College of Art

Photo of Art Course

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is a unique collaboration in architecture, art, and design education, linking professional studio programs with one of the country's finest university art museums in the context of an internationally recognized research university.

The Sam Fox School is composed of the College of Architecture, the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, the College of Art, the Graduate School of Art, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

A Professional Art and Design College Within a University

The College of Art offers students the opportunity to study art or design while taking both required and elective courses through other schools and divisions of the university. The College of Art, which has its own faculty and facilities, has been a degree-conferring division of Washington University since 1879.

Undergraduate students at the College of Art have a wide variety of options from which to choose to meet their individual needs and satisfy their interests. The curriculum has been designed around the philosophy that the study of art has no natural boundaries; all human experience — intellectual, technological and social — can at some point become part of the purposes of an artist or designer. College of Art courses provide a structural base upon which students are able to build.

Students in the College of Art at Washington University may choose to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree or a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. BFA students can major in communication design, fashion design or art. BFA Art has optional concentrations in painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and time-based + media art. BA students can major in art or design. BA Design has optional concentrations in communication and fashion.

Undergraduate students in Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Business and Engineering can add a dual degree, second major or minor in art or design to their existing degree path. These opportunities help students foster creativity, expand horizons and explore opportunities for careers in art and design.

Our diverse student body is composed of young people who have records of high achievement in both art or design and in academics. Because the College of Art provides such a comprehensive learning environment, it is an excellent place for a student to mature as an artist or designer.

Facilities

The Sam Fox School is comprised of six buildings located on the east end of the Danforth Campus. Studios, classrooms and maker spaces are located in William K. Bixby Hall, Joseph B. Givens Hall, Mark C. Steinberg Hall, Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker Hall, and Anabeth and John Weil Hall. In addition, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum includes more than 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, the Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden, the Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library, and the Department of Art History & Archaeology in the College of Arts & Sciences.

In addition, the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library — a division of Washington University Libraries' Special Collections — is a preeminent site for studying the history and culture of American illustration, and it is comprised of original art and printed material from many fields of popular American pictorial graphic culture. The collection focuses on 20th-century illustration, and it includes artists' working materials and sketches as well as original artwork from books, magazines, and advertising.

Contact Info

Phone:314-935-7497
Email:samfoxschool@wustl.edu
Website:https://samfoxschool.wustl.edu/academics/college-of-art/