Art Academy of Cincinnati

Art Education

The Master of Arts in Art Education program at the Art Academy of Cincinnati is a studio-intensive, practice-oriented degree program with one elemental focus: to develop contemporary art educators into professional studio arts practitioners whose own artistic achievement enhances their respective learning environments.

Creative Writing

The AAC's Creative Writing major gives students the opportunity to engage with language as a fundamental artistic medium. Through poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, and hybrid/interdisciplinary forms, students explore and explode not only the narrative possibilities of the written and spoken word, but expressive and formal ones as well.

Design

The Design major at the Art Academy of Cincinnati integrates contemporary design practices and fine art studio processes enhanced by a liberal arts component that provides a rich trans-disciplinary experience. Students majoring in Design learn to manage artistic processes, audience expectations, composition, and typography to create sophisticated and transformative design solutions.

Digital Arts Animation

The Digital Arts Animation major at the AAC invites students to study the compositional elements that are associated with time-based imagery, understand the language of moving images, and explore how these specific principles are manifested in 2D, 3D, and 4D compositions. Digital Arts Animation students choose from a variety of courses that allow them to focus on, or broadly experiment with, narrative or more graphical aspects of motion media.

Graphic Design

The Art Academy of Cincinnati offers an Associate of Science degree in Graphic Design. This two-year program provides students with a combination of Liberal Arts and Studio Arts courses to become confident in the practice of graphic design. It is optional for students to advance seamlessly beyond the Associate of Science in Graphic Design directly into the BFA in Design track (two additional years) to further their design education and to increase their competitive advantage in the field.

Illustration

Illustrators integrate drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, design, animation, sound art, motion graphics, digital sculpture, and installation to innovate integrative visual approaches to communication and creativity. Illustration majors at the AAC delve into New Media Technologies, expanded applications, and popular culture as they influence and re-define contemporary illustration.

Painting and Drawing

The Painting and Drawing major is an interdisciplinary track that provides students with the resources to explore a dynamic, individualized studio practice. Students begin by learning fundamental skills based upon representation, then expand their work by exploring a variety of materials and self-directed concepts. This major is designed to promote open-ended, introspective work characterized by engagement in critical discourse and the practice of contemporary art.

Photography

The Photography major's breadth of traditional and cutting-edge processes is unique to the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Students can learn processes for 35mm film, DSLR, medium-and large-format film cameras, darkroom, and digital printing, the color of light, interdisciplinary, alternative process photography, and the moving image.

Print Media

Print Media majors are provided opportunities to explore both traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques, while developing a distinct, creative voice. The Print Media track emphasizes traditional approaches invigorated by new technologies supported by a large, well-equipped facility. Students are introduced to a full range of processes that includes monoprint, relief, lithography, intaglio, screen printing, letterpress, and book arts.

Sculpture

In today's world, "Sculpture" defines a broad, diverse range of objects and practices. The Sculpture major at the Art Academy of Cincinnati provides a strong foundation in traditional and contemporary 3D processes, enabling students to explore the full spectrum of possibilities. With guidance and individual attention from instructors, sculpture majors fuse old and new media and strategies into their own art-making process.