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The School of Visual Arts at BNU was initiated in 2003. In the past five years, the school has continued to examine modes of teaching Art, and each year, areas that require modification have been investigated and improved. This requires exceptionally conviction and courage, and has been possible due to complete confidence between faculty, students, the administration and the founding members of the University.
The Fine Art Department offers a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree, that exposes students to a wide range of activities, faculty, resources and facilities. This experience is further enriched through frequent visits by many distinguished visiting artists, scholars and guest critics from all over Pakistan and abroad. Students work closely with faculty and visiting artists, through electives, workshops and the Fine art major studio, a largely independent, practice driven studio, where they are encouraged to explore individual concerns.
A mandatory Foundation Year Program, imparting fundamental skills in the first semester, and a thematically driven second semester, equips students from all departments, to independently become aware of, and resolve their formal, conceptual as well as socio-political concerns through their personal art practice.
Crucial to the success of a Program like ours, is the faculty. The faculty at SVAD is drawn from diverse backgrounds, from Pakistan, U.K., Germany, Iran, India, Australia, Romania, Canada, Austria, as well as the Pakistani Diaspora visiting as faculty, or moving back to teach full time. These are well known practicing professionals in their respective fields and it is their hands-on knowledge of contemporary practice that guides the experience of students, who, from the outset have a choice of intersecting through disciplines, blurring and questioning existing lines and engaging in a close dialogue between the local and the global. This is aimed to help them develop a position on issues important to them in the context of their reality. For this, we are indebted to both the teaching faculty, as well as the extremely dedicated and competent technical staff.
All of this is accomplished in conjunction with a strong component of theoretical courses, both mandatory and elective, which range from lectures and seminars on art history, to “Beyond Art making”, a course which familiarizes students with legal aspects of art practice, alternative practices in contemporary culture, information on historical and current leanings in curating, collecting and exhibiting. This equips them with the tools required to set out into the world with confidence and ease, and to enable them to continue to evolve a critical practice.
SVAD undergraduate students complete their degrees with an exhibition and are offered the possibility to continue a post-graduate diploma. This focuses on courses in Art Education, along with Studio electives. These candidates are also given the opportunity to be employed by the school as Teaching Assistants, working alongside senior faculty. The PG Diploma from September 2009 will become a full fledged MA Program, offering a choice of Art History, Art Education and Professional Studio Electives.
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CAREER PATHS
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Visual Artist; Painter, Printmaker, Photographer, Sculptor, Installation Artist, Video Artist, Performance Artist, Web Artist, Curator.
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Fields: Studio/Advertising/Fashion/Editorial Photography, Lighting Design, Illustration, Arts Administration, Art Education, Model Maker, Set Design for Theatre, Film and T.V, Furniture Design, Interior Design, Exhibition and Events Design, Public Art Projects, Computer Graphics related professions, Advertising, Entertainment Industry, Art Education.
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