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Monday, September 3, 2007

So You Want To Make Fiber Arts Your Life

All of my kids have varying artistic afflictions. The latest to go off to college is majoring in painting in an extraordinary dual program between Penn and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. We just finished delivering her to her new life, driving a total roundtrip of 4,009 miles Texas - Philadelphia - Texas in 10 days with a rented van packed to the ceiling. Not so oddly, we haven't heard from her much. But when she has called, it was clear that she is loving every minute of every day, finally living the dream she's had for most of her short 18 year life. She did a lot of painstaking research, national portfolio day reviews, and visits to find exactly the right program fit, and it paid off.

So what about all of you who don't want to abandon your knitting or crocheting or other artistic fiber pursuits when you go to college? What if you want to make it your life? Don't despair. Programs exist. REALLY! I only know this because my fourth and last child is attempting to go this route. So guess who did a lot of initial research? Of course you know. Mom.

This past summer was highlighted and dominated by the culmination of a two and a half week college tour road trip that included all the colleges with programs that passed my youngest dear daughter's investigative muster. She's a rising senior, a creative dream-child, but not so hot on the research end of things. She and I did all our initial research on the web, which led to receiving loads and loads of information by mail from over 30 schools. From this, 20 colleges were chosen. And from that 20, 11 were selected for a visit, and we actually visited 9 of those. The ones discarded weren't bad schools, they just didn't have all the elements my daughter was seeking, or were located someplace she didn't want to live. I hope all of our research and experiences help you on your quest. So if this is what you want to do, keep checking back. This will be an ongoing odyssey with frequent posts highlighting specific schools visited, with all their pros and cons.

THE LIST

Here is a list of the four year schools that offer majors/programs in fiber arts/textiles/weaving, either formally or by designing your own major and receiving faculty support. There may be more out there, but if there are, I don't know about them.

Feel free to add a school to the comment section below the post, or pass along your own information about the schools on the list. Even better, if you are enrolled in one of these programs, we'd love your feedback about your school.

Included are cut-to-the-chase links so you won't waste your time wading through huge, deep and sometimes daunting college websites. This lets you look at the program first, then decide if you want to look at them more closely. Believe me, I wish someone had done this for us!



July 8: Claire at the start of our road trip. I picked her up at the beach house of her best friend's family in the NC Outer Banks, then drove to the opposite end of the state for our first college, Appalachian State University, the next morning.


LAST UPDATED 1/3/13

Academy of Art University

http://www.academyart.edu/fashion-school/bfa_program.html

Appalachian State University

http://www.art.appstate.edu/degree_programs/fibers.htm

Arizona State University
https://webapp4.asu.edu/programs/t5/majorinfo/ASU00/FAARTFBFA/undergrad/false?init=false&nopassive=true

Baylor University
http://www.baylor.edu/art/index.php?id=55161

Beloit College
http://www.beloit.edu/~academic/fields/majors/art_arthistory_overview.php
http://www.beloit.edu/~academic/fields/majors/idst_overview.php


Berea College
http://webapps.berea.edu/cataloghandbook/dpc/tec-bsmtiatmcasc.asp

Bridgewater State College
http://www.bridgew.edu/art/DegreePrograms/BA/Craft/index.cfm



California College of the Arts
http://www.cca.edu/academics/textiles/

Chester College of New England

http://www.chestercollege.edu/academics.php?pageID=26#academics

Cleveland Institute of Art

http://www.cia.edu/academicPrograms/undergraduatePrograms/programs.php?
action=fi&department_id=4

College for Creative Studies

http://www.ccscad.edu/future/majors/crafts/

College of the Atlantic

http://www.coa.edu/html/academics.htm

Colorado State University

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Art/bfa/fibers.html

Cornell College - Mt. Vernon, IA

http://cornellcollege.edu/art/courses/studio.shtml

East Carolina University

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/textile/index.cfm

Eastern Michigan University
http://catalog.emich.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=11&poid=5806&returnto=1549

Hiram College
http://admission.hiram.edu/learn/majors/major.php?id=28

Kansas City Art Institute
http://www.kcai.edu/majors/fiber/

http://www.kcai.edu/academics/majors/fiber/curriculum-classes

Kent State University
http://dept.kent.edu/art/academics/crafts/crafts.html

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
http://www.kutztown.edu/academics/visual_arts/arted/programs/bfa-craft.asp

Longwood University
http://www.longwood.edu/art/crafts.html

Maryland Institute College of Art
http://www.mica.edu/PROGRAMS/bfa/fiber/index.cfm?id=356

Massachusetts College of Art
http://www.massart.edu/at_massart/academic_prgms/finearts3d/index.html

Memphis College of Art
http://mca.edu/academics/fibers.html

Moore College of Art and Design
http://www.moore.edu/index.cfm/nodeID/7810b000-10e0-4452-9c51-795eee746a63//fuseaction/content.page


North Carolina State University

http://www.tx.ncsu.edu/
Oregon College of Art and Craft
http://www.ocac.edu/Departments/fibers.html

Philadelphia University
http://www.philau.edu/schools/tmt/Ugrad_Majors/textile_design/

Rhode Island School of Design
http://www.risd.edu/textiles.cfm

Savannah College of Art and Design
http://www.scad.edu/fibers/

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
http://www.saic.edu/degrees_resources/departments/fiber/index.html

State University of New York College at Buffalo
http://www.buffalostate.edu/depts/design/programs/prog_fib.html

Syracuse University
http://vpa.syr.edu/index.cfm/page/textile-design
http://vpa.syr.edu/index.cfm/page/surface-pattern-design



Temple University Tyler School of Art
http://www.temple.edu/tyler/fibers.html


Tennessee Tech University Appalachian Center for Crafts
http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/bfa.html

University of the Arts
http://www.uarts.edu/academics/cad/cr/bfacrafts.html


University of Georgia
http://bulletin.uga.edu/MajorsGeneral.aspx?MajorId=18

University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
http://www.umassd.edu/cvpa/areas/textiles/bfa-overview.cfm


University of Michigan
http://www.art-design.umich.edu/Programs.php?aud=u&menucat=pr

University of North Texas

http://art.unt.edu/fibers.html
http://www.unt.edu/pais/insert/ustar.htm

University of Oregon
http://art-uo.uoregon.edu/index.cfm?mode=areas&page=fiber

University of Washington
http://art.washington.edu/div_art/fibers/index.html

University of Wisconsin - Madison
http://www.wisc.edu/pubs/ug/09sohe/ugstudy.html#ind


Virginia Commonwealth University
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/areas_of_study/craft_and_material_studies/index.html

Western Carolina University
http://catalog.wcu.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=4&poid=46

Western Washington University
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~artdept/program_options.html#Bachelor%20of%20Arts%20in%20Art%20-%20Studio



From that, we whittled and honed our list to visit to these:

Appalachian State University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Longwood University
Moore College of Art and Design
University of the Arts
Kutztown University of PA
Hiram College
Beloit College
Cornell College

NEXT BLOG POST: First stop: Appalachian State University in Boone, NC

13 comments:

  1. hello!

    i'm currently a studio art - fabric design major at baylor university, and while researching for graduate schools i came across your site! just wanted to let you know that you can add baylor, located in waco, tx, to your list. my professor, dr. mary ruth smith, is an amazing artist who was able to add the fibers major to the department several years ago. i still have two years to go, but so far i'm greatly enjoying learning more and more about fiber arts.

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for this list!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We have a few college students online from college of Savannah State University and we love your blog postings, so well add your rss or news feed for them, Thanks and please post us and leave a comment back and well link to you. Thanks Jen , Blog Manager, Savannah State University

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi,
    I really want to thank you for all the imformation you have provide us, it really helped me a lot, thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  5. HI!
    I just wnated to say thank you for your list of Fiber Arts colleges. I'm going back to school after 16 years of being out of a classroom (I'm 41). I'm going to community college to finish my AFA, but looking for colleges to transfer to, to complete my studies in Fiber. I've been knitting, spinning and dyeing my own yarn and want to continue along those lines.
    You can also add Berea college to your list... THey have an outrageous program in Fiber Arts and also have a catalog of student works that supports the college so there are no out of pocket costs for the students.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Adele,

    Being an older student who wants to extend her fiber arts knowledge, you might want to check out the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center in La Conner, Washington.

    Here is the website: http://www.gailcreativestudies.com

    In addition to in-studio classes, Gail Harker is also beginning to offer very extensive online courses as well.

    This program is great for people who want a rigorous course but need to proceed on a part-time basis. The certificate courses are taught over 5-days, and then you go home for weeks of at home work.

    The Gail Harker Creative Studies Center offers certificate and diploma courses, and students have come from all over the world to learn from Gail.

    She has a great blog too. You can check it out here: http://gailcreativestudies.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. North Carolina State U (NCSU in Greenville) offers BFA and MFA in Fibers, as does Eastern Michigan (EMich or EMU) in Ypsilanti (near Ann Arbor).

    Sadly, as of 2010, Bowling Green State University's program is no more. Professor retired and the art department promptly eliminated the program (much to my dismay, as I live in BG and was considering an MFA in Fibers--now I'll have to relocate or have a long commute to do it, SIGH).

    Good references.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you so much for the list of colleges that offer Fibers! I'm currently a senior in high school, and I'm seriously considering going into fiber arts. I'm not sure that it's for me though, since I've only been knitting for a year(but I've become very passionate about it and have advanced quickly). So, I'm curious, how did it work out for your daughter?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Christi,
    Well, you go, girl! I can't think of anything more satisfying than a life of fiber arts. My daughter is still going forward with her pursuit of it; she took off for two years and is about to jump back in again this Fall, adding interior design as a minor. "Nothing worth doing is easy" must be her mantra!

    Best wishes to you!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Georgia College and State University offers Fiber Arts

    ReplyDelete
  11. University of Missouri or MU offers one as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for developing this list. It is really helpful. A few schools I would recommend adding to the list are:

    Idaho State University in Pocatello which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in fibers.

    University of Indiana offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fibers.

    Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri has an undergraduate program in Fibers.

    Sadly, the University of Washington no longer does. I was a student there doing my BFA in Fibers there when this change took place. They do have an Interdisciplinary Visual Art major but there are not enough fibers courses offered to exclusively focus on that within IVA (students need to combine fibers curriculum with other disciplines).

    ReplyDelete

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