Create, experiment and develop your artistic voice
You don’t have to arrive knowing exactly what kind of artist you want to be. Studying studio art at Transylvania gives you room to explore materials, processes and technologies as you discover what you want to create — and what you want your work to say.
You’ll learn by making, as you experiment with traditional media alongside digital and technology-based approaches. Class critiques, exhibitions, visiting artists, travel and professional experiences give you new ways to test your ideas, strengthen your skills and shape your creative direction alongside faculty and other student artists.
What Will You Study in Studio Art?
An idea might begin as a drawing and lead you somewhere completely different. In studio art, you can work across processes, materials and technologies as you discover which approaches best fit the work you want to make.
You can create across areas including:
- Animation
- Ceramics
- Drawing
- Film and video
- Graphic design
- Painting
- Photography
- Printmaking
- Sculpture
As you make, experiment and refine your work, you’ll strengthen your creative problem-solving and critical visual thinking while building a creative practice that becomes increasingly your own.
You really have room to explore and try new mediums and things you didn’t even know were an option. Professors get to know what you’re good at and what you want to do and help you develop those skills.
— Katie Axon
Exhibit, Curate and Connect
You don’t have to wait until senior year to put your work in front of an audience. Exhibit your work, participate in critiques, meet visiting artists and learn what goes into putting together a show.
Morlan Gallery presents five exhibitions of contemporary art by local, national and international artists throughout the academic year. Through exhibitions, class visits and talks by visiting artists, curators and scholars, you can encounter new perspectives and ideas that challenge how you think about your own work.
The Susan P. Shearer Student Art Gallery gives you opportunities to put your own work in front of an audience. You can participate in course, group and individual exhibitions, critique work and propose an exhibition of your own — gaining experience not only as an artist, but also making decisions about how creative work is selected, organized and presented.
And because your campus is in the heart of Lexington, the city’s arts community becomes another place to learn. You can experience exhibitions, gallery talks, open studios, receptions and events such as the Gallery Hop while connecting what you’re exploring on campus with a broader creative community.
Experience Art Beyond the Studio
New places can change how you see — and what you make. Encounter different artists, creative practices and cultural contexts, and then bring new perspectives back to the work you make in Lexington.
Through the program-funded Gray Art Trip, studio art and art history majors have the opportunity to experience art and artistic practice in a major U.S. city. Previous destinations have included New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
May term and study abroad courses offer additional opportunities to make and experience art in new places and cultural contexts. Courses have included Lights, Camera, Anime! in Japan, Drawing on Ireland, Art and Ecology in Pine Mountain, Kentucky, and art and design courses in Spain and the Netherlands.
An endowed scholarship program also provides support for students participating in art or art history-focused May term travel courses.
Bring Your Ideas Together in the Studio Art Senior Capstone
Studio art majors conclude their studies by bringing their ideas, skills and experiences together in a focused body of original work. Through Guided Studio and Senior Exhibition and Professional Practices, you’ll shape and refine that work with faculty guidance before presenting it in a senior exhibition in Morlan Gallery.
The experience challenges you to move from individual ideas to a cohesive body of work, make thoughtful decisions about how your work is presented and share it publicly. It’s a chance to bring together the artistic direction you’ve discovered through your studio art studies and create work that reflects where you want to go next.
“I don’t think my art would be where it is without these professors. You get to know them personally, and you get that support in your art.”
— Molly Uphoff ’26
Build Professional Experience
Show your work. Sell something you made. Take on an internship. Apply for funding to pursue an idea further. Your art studies can give you ways to start building a portfolio and learning how creative work moves beyond the classroom before you graduate.
Submit your work to the Juried Student Art Show through a selection process led by a guest expert juror and modeled on professional juried exhibitions. At the Makers Market, you can gain experience pricing, promoting and selling your creative work alongside local artists and alumni.
You can also pursue internships in fields such as graphic design, game design, film production, museum and gallery work, exhibition preparation and arts administration. University grants offer another way to take your ideas further through creative and scholarly projects. Students have received funding to create artwork on-site in Romania — it was later included in an on-campus exhibition.
Explore creative careers, alumni paths and where your art studies can take you on [Studio Art Career Outcomes].
Take the Next Step
See where your ideas could take shape. Visit campus to explore the studios and galleries and picture what you could make here.