3-D Media

As a student majoring in studio art with a 3-D media concentration, you'll explore fundamental techniques and theories in sculpture and ceramics. You'll develop the technical and conceptual skills to create and the intellectual skills to analyze and evaluate artwork. You'll learn about the processes for working in materials such as wood, metal, plaster, plastics, textiles and clay; as well as using non-traditional materials and found objects; creating installations and performances; and undertaking multimedia projects. On-campus and community galleries will provide you the opportunity to develop exhibition and curatorial skills.

Program Highlights

  • Kiehle Visual Arts Center houses ceramics, wet-based photography and printmaking; large studio classrooms for painting, drawing, sculpture, and art education; student studios; a woodshop; a metal shop; and several large computer labs and a digital project lab that support graphic design, digital photography, video and multimedia.
  • Faculty are established artists as well as teachers with work exhibited and selected for collections across the country including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and Cain Schulte Gallery in San Francisco.
  • Visiting Artists, Designers and Curators Program, annually invites three or four national arts professionals such as Nicholas Brown, a curator from Yale; Michelle Grabner, Chicago artist and co-curator of the 2014 Whitney Biennial; and Mark Randall, New York graphic designer to lead workshops and meet with students one-on-one to discuss their work.
  • This discipline is also available as a minor to complement other programs. 

Program Distinctions

  • Kiehle Gallery exhibits the work of innovative regional artists and designers who discuss their work during openings and hosts the annual juried student art show, curated by a Twin-Cities arts professional.
  • 1 of 7 colleges, schools, and universities in Minnesota accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.
  • Faculty includes two Fulbright fellows, five McKnight fellows, three Bush fellows and one Joan Mitchell Foundation fellow.
  • Notable alumni: TyRuben Ellingson '81 '82 is a conceptual designer who has worked with film directors such as James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo Del Toro and the late Stanley Kubrick. Valerie Snobeck '03, named by arts writer Elisa Carmichael as one of 25 artists to watch in 2013, exhibited as part of Whitney Biennial, a show of new American art at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. 

Student Organizations

  • Art Student Union
  • Future Art Educators
  • Student Graphic Design Association

Popular Careers

  • Graphic Designer/Web Designer
  • Art Director
  • Studio Artist
  • Art Educator
  • Art Therapist
  • Arts Administrator
  • Curator

University Facts & Stats

  • 92% of studio art graduates employed

  • $106 million in scholarships loans and grants

  • 90+ nations represented on campus

  • 39 Education Abroad programs offered

  • Among Forbes' "America's Top Colleges" 

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