Keystone College Fine Arts Blog

Often students struggle to feel secure in one area of study. The solution to that is to explore as many disciplines as possible while completing your baccalaureate degree. While many general education requirements are built into your baccalaureate studies at Keystone College, you also have opportunities to study at least two disciplines quite fully in the fine art programs. Two areas of interdisciplinary study exist in the art programs at Keystone that are specifically designed to be interdisciplinary studies.

Bachelors degree in Art Education:
One is the BS in Teaching: Art Education K-12 program. The interdisciplinary studies in this program are art and education. The terms art education or art educator form the synthesis of these two major areas of study into one, that actually becomes a third discipline that is not just education and not just art but fully art education.

Specialize in Art Therapy:
Another area that is not fully designed but that we offer to our students as an area of specialization is art therapy. Again art is a dominant component and must be fully understood. Psychology becomes the other area of study to be infused with art to create another interdisciplinary area of study. In both cases you have a third program that is developed out of the combination of the other two. These are interdisciplinary studies programs.

Interdisciplinary Art:
Interdisciplinary art on the other hand strikes a balance between more than one art concentration. A printmaker might also study photography and so develop an interdisciplinary form of art that fuses the two. You see more and more artists branching out into art forms that for some reason resonate for them. You now see many sculptors who also paint their sculptures therefore suggesting a deep study of sculpture and painting concurrently. This is available in our BA in Visual Arts program.

Graphic Design as Interdisciplinary Study:
As a graphic design instructor, I have developed coursework that emphasizes the necessity for interdisciplinary knowledge in most everything that students design. All design is a visual representation in an effort to communicate what people in other disciplines need to communicate to their audiences. It is wonderful to see a student, that is comfortable with: language, math, science, music, anthropology, psychology, education, literature, and other disciplines, focus their design work on these compatible areas of study while working to become a graphic designer. This interest and even expertise in other disciplines helps focus them on topics that will make the work they do as a designer more personal and more effective.