Visual & Performing Arts

Program Description

Purchase College, State University of New York

		Program Description Program Overview Get Free Info Web Site Visit Email a Friend

Purchase College, unique in the history of postsecondary education, offers professional and conservatory programs in visual and performing arts that are set in the context of a small and selective liberal arts college. Philosophically as well as pragmatically, the purpose of the School of Art+Design’s programs is to provide an educational atmosphere in which students and artists work together, engage in critical dialogue, experiment, test their ideas, and learn. The School of Art+Design at Purchase College offers professional programs that prepare students for careers in the visual arts by honoring tradition, encouraging experimentation, and embracing new concepts, materials, and technologies. A faculty of working artists and designers is committed to creating a supportive climate in which students are passionate about learning to see, to think, to create, and to reflect. The internationally renowned Neuberger Museum of Art, located next door to the Art+Design Building, enhances learning through its collections and exhibitions and access to curators, artists, designers, and educators.

The School of Art+Design offers a four-year curriculum, which culminates in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree, and a two-year graduate curriculum, which culminates in the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.).

Each student follows a program of study that allows development of the student’s particular areas of interest and preparation for professional status in art and design. In the professional art school program, the student investigates introductory courses in different visual arts disciplines and, over the course of four years, specializes in a major area of study: graphic design, painting and drawing, photography, printmaking/art of the book, video and time-based media, or sculpture/3-D media. A student may wish to pursue an interdisciplinary course of study where several media areas are investigated with an emphasis on synthesis and juxtaposition of these disciplines.

Students and faculty members from the three performing arts conservatories on campus—Dance, Music, and Theater Arts and Film—as well as faculty members and students from the natural and social sciences and humanities, add to the scope of the critical and aesthetic discourse at the College. A strong liberal arts curriculum informs the work and expands the interests of visual and performing arts students to better prepare them to not only make art, but to excel and to contribute to the fields in significant ways.

The events and activities at the campus’ Performing Arts Center, as well as those at the Neuberger Museum, bring the curriculum and the campus discourse to life. On any given day, a student may attend a lecture on music or science, a dance performance, a talk by a noted author, or an exhibition by students or a legendary figure in the arts.

The level of the programmatic excellence is evidenced in the professional achievement of recent alumni in exhibiting in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art and a wide range of noted galleries nationally and in other countries. Alumni of the School hold a variety of positions in the design field, including those of art director at Rolling Stone magazine, Atlantic Records, Nine West, and Coach, Inc. Accolades for the School’s alumni/ae include selection as the United States’ representative to the prestigious Venice Biennale, a coveted honor, and such significant and highly regarded fellowships and grants as the Fulbright, Guggenheim, MacArthur, Prix de Rome, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

The interaction of artists and scholars across the arts and the liberal arts and sciences programs creates a cross-fertilization that is mutually beneficial. This, then, is the premise and promise of Purchase College: a stimulating environment and a springboard for the individual imagination.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: March 15. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: April 15. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, minimum 2.0 high school GPA, 2 letters of recommendation, portfolio, SAT or ACT test scores, minimum TOEFL score of 550 for international applicants. Recommended: minimum 3.0 high school GPA, interview. Auditions held 1 time. Portfolio reviews held twice on campus and off campus in National Portfolio Day Association events; the submission of slides may be substituted for portfolios whenever needed.

Undergraduate Contact

Ms. Simone Varadian, Counselor, Admissions Department, Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York 10577-1400; 914-251-6307, fax: 914-251-6314.

Graduate Contact

Ms. Sabrina Johnston, Counselor, Admissions Department, Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York 10577-1400; 914-251-6479, fax: 914-251-6314.