Cornish College of the Arts

Animation

Animation provides a path for students to think critically, creatively, and collaboratively, to develop innovative approaches, and to contribute to cultural dialogue through an informed animation practice. The degree provides students with robust training that will prepare them for a career in animation and related time-based media.

Art

The Art Department offers students many dynamic paths, from honing their craft in a specific medium to crossing boundaries through an exploration of varied media and messages. It's all about developing artistic voice, vision, and skill. Specializations include - but are not limited to - painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and new media art (art made with video & other technologies).

Dance

The Dance Department offers artists rigorous training, freedom to experiment, and the space to create. Students develop healthy and sustainable practices necessary for working dance artists, with emphasis on technique, collaboration, choreography, and performance.

Design

The Design program is an integrated model, intertwining studio work, critical/historical studies, and humanities/sciences. The first two years of this degree path are a directed model, integrating studio work, critical/historical studies, and humanities/sciences.

Film

Film at Cornish focuses on the development of the writer-director's original vision and, at the same time, ensures that students learn the tools they need to express that vision. They learn to write, to light, to direct actors, to move the camera (and why it must sometimes stay still), as well as the way story works in a variety of film forms.

Game Art

Game Art provides a dynamic and balanced education for students interested in careers in the game industry or other professional fields engaged in the creation of interactive visual media for entertainment, education, and cultural communication. Students learn how to create game art and develop games informed by a critical understanding of games as cultural media using a variety of aesthetic strategies.

Illustration

The Illustration program is an integrated model, intertwining studio work, critical/historical studies, and humanities/sciences. Students' placement in the program is dependent on portfolio review and transfer credits. Students graduate with a capstone project as well as a portfolio, as part of a strategy for the development and fulfillment of their projected professional life.

Interaction Design

The Design program is an integrated model, intertwining studio work, critical/historical studies, and humanities/sciences. Courses help students develop form-giving skills, technological proficiency, and explore the potential of design and visual communication for social, economic, and ecological challenges. Students graduate with a capstone project as well as a portfolio, as part of a strategy for the development and fulfillment of their projected professional life.

Interior Architecture

The program is an integrated model, intertwining studio work, critical/historical studies, and humanities/sciences. Students' placement in the program is dependent on portfolio review and transfer credits. Graduates are able to design advanced interiors and objects in the context of the built environment and competently use analog and digital design tools, techniques, and technologies.

Music

The Cornish Music Department has always been forward-thinking. Our legacy includes cutting-edge jazz education, maverick composers who challenge the way we listen, and performers making art around the globe. Our goal is to provide the highest quality education designed to give the contemporary musician a stimulating and challenging environment to develop their skills, identify their passions, expand their horizons, and embody values of integrity and authenticity.

Music Theater

The curricula of the Acting/Original Works and Musical Theater Programs are centered around intensive acting-based studies, supported by rigorous training in voice, dance and movement along with devising and intellectual skill-building to facilitate student growth as innovative theater-makers. Students collaborate in foundational acting coursework while pursuing their specialized BFA studies in Acting & Original Works and Musical Theater.

Performance Production

The Performance Production Program provides a unique in-depth degree pathway separate from Cornish's two other Theater programs. Our holistic approach immerses each student in the fundamental skill-building of all the disciplines offered; scenery, costumes, lighting and stage management, encouraging students to make an informed decision before identifying their upper-level concentrated discipline. Hands on opportunities, collaboration and exploration are at the heart of our program.

Theater - Acting & Original Works

The curricula of the Acting/Original Works and Musical Theater Programs are centered around intensive acting-based studies, supported by rigorous training in voice, dance and movement along with devising and intellectual skill-building to facilitate student growth as innovative theater-makers. Students collaborate in foundational acting coursework while pursuing their specialized BFA studies in Acting & Original Works and Musical Theater.