Foundation Year and Liberal Arts Students begin with our Foundation program, a year-long introduction to forms, methods, media, and concepts crucial to your future academic and professional success. You will emerge from the program on technically equal footing with your peers—ready to concentrate on the study and practice of art and design.
Laying the Groundwork for Your Future Our Foundation studio curriculum offers an intensive exploration of color, form, design, and creative problem solving. You will begin with core courses in drawing, design, color, and digital studies that acquaint you with composition, drawing principles, and 2D and 3D materials and processes. As you work on studio projects, you will investigate visual dynamics, creative processes, and issues that inform contemporary art, design and culture. To help you transition from Foundation studies into the major of your choice, you also will take an elective class. The elective offers an opportunity to explore various disciplines in the arts, crafts, and design areas while helping you make an informed choice about your major and future career path.
Share in a Collective Setting Be prepared for lively debates and the camaraderie that develops as you and your peers work together in studio. The Foundation experience fosters a learning environment that is responsive to your aspirations, as well as to innovations in the world of art and design. We balance fundamental approaches with experimentation to develop your aesthetic sensibilities. Take advantage of our amazing location in the center of Cleveland’s cultural district. Our classes regularly travel across the street to the permanent collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the exhibits of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, or through the rainforest of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. With Case Western Reserve University,
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University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic located a quick walk across Euclid Avenue we tap into unmatched science and health care resources that boost our curriculum.
and criticism. Or opt for a Creative Writing Concentration if you want a career advantage in fields like illustration or film (or if you just love to write).
Liberal Arts at CIA
The following courses comprise the Foundation Requirements:
At the Cleveland Institute of Art, we cultivate the intellectual development of our students as they move through each of their degree programs. In order to create, you need not only art and design skills, but also the ideas behind them. So woven throughout each semester at CIA are courses in the humanities and social sciences—art history, English, philosophy, anthropology, psychology. At CIA you will graduate with a breadth of knowledge that is the hallmark of the baccalaureate degree.
The Three C’s: Culture, Creativity, Connection A singular feature of the Institute’s Liberal Arts curriculum is our approach to studying a subject by connecting it to other disciplines in our program. For example, in your freshman year at CIA, you may read about ancient and medieval philosophy and culture in English class while also taking Ancient and Medieval History of Art. This carefully calibrated educational experience creates a comprehensive perspective on a subject that will give you a broad sense of the trajectory of world history itself. Our Liberal Arts curriculum is designed to develop your understanding of world cultures—both past and present—and to discover the importance of these ideas to the growth of your artistic life. Coursework centers on the ideas of culture as a generator of creative ideas and of students as makers within their cultures.
Foster the Expression of Ideas Reading and composition are crucial to the development of your own artistic ideas. By completing rigorous assignments in analytical essays and research papers, you will become a stronger writer, able to convey your point of view in tandem with understanding diverse perspectives. For those who excel in these areas, you also may choose to add concentrated Liberal Arts coursework to your studies. Complete a Visual Culture Emphasis to enjoy extensive training in art history, theory,
nn Art History: Ancient 18th Century: Concepts, Themes, and Methods nn Critical Issues in Art and Design History: 18th Century–1945 nn Critical Issues in Art and Design History: 1945–Present nn Post-1960s Art and Design Electives nn Writing + Inquiry I: Basic Composition + Contemp Ideas nn Writing + Inquiry II: Research + Intellectual Traditions nn Writing + Inquiry III: Narrative Forms nn Advanced Writing-Intensive Electives
The following courses can be used to fulfill the Distributional Requirements: These courses are offered on a rotational basis nn 10 Chinese Painters You Must Know nn 12 Artists of 1950s China nn Abnormal Psychology nn Advertising Images nn African American Art nn American Crafts History nn American Vernacular Architecture nn Anthropology nn Art of China nn Art of the Personal Essay nn Artist as Author nn Arts Journalism nn Arts of East Asia nn Asian Art Survey nn Autobiographical Narrative in African Literature nn Basic Theories of Psychology nn The Body: Tradition, Transformation, Transgression nn Censorship, Art, and the Law nn Chinese Poetry nn Conceptual Art: History, Theory, and Contemporary Practices nn Contemporary African and AfricanAmerican Literature nn Creative Writing Workshop: Dialogue and Story nn Creativity and Taoism nn Culture/Conflict/Syncretism in African and African-American Literature