HOW OUR BFA SCULPTURE CURRICULUM WORKS
All Fine Arts majors must complete a year of Art Foundations before applying to a department in the School of the Arts. Sculpture majors complete the next three years in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media. The Sculpture Department’s course offerings look deceptively simple. We offer Basic Sculpture (SCPT 211/212), Intermediate Sculpture (SCPT 311/312) and Advanced Sculpture (SCPT 411/412). To supplement these courses, we offer Topics courses (SCPT 491/591). You take varying versions of these same courses throughout your career in the department.
However, the richness resides in the details. As a new Sculpture major, you will enroll in Basic Sculpture twice, once in your first and once in your second semesters. These 4-credit studios introduce you to the sculpture discipline and ground you with the fundamental skills upon which to build a practice. Students learn basic woodworking, metalworking and casting techniques in addition to exploring the intellectual probing
requisite to sustaining a studio practice.
Alongside the studio courses (and as you continue through subsequent studio courses), you will select from a veritable smorgasbord of Topics classes. These short technical modules offer additional lessons on a broad range of activities from the traditional sculpture studio such as: metal bending, forging, metal milling and lathing, wood carving, flexible mold making, foundry, introduction to electro-mechanical systems, figure modeling, etc. or from the computer lab including: 3D computer modeling, 3D computer scanning and printing, digital portfolio building, introduction to robotics, basic and advanced video, introduction to CNC routing, etc. Technical modules are constantly being added and deleted, responding to student need, faculty expertise and equipment acquisitions.
In your junior year, you enroll in Intermediate Sculpture twice and in your senior year, Advanced Sculpture 3 times. Different faculty with widely differing formats and emphases teach each of these courses. Juniors share classroom space with seasoned peers, the Seniors, gaining exposure to more sophisticated and ambitious projects. This modeling works both ways as Seniors experience leadership roles in the classroom.
MAJOR IN SCULPTURE
Complete requirements for the sculpture major can be found at the following link:
http://www.pubapps.vcu.edu/bulletins/undergraduate/?did=20432
*** IMPORTANT! *** You must work with your advisor to determine that the courses you select fulfill each of the specific requirements.
MINOR IN SCULPTURE Complete requirements for the sculpture minor can be found at the following link: http://www.pubapps.vcu.edu/bulletins/undergraduate/?did=20447