Visual Arts is an exploratory program designed for high school juniors and seniors who have an artistic interest, dedication and enthusiasm they wish to pursue in a structured course of study. The program is a carefully planned arts curriculum that promotes intellectual, aesthetic and emotional growth. Discipline is emphasized as an essential component of a personal work ethic.

Students take studio classes in drawing, graphics, color theory, two-dimensional design, and sculpture, as well as survey classes in art history, tracing visual arts from prehistory to contemporary philosophies. Studio assignments are designed to introduce the student to a variety of media and the nature of the creative process and art objects. The Visual Arts faculty also stresses the importance of the academic program as an integral part of each student's education.

Visual Arts alumnus Ryan LeCluyse (UNCSA '07) was recently announced as the 2011 Photography Category Award Winner for the The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). 

The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student and faculty achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition – which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software – honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from the world's top institutions of higher education.

Samples of LeCluyse’s winning portfolio and additional information may be viewed at: 
http://www.ryanlecluyse.adaagallery.com
http://www.adobeawards.com/us/about/awards

On Oct. 12, 2011, Printmaker Bill Fick held an all-day linocut workshop with the Level I and II Visual Arts students.  Fick is the founder/director of Cockeyed Press, a studio in Durham, N.C., specializing in the production of linocut prints, wall prints, ephemera and t-shirts. He is also a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, where he teaches drawing, design and comics.

For the past 20 years, Fick has been making super-graphic narrative prints that deal with a variety of satirical, sociopolitical and scary themes. He’s been especially interested in making work that bridges the gap between fine art and lowbrow art.

His current work focuses on making the most frightening monster images possible. This work reflects society’s ever-growing fear and anxiety about all things different and unfamiliar. These images are being presented in a variety of forms including prints, t-shirts, posters and tattoos.

Fick is also co-author, with Beth Grabowski, of “Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Processes,” published by Laurence King Publishing, London and Prentice Hall, USA.
Fick’s work has been exhibited from Korea to New York. He has just completed a vertically screen printed mural located in Perkins Library at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Additional information is available at:  http://billfick.com/news

Works by UNCSA Visual Arts students Subhadra "Suba" Semetaite and Jennifer Strickland placed first and third, respectively, in the 2011 12th Congressional District High School Art Competition at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C.  For placing first in the competition, Semetaite’s winning entry will be displayed for one year in the Cannon Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.  Semetaite, with her self-portrait, is featured on Congressman Mel Watt’s web site: http://watt.house.gov/index.php...

William R. Kenan, Jr. Fellowship at Penland School of Crafts In its fifth year, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Fellowship at Penland School of Crafts in Western North Carolina is a collaborative program for recent high school graduates of the UNCSA Visual Arts Program.  The goals of the Kenan Fellowship are to promote life-long learning, stimulate experimentation and skill development, to extend student and artist career development opportunities through Penland’s network of peer professionals, and to share in Penland’s model educational learning environment. Learn more about the 2011 Kenan Fellows at Penland School of Crafts.

The UNCSA Visual Arts Program took part in the Grand Opening Festival of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) that took place March 24 and 25, 2010 in Raleigh.  Students and faculty mounted an exhibition in the North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation Education Gallery of the East Building.  This major retrospective of work from current students and alumni offered a powerful glimpse into the history and future direction of the program. The exhibit, entitled “Object Lessons,” included over 70 paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed-media works, and was curated by former Visual Arts Program Director Greg Shelnutt and current faculty members Pamela Griffin and Will Taylor.