increasing special opportunities for in-service and pre-service students to take practice in art education, (4) enabling students to appreciate and understand arts from both local and other cultures, and to develop the broad perspective that frees one to appreciate diversity and change across time, culture, and national boundaries, and (5) empowering students to be critical to arts from socio-contextual perspectives and to help activate the development of local arts through research, art and classroom practice.
B. Educational Goals
The goals of our institutional pedagogy and study is four-fold: (1) educating professional artists and art theorists in order to promote cultural advancements, (2) providing programs of further education for art teachers to enhance qualities of art education, (3) developing visual art research that has local and international visions, and (4) promoting cross-disciplinary integration of visual art research.
C. The Curriculum Features
All students must complete a minimum of 32 credit hours of approved graduate study courses, of which ten hours are required and twenty-two selective. In addition to the course requirements, students must write a substantial, well-researched master’s thesis on a particular interest or issue in potential fields. The master’s thesis is conducted in the last semester, after satisfactory completion of the research course in visual arts. Of the Studio Art group, the student is required to present an exhibition with a written thesis and an oral defense is required for graduation. To make it clearer, we list the course schedule in the following:
Required Courses (4 credits)
Issues in Visual Arts 2 credits for Art Theory group
Theories in Artistic Production 2 credits for Studio Art group
Methodology in Visual Arts Research 2 credits for both group
Electives (22 credits)
Courses are divided into the Art Theory core and the Studio Art core.
Master Thesis or Graduate Exhibition with Thesis (6 credits)
Total 32 credits for graduation
D. Faculty
There are 11 full time faculty members in our department and graduate institute currently. Four of them are full professors, four associate professors, and three assistant professors. There are several part-time faculty members as well.
E. Perspectives
Our graduate institute will invest more energy and effort in deepening and widening our research studies and art productions, and, meanwhile, continue to improve our pedagogical practice and institutional facilities. In order to enhance students’ professional development, our institute will create more opportunities for graduate students to collaborate with other cultural institutions and graduate schools. Now, we are applying for permission from the Ministry of Education to serve a doctoral program and it is expected to set forth in the very near future.
F. Facilities
The Department of Visual Arts shares with the Graduate Institute of Visual Arts a building that is well equipped with classrooms, workshops, studios, galleries and office space. The facilities for our computer labs, printmaking studio, and ceramics studio are advanced and updated for newly-developed technical needs. There are also outdoor work areas. The beautiful NCYU-Ming Shyong campus is good for professors to take students to draw, paint or take photography outside, and can be used for exhibitions of installation art.
A new art building has been under construction since August, 2007, and will be finished in June, 2008. This is a five-floor building which is designed for multiple functions. The first floor is mainly for studios of plastic art and sculpture; the second floor is for an auditorium and several seminar rooms; the third floor is for painting class and printmaking; the fourth floor is for comprehensive class, studios, and offices; the fifth floor is especially for mix media, installation and big scale of art production.
G. Career Development
Students graduated from our department and graduate institute are prospective to the professionals such as art educators, art administrators, artists, researchers in art relevant fields, computer graphic designers, commercial graphic designers, art administrators, or government officers. They are also well prepared for further graduate programs in related fields.
