Discover the power of expression in this BFA program
Have you been searching for the right college for fine arts? Ringling College of Art and Design’s Fine Arts BFA degree is an intimate program with limited enrollment, providing individual attention that fosters a tight-knit community of artists.
Critical thinking, painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and technology make up the backbone of the Fine Arts curriculum. Students learn technical and conceptual skills, explore innovative modes of expression, and develop an awareness of the historical and contemporary context of their work.
Our program prepares students for success in the 67-billion-dollar international art industry. We provide students with their own studio spaces, state-of-the-art facilities, and a multitude of exhibition opportunities. Graduates of the program go on to become critically acclaimed artists, industry creatives, and entrepreneurs.
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Fine Arts Concentrations
Photography and Video Concentration
This concentration provides students with a strong foundation in lens-based media, emphasizing both creative expression and technical proficiency. Through hands-on work in digital and analog photography and video production, students explore visual storytelling, conceptual development, and contemporary media practices. The curriculum integrates historical and theoretical perspectives, encouraging students to develop a personal voice and a critical eye.
Sculpture and Expanded Media Concentration
This concentration offers an interdisciplinary approach to three-dimensional and time-based art practices, encompassing traditional sculptural processes alongside contemporary strategies in installation, performance, and digital media. Students investigate form, space, and material through hands-on exploration of fabrication techniques, conceptual frameworks, and critical theory. Through studio practice and critique, students are encouraged to challenge boundaries and engage with social, cultural, and environmental contexts.
Painting Concentration
The Painting concentration provides students with a rigorous and exploratory studio experience rooted in both tradition and innovation. Through intensive study in observational painting and contemporary approaches, students develop technical skills, visual literacy, and a personal aesthetic voice. Coursework emphasizes material exploration, color theory, and critical engagement with historical and contemporary painting practices
Printmaking Concentration
The Printmaking concentration offers students a comprehensive exploration of traditional and contemporary print processes, including intaglio, lithography, screen printing, and digital techniques. Emphasizing both technical proficiency and conceptual development, the curriculum encourages experimentation and cross-disciplinary approaches. Students engage with the history of printmaking while developing a personal visual language and understanding of the medium’s role in contemporary art and culture.
Turn your passion into a profession
Our program prepares students for success in the 67-billion-dollar international art industry.
We provide students with their own studio spaces, state-of-the-art facilities, and a multitude of exhibition opportunities. Graduates of the program go on to become critically acclaimed artists, industry creatives, and entrepreneurs.
Fine Arts studios and facilities
Fine Arts students are provided with individual studios for all four years at Ringling College. With the extensive facilities available at the Basch Visual Arts Center, students can work across a wide range of mediums outside of the studio.
Studios North and the Glen Fine Arts Building
Studios North and the Glen Fine Arts Building are the creative hubs exclusive to the Fine Arts students. The facilities provide students with studio spaces, a common area, and special projects exhibition space.
Sculpture
The Fine Arts sculpture facility allows access to metal fabrication, welding, various kinds of mold making and casting, wood fabrication, and ceramics as well as digital fabrication.
Glass Studio
The Glass Studio houses a state-of-the-art hot shop for glassblowing and a cold shop for cutting, grinding, and polishing glass. Fine Arts students have exclusive access to courses in this Studio.
Printmaking
The Printmaking Studio is located in the Richard and Barbara Basch Visual Arts Center. This new space allows for both traditional and cutting-edge printmaking processes, including etching, screenprinting, and lithography, as well as various forms of digital and technology-based printmaking.
Wood Shop
The Daniel E. Offutt III Wood Shop is a fully equipped, open-access shop available to all Ringling students. The Wood Shop has all the equipment needed to make anything from stretcher bars to fine furniture and a helpful staff to answer your questions and offer assistance using all the tools.
Digital Fabrication Studio and Digital Labs
The Digital Fabrication Studio facilitates the realization of digital designs into physical objects through a variety of processes, both 2D and 3D. Students have access to multiple state-of-the-art computer labs across campus, including PC, Mac, and Cintiq stations.
Professional Lighting Certificate
Develop the technical skills and conceptual knowledge to apply professional lighting techniques to your creative practice.
Create volume and depth in a two-dimensional medium through light, shadow, and cast shadow. Understand the physics of light through the inverse square law, the law of reflection, and contrast ratios.
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Opportunities for Students
Visiting Artists
Visiting Artists play an important role within the Fine Arts program and are an invaluable resource for our students.
Residency and Study Abroad Programs
Fine arts students have the exciting opportunity to study abroad and can apply for a semester or quarter at multiple international locations.
INDEX
INDEX is an experiential education initiative that provides students the opportunity to gain industry experience prior to graduation by connecting them with leading brands and clients to develop creative solutions to business challenges.
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Hands-on Experience: Crossley Gallery
Crossley Gallery, is the Fine Art Department’s white cube gallery space and is administered by our Fine Arts students in collaboration with the Galleries and Exhibitions Department.
Students develop gallery programming, curate professional exhibitions, and have the opportunity to exhibit throughout the year. Crossley Gallery provides students first-hand experience in working within a professional gallery system.
Sarasota Art Museum
Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design is the region’s first museum dedicated to contemporary art.
The Museum offers Fine Arts students the opportunity to directly engage with today’s leading and emerging artists through exhibitions, artist lectures, workshops, and internships.
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