Employers are looking for creative, innovative individuals with a well-rounded, advanced education that enables them to adapt to various environments. Recent studies by Statistics Canada have confirmed that cultural industries rely on high-quality, university-based education to ensure the excellence of its practitioners and facilitators. The visual arts sector, in particular, has been identified as a growing and dynamic area of the Canadian economy with potential for continual growth and adaptation to global change.
Upon completion of the program, students will be prepared to work as self-employed, professional artists.
Students will also have the skills to excel in numerous visual arts-related fields and industries such as:
- Museum and gallery work
- Art curation
- Advertising
- Electronic and digital arts
- Web design, architecture
- Art therapy
- Theatre
- TV, film
- Education
- Journalism
- Publishing
- Graphics
A Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts degree can also be the stepping-stone to further studies such as specialization certificates or post-graduate studies in a variety of arts-related disciplines and professions.
B.F.A. Visual Arts graduates will acquire skills to develop a career creating and exhibiting their own work. Specific course offerings in art professionalism will enable students to be self-employed in art-related fields such as product design, crafts, public art, and murals. They will be able to capitalize on market opportunities and derive income from a variety of sources such as sales, royalties, consultation fees, copyright, exhibition, and lecture fees. Their success will come from an awareness of the need to manage their careers as self-employed individuals with a commitment to continuous personal development.
The visual arts field has always been eager to adopt and utilize new technologies such as imaging and audio software, digital video, and web-based art. Visual artists are becoming more involved not only in the application of new technologies to art but also in their design. The degree program reflects this dynamic interaction between the arts and current and emerging technologies and prepares graduates for employment opportunities in the growing industry of the electronic and digital arts.