Visual Arts Program
The Visual Arts Program
The Visual Arts Program
The Visual Arts Program
Within the Visual Arts program you can pursue a B.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts, Art Teacher Certification for K-12, Art History, or a B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree in Studio Art. Students in the BFA select a concentration from Photography, Studio Art (painting, printmaking, sculpture) or Visual Communications (graphic design or Illustration).
This curriculum provides the student with the foundation and advanced skills necessary for a career in the arts, graduate study, and preparation for a broad range of general career paths.
Minors in Art History and Studio Art are also available.
About the Program
Program Chair
Mariana Smith
Associate Professor of Art (Printmaking)
Mariana.Smith@stockton.edu
609-652-4670 | AS-125
With nationally recognized faculty members and dedicated studios for digital media, drawing, painting, print-making, photography, and sculpture, the Visual Arts program at Stockton is an excellent place to develop your skills as an artist while receiving an excellent liberal arts education.
The Visual Arts program prepares students for careers as artists, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, and fabricators, as well as careers in education, business, galleries and museums, and not-for-profit organizations.
The B.A. in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts or Art History, or Visual Arts K-12 Teacher Education, or the BFA in Studio Art, is also the first step for students interested in graduate study in art or art history. Visual Arts students are constantly pushed to develop their critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills, which are consistently listed among the skills Fortune 500 companies desire most.
The successes of our alumni are the best evidence of the quality of our program! Graduates of the Stockton Visual Arts program have attended top-ranked graduate programs and gone on to successful careers as photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, and in museums and galleries around the county.
Our Mission
The mission of the visual arts program is to help students acquire the skills and conceptual framework necessary for the expression of ideas in art, design and art history, and to help them develop the basis for a lifelong pursuit of creative activity.
Student Testimonials
I majored in Visual Communications, as well as Art Education during my time at Stockton College. I chose Stockton College to further my art education after touring the Arts and Sciences building. I liked that Stockton had many different new art studios to work in, including photography, painting, computer labs and a sculpture studio. Stockton also provides extra studio time to students outside of regular class time. In addition to the Arts program, the Education program at Stockton is very well known in New Jersey for producing highly skilled, qualified teachers. I heard great things about the professors who teach at Stockton, so I knew it was the right fit for me.
![Chelsey Odgers](/images/components/testimonials/chelseyOdeger_300px-iss-sq-150.jpg)
2012' B.F.A. - Visual Communications Concentration
I chose Stockton because I was looking for a strong graphic design program, but also wanted an intimate class size. A mentor at my community college recommended Stockton, and I really liked the atmosphere of the campus after a tour. While attending Stockton all of my professors knew who I was, and where I was in their courses. At Stockton you'll never feel like you are being pushed through a program as a number or a statistic. I really value the relationships I built with my professors while I attended Stockton and still keep in contact with many of them today.
![Mindi Cahall](/images/components/testimonials/Mindi-Cahall-iss-sq-150.jpg)
2009' B.F.A. - Visual Communications Concentration
I was a Visual Arts major, and my concentration was on sculpture. Stockton was very highly recommended to me by some friends who had attended. I will admit that as a non-traditional (older) student, I was hesitant to begin my college career. But once I met my professors and began my classes, I knew I was in the right place! I’m so thankful for the time I got to spend with all of them.
![Amy Konczal](/images/components/testimonials/amy-konczal-iss-sq-150.jpg)
2013' B.F.A. - Sculpture Concentration
Accreditation
The Visual Arts Program at Stockton University is accredited by:
National Association of Schools of Art and Design
11250 Roger Bacon Drive, Suite 21
Reston, VA 20190-5248
Program Outcome
The graduation rate for Stockton’s Visual Arts Program:
- BA in Visual Arts: 100% (Fall 2021)
- BFA in Visual Arts: 100% (Fall 2021)
The Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA)
The Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) is offered through the Visual Arts Program. While completing the Core Curriculum, students select a BA concentration in Art History, Interdisciplinary Visual Arts (VIBA), or Visual Arts K-12 Teacher Certification (EDVA).
Concentrations:
Interdisciplinary Studio Art (VIBA) is a general studio arts degree in the Visual Arts with flexible course selection. The one-semester capstone (Senior Project), offered each spring, culminates in a project portfolio.
Designed to provide structured opportunities for liberal arts students to develop individual artistic potential and knowledge.
Art History (VHIS) is the academic discipline that studies the history and development of the visual arts, including architecture, painting, photography, prints, sculpture, and other media.
A useful supporting field for students of the visual arts, history, literature, languages, psychology, philosophy, religion, and other disciplines.
The careers most directly related to Art History are in the curatorial, education, and administrative departments of art museums and galleries.
Art history majors have found employment in fields as varied as teaching, interior design, antiques, architecture, fashion, writing, editing, and publishing.
Visual Arts K-12 Teacher Certification (EDVA) is designed for those students seeking to earn a B.A. in Visual Arts with Teacher Certification.
Although the University requires a 2.00 cumulative G.P.A., a 3.0 cumulative GPA is the minimum requirement for NJDOE Certification. A grade of C or better is required in all ARTV courses and a B- or better in all professional education courses. (For a list of all education requirements, including Praxis Core and Praxis II tests, refer to the Teacher Education section of the Bulletin.) The student is responsible for ensuring that all graduation and teacher certification requirements are fully met. Students should consult with their designated preceptors in both ARTV and EDUC on a regular basis.
Curriculum
Click here for information about Portfolio Submission for VIBA and EDVA.
To view the curriculum, you’ll use the web program, Degree Works. This program is accessible even if you are not currently a student with Stockton University.
Current Students
Access your portal for Degree Works, then look for the “what if” option to explore the various paths towards degree completion. Click the button below for instructional videos on how to use Degree Works:
Prospective Students
Use the button below:
How to Use Degree Works Equivalency:
- At the next page you are prompted with three (3) options. Select the one that says “continue without signing in.”
- Respond to each prompt using the pull-down menu in the center of the page. [Please be patient. It may take a few seconds for the system to process your request. If you see a NO symbol, you need to wait a moment!]
Prompts include:
- Enrollment dates (Choose intended semester attending)
- Intended level (Choose “undergraduate”)
- What degree you will pursue? (Choose “Bachelor of Arts”)
- What is your intended major? (Choose “Visual Arts”)
- What is your intended concentration? (Choose from one of the concentrations listed below)
- What is your intended minor? (Choose “none” or select one - it is not required).
- For prospective students, choose “I’m all done" button.
- For transfer students, use the “class” button to see how courses already taken fit into the Stockton degree path.
- You will see an overview of the degree you have selected, including all requirements.
- At the bottom of the screen, you could save or print the worksheet.
The Bachelor of Fine Art Degree (BFA)
The Bachelor of Fine Art Degree (BFA) is offered through the Visual Arts Program. While completing the Core Curriculum, students select a BFA concentration in Illustration, Photography, Studio Art, or Visual Communications (graphic design).
The BFA offers depth in a discipline, more intense studio experience, the knowledge and technical skill set fundamental to discipline, and preparation for a career in the visual arts. In the two-semester capstone (Senior Project I and II) courses, faculty work closely with individual students toward the acquisition of advanced problem-solving skills and a personal execution of theory and techniques. The BFA culminates in a Senior Project Thesis Exhibition in the Stockton Art Gallery.
Concentrations:
Student have an opportunity to focus on three areas of empahsis.
Painting (VPTG) has been around since Paleolithic times and continues to reinvent itself.
Technical skill is developed through realism, the representation of convincing forms in light and space, via proficient color-mixing and atmospheric perspective. Abstraction investigates the expressive potential of formal means, and the personal process of composing an image. Invention is developed in imaginative, conceptual and self-directed projects.
- Developing a personal, life-enriching vocation, though a career exhibiting and selling paintings (landscapes, abstractions, portraits, murals, etc.) is always possible.
- Problem-solving aspects involving imagination and experimentation, and project development and analysis are creative and critical thinking skills applicable to many occupations.
- Continue on to graduate school, pursue careers in teaching, illustration, graphic design, galleries and museums, arts management, and a variety of other fields.
Printmaking is about the creation of works of art using various multiple-image processes that usually involve ink on paper.
Printmaking techniques include intaglio, lithography, linocut, monotype, relief printing, and woodcut. Building on knowledge learned in drawing and two-dimensional design, printmaking students learn how to mix inks, work on a press, and about different types of paper, etc.
- Emphasizes the formulation of an individual artistic voice and involves students in a variety of techniques.
- Sets a solid foundation for nearly any arts area. Printmaking majors have gone on in a variety of careers, including teaching, graphic design, and arts management.
Sculpture is about the creation of art in three-dimensional space. While sculpture includes traditional techniques like modeling and carving, and traditional materials like clay and stone, it can also involve almost any process, and be almost anything.
- Sculpture is an excellent starting point for careers in special effects, animation, the toy design, industrial design, furniture design, interior design, architecture, landscape architecture, and commercial fabrication.
Photography is one of our concentrations in the BFA in General Studio Arts. It involves a wide range of issues and technologies related to photographic practice.
The photography concentration emphasizes the use camera based images (analog and digital), light sensitive materials and problem solving skills as an expression of ideas or concepts. Students work with both analog and digital image-making processes as a means of understanding the history and contemporary practice of the medium. The darkroom and the computer labs provide complementary tools for practical and creative problem solving.
- Prepares artists for nearly every aspect of the creative industries including opportunities with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, news media, advertising, museums, galleries, and more.
- Career choices include graduate study; periodicals; large media producing companies; independent professional photographer; K-12 teaching (with certification) as well as college level teaching (with graduate study and professional record).
Visual Communications offers two areas of emphasis within its concentration.
Graphic Design is about the presentation of information through visual means.
The graphic design profession plans and creates the visual means to communicate a particular message to a particular audience and context. Graphic Designers design things people read, whether including words, signs, symbols, and imagery, or any combination of those which interprets, informs or persuades. Graphic Design utilizes typography, illustration, photography, and computer graphics.
- Acquire the technical, conceptual, and theoretical skills needed for entry-level positions in the field, for continued professional advancement, and for more specialized studies in graduate school.
- Stockton VCOM majors have gone on to careers in advertising and marketing agencies, design studios, in-house design departments in corporations and other institutions, publishing, and packaging.
Illustration is about the creation of images in order to tell a story. Illustration incorporates both representation and design.
- Bridges the disciplines of graphic design, painting, photography, and computer graphics.
- Draw attention, tell a story, and convey information with traditional and digital media.
- Illustrators often work as freelance entrepreneurs or utilize illustration approaches to imagery in combination with design and typography in advertising, publishing, and digital media.
Curriculum
Click here for information about Portfolio Submission.
To view the curriculum, you’ll use the web program, Degree Works. This program is accessible even if you are not currently a student with Stockton University.
Current Students
Access your portal for Degree Works, then look for the “what if” option to explore the various paths towards degree completion. Click the button below for instructional videos on how to use Degree Works:
Prospective Students
Use the button below:
How to Use Degree Works Equivalency:
- At the next page you are prompted with three (3) options. Select the one that says “continue without signing in.”
- Respond to each prompt using the pull-down menu in the center of the page. [Please be patient. It may take a few seconds for the system to process your request. If you see a NO symbol, you need to wait a moment!]
Prompts include:
- Enrollment dates (Choose intended semester attending)
- Intended level (Choose “undergraduate”)
- What degree you will pursue? (Choose “Bachelor of Fine Arts”)
- What is your intended major? (Choose “Visual Arts”)
- What is your intended concentration? (Choose from one of the concentrations listed below)
- What is your intended minor? (Choose “none” or select one - it is not required).
- For prospective students, choose “I’m all done" button.
- For transfer students, use the “class” button to see how courses already taken fit into the Stockton degree path.
- You will see an overview of the degree you have selected, including all requirements.
- At the bottom of the screen, you could save or print the worksheet.
Minors
The minors in Studio Art and Art History are designed to provide a coherent, formal, and officially recognized course of study in the Visual Arts for the non-art major, the student whose primary field lies elsewhere but who desires, out of personal interest or for career reasons, to pursue a cohesive program in art. Studio Art majors working toward either the BFA or B.A. degree may also elect to minor in Art History. The Visual Arts comprise a field of great relevance and enrichment to a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to communication, history, literature, education, theatrical studies, business studies, and the sciences.
A student must meet the University criteria, which include a minimum grade point average of 2.0 overall and must satisfy all of the course distribution requirements for the Visual Arts minors. A maximum of two transfer courses will be counted toward a Stockton Visual Arts minor.
To view the Course Schedule by term, click here. See the Catalog of Courses for complete descriptions of course offerings.
For detailed curriculum information, please refer to the Academic Bulletin.
Visual Arts Faculty
![Chung-Fan Chang](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/chang.jpg)
Chung-Fan Chang
![Jacob Feige](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/feige_jacob_web.jpg)
![Michael McGarvey](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/McGarvey.jpg)
![Jedediah Morfit](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/morfit_jed_web.jpg)
Jedediah Morfit
![Kate Nearpass Ogden](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/Ogden1.jpg)
![Mariana Smith](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/smith.jpg)
Mariana Smith
![Wendel A. White](/arts-humanities/images/faculty/White2.jpg)
Wendel A. White
Adjunct Faculty
![Michael Cagno](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
Michael Cagno
![Ryann Casey](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
Ryann Casey
![Alice Cook](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Dan Gambert](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
Dan Gambert
![Darla Jackson](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Frank Kallop](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Linda Meiberg](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Joseph Podlesnik](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Glynnis Reed](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Annemari Tarsitano](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Christina Walley](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
![Joe Winter](/_resources/images/default-employee-bg.png)
Special Opportunities
Students have access to studios for printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic design and computer graphics, and a photographic darkroom. The Stockton University Art Gallery hosts a variety of exhibitions throughout the year, including work by graduating BFA students. The Visual Arts Program offers regular bus trips to New York City and Philadelphia.
Interested students have the option of participating in Design for Community Partners, a service-learning internship in which design students collaborate with not-for-profit community partners to solve visual communication problems for the benefit of the entire community. Students also have the opportunity to participate in internships with other companies, studios, and museums, including the Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton University.
The Art Club is an extracurricular organization, open to any Stockton student that engages in art-related creative and social activities. Activities have included field trips; figure drawing sessions, silk screening, button making, and the production of a colorful calendar featuring student artwork.
Facilities
Students have access to studios for printmaking, painting, sculpture, graphic design and computer graphics, and a photographic darkroom. A brand new Art Gallery hosts a variety of exhibitions throughout the year.
Alumni Highlights
Eric Sung
Eric Sung is an artist and photographer. He is a full professor (effective 2023) in the Art and Art History Department at Providence College and the founding director of a cutting-edge program in Business and Innovation. Since receiving his BA in Studio Art from Stockton University, and MFA from Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, Sung has established himself as a visionary artist, publicly engaged scholar, and award-winning teacher. His innovative and creative vision has materialized multiple interdisciplinary ideas into action with a diverse group of stakeholders.
His experiential scholarship and companion works have appeared internationally in peer-reviewed and juried conferences and venues, including the Society for Photography Education (SPE), International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), Imagining America, International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement International Conference (IARSLCE), and Global University Network for Innovation International Conference (GUNI). Recently, Sung was awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and serves on a Board of Directors for the SPE.
“The power of art and creativity are desperately needed for us more than ever before to re-imagine the future." -Eric E. Sung
Careers
This list is not exhaustive but it provides a solid idea of what fellow graduates have gone on to do and what potential careers a Visual Arts degree can offer. Some options are more directly associated with specific areas of Visual Arts than others.
- Architect
- Archivist
- Art Consultant
- Art Editor
- Art Gallery Director
- Artist
- Cartoonist
- Cinematographer
- Courtroom Sketch Artist
- Critic
- Curator
- Engraver
- Exhibit Designer
- Fashion Designer
- Furniture Designer
- Gallery Director
- Graphic Designer
- Historian
- Illustrator
- Interior Decorator
- Jewelry Designer
- Journalist
- Landscape Designer
- Medical Illustrator
- Multimedia Consultant
- Museum Director
- Non-profit Administrator
- Painter
- Performer
- Photographer
- Product Designer
- Sculptor
- Set Designer
- Special Effects Consultant
- Tattoo Artist
- Teacher