A blend of studio-based art, socially engaged art, theory, and research, our fine art bachelor of arts (B.A.) program builds on Newark's historical roots in art, activism, and community building. Responding to a range of interests and emerging issues in the arts, we have designed a curriculum to help our students build foundations for satisfying, sustainable, ethical, diverse, and lifelong careers in the arts as well as other professional sectors of our society. In addition to focused studies in the program's particular strengths of painting and photography, courses in critical studies and advanced art history offer students social, cultural, and historical contexts for their art practice, while also preparing them for a yearlong thesis project that culminates in a gallery exhibition. This rigorous educational journey provides students fundamentals for life as an artist but also broader perspectives for other careers in the arts. These broader perspectives come from, in partnership with Express Newark, the socially engaged art center at Rutgers-Newark.
Many fine arts students also choose to pursue a minor in art history and/or our minor in curatorial and museum studies, which focuses on a range of skills that are crucial for working in today's cultural institutions: skills such as budgeting and acquisitions, print and digital marketing, public writing, and audience cultivation.
The B.A. in fine art, as well as the minor in art history and the minor in curatorial and museum studies, are offered through the Department of Arts, Culture, and Media (ACM). ACM houses programs and/or majors in art, art history, graphic design, journalism, music, theater, and video production. Each major includes an ACM core sequence requirement. Taking advantage of the range of disciplines in ACM and the campus mission to engage with its community, the core combines an integrated sequence of classes, shaped in large part by projects drawn from the urban region surrounding the university. The sequence consists of three classes: Introduction to Arts, Media, and Culture, a class designated by each program that combines interdisciplinary pedagogy with a student's major; and either Colloquium in Arts, Culture, and Media or Seminar in Arts, Culture, and Media.
Major Requirements for Major in Art (080): Specialization in Fine Art (B.A.)
Required Foundation Courses (18 credits)
21:080:121 Introduction to Drawing (3)
21:080:251 Introduction to Painting (3)
21:080:261 Introduction to Photography (3)
21:080:223 Figure Drawing (3)
21:082:101 Introduction to Art History I (3)
21:082:102 Introduction to Art History II (3)
Required Art History Courses (9 credits in consultation with adviser)
21:082:350 Development of Modern Art (3)
21:082:360 Art Since 1945 (3)
21:___:___ A 200-level or above art history course approved by adviser, such as: African Photography; Global Modernisms; Gender and Photography; Arts of Africa, etc.
Required Critical Studies Course (3 credits)
21:080:285 Seminar in Contemporary Art (3)*
*ACM Critical Studies Core Requirement
Senior Program (6 credits in consultation with adviser)
21:080:497 Senior Seminar Studio I (3)
21:080:498 Senior Seminar Studio II (3)
Courses of Specialization (15 credits from the following in consultation with adviser)
21:080:252 Painting II (3)
or 21:080:355 Painting and Drawing Workshop (3)
21:080:265 Experiments in Photography (3)
21:080:351 Painting III (3)
21:080:361 Studio Photography (3)
21:080:352 Painting IV (3)
or 21:080:362 Photography Workshop II
Arts, Culture, and Media Departmental Core Requirements for Specialization in Fine Art (B.A.) (Also see Critical Studies*) (6 credits)
21:083:101 Introduction to Arts, Culture, and Media (3)
21:083:301 Colloquium in
Arts, Culture, and Media (3) or 21:083:401
Seminar in Arts, Culture,
and Media (3)
School of Arts and Sciences-Newark 
