An Uncharted Landscape.

Foundations is the year our first-year students spend finding out about themselves, assuming nothing, trying everything. Similar to an aerial landscape, parts of the studio-based Foundations program may be familiar ground, while others are unrecognizable. Topics such as observational drawing and color create universal ground, while digital means, four-dimensional media and contemporary practices and research shift our students’ perspectives. Challenging the view of the landscape, our first-year students learn to trust themselves. They acquire knowledgeable about concepts that are relevant to their artistic goals, while taking risks and making honest and personally meaningful work.

Foundations asks deep questions about the nature of contemporary art and design, media, materials, influences and process. We want our students to craft answers that are important to their visual identities. The first year is an exploration of an array of courses that focus on new ways of seeing, thinking, creating, and communicating along the path to becoming a professional artist or designer. Inquiry and research-based modes of teaching help our first-year students connect and contextualize the works they are creating throughout the first two semesters.

We’ve included courses that focus on major-level disciplines and ideas at the first-year level, providing our students with early immersion into majors. Digital learning has become a focal point of the studio courses in the Foundations year, preparing students to be technologically fluent and successful in the 21st century art and design world. We’ve also created courses that bring contemporary art and design to the forefront of the college’s educational philosophy, fostering critical thinking and encouraging students to understand their roles as modern-day visual creators.

Regardless of which of the eleven majors, or combination of specialized areas our students choose, the Foundations year uses integrated learning and first-year student exposure to faculty across the college to prepare students for their educational experience at MIAD. Foundations is holistic preparation for becoming a visual creator. Our first-year students experiment, overcome hurdles and challenge their own preconceived notions about art and design while building their futures as creative visionaries.

Foundations is the beginning of possibility.