Textile Design | BFA | MFA |
The Textile area is part of the Department of Design in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas. The Design Department is housed in the Art & Design Building on the main campus.
The 100,000 square foot facility is home to both the KU Art and Design Departments. Together the departments have approximately 50 faculty, teaching an average of 900 students in a comprehensive visual arts program. The building maintains shared facilities including a large exhibition gallery, photo services, a computer lab, and a complete woodshop.
The Textile area offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in Textiles/Fibers.
BFA
Undergraduate courses include a range of weaving, surface design, three dimensional textiles and history of textiles. Classes are also offered each year in textile design for industry.
The Textile Design program offers students an opportunity to select from two different areas of emphasis:
- Surface design techniques on fabric such a silk screening, block printing, resist printing (batik), direct painting on fabric and dyeing.
- Structural design techniques that include loom weaving, papermaking, felting, plaiting and computer-aided design for weaving and other related processes.
The BFA program requires 124 hours of university credit including at least 69 credit hours in Art & Design. After one year of basic design and drawing courses (12 credit hours), students enter their major areas. The textile program offers over 39 credit hours of coursework in the textile major area alone.
Other electives can include any other area offered in the Art and Design Departments (metals, ceramics, photography, printmaking, painting and drawing, sculpture, interior design, graphics and illustration, industrial design, etc.). The Textile area currently has approximately 60 undergraduate student majors.
Graduates might choose from several different career options, such as designing for the textile industry, or designing, producing and marketing art fabrics and/or functional pieces (i.e. garments), home furnishings, rugs, table linens, et cetera. Some will pursue additional education through a Master of Fine Arts degree and perhaps teach in a university/college fibers program.
MFA
The MFA degree is an individualized studio program with relatively few required classes. The course of study is essentially tutorial in that the student works with various faculty members on an appointment basis to develop his or her artwork.
The 60 credit hour MFA program is usually completed in three years. The program culminates with a thesis exhibition of the student’s work in the Art & Design Gallery in the Art & Design Building.
The Textile area has between four and six graduate students at a time. Each student has a strong art and textile background from undergraduate work, comes to KU with a strong desire to learn and grow, and questions his or her artwork, pushing off into new directions.
For more information about the MFA in Textile Design, click here.
