Media Arts | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Media Arts: Degree Information

MCAD emphasizes a collaborative process and working with students from all majors. For this Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, you will take courses in several different areas, including a core focus, adding up to 120 total credits required for graduation.

Required Courses - These are the core courses that every Media Arts student takes.

Foundation Studies - These classes help you become a well-rounded student; they build a solid art background.

Studio Electives - Throughout your studies you can choose from several studio electives that give you hands-on creative time.

Humanities and Sciences Electives - These classes round out your experience at MCAD, deepen your creative practice, and fulfill non-studio requirements for a degree.

Media Arts Concentrations

Core Required Courses

45 credits

Media Arts: Concentration (select one)

Media Arts: Art and Technology Concentration
15 credits

Choose 5 courses/15 credits in Art and Technology Discipline.

Media Arts: Filmmaking Concentration
15 credits

Choose 5 courses/15 credits in Filmmaking Discipline.

Media Arts: Photography Concentration
15 credits

Choose 5 courses/15 credits in Photography Discipline.

Interdisciplinary Courses: Media Arts

MA 2010 Media Arts Tools & Technique
3 credits

This course serves as an introduction to an interdisciplinary mode of working within media arts. Students will learn technical skills in lens-based practices such as filmmaking and photography, basic audio recording, and coding-based creative practices. Students will engage with editing and production tools, and create artworks engaged in observation, critical analysis, and conceptual thinking. Projects will engage the materiality unique to each media. Emphasis is placed on techniques that cross and combine media to create rich experiences and artworks.

Prerequisites: Media 1

MA 2015 Media Arts: Strategies
3 credits

Interdisciplinary Courses: Media Arts
9 credits

Choose 3 courses/9 credits from additional interdisciplinary course options.

Studio Course from outside of Media Arts (select one)

Advanced: Media Arts

MA 4000 Professional Practice: Media Arts
3 credits

The primary focus of this class is to provide media arts students with the tools that will enable them to enter professional practice immediately following graduation. Each student is required to produce a polished resume, artist statement, website, professional identity system, and portfolio. Topics include long-range goal creation and planning; financial, legal, and other business considerations; grant writing; and communication and marketing skills involving verbal, written, and visual presentations. Topics are presented through lectures, critiques, and presentations by experts in the field.

Prerequisites: Junior standing

MA 5000 Critique Seminar: Media Arts
3 credits

MA 5100 Senior Project: Media Arts Major
6 credits

During senior year, each media arts major is required to develop and complete a substantial body of work in his or her major. This course provides a forum for the critical evaluation of this work and curatorial guidance in preparation for the Commencement Exhibition. Course content includes critical readings, position papers, individual and group discussions, school presentations, and informational meetings.

Prerequisites: Successful Junior Review, senior standing

Foundation Studies

14 credits

First-Year Experience

Designed exclusively for first-year students, this 2-credit course offers an abundance of resources that get you started on the right foot at MCAD. It helps new students feel a sense of community with other first-year classmates; navigate the college and course offerings; learn time-management skills; and understand how as an artist, designer, or entrepreneur positively influences others. The First-Year Experience course gives you access to amazing faculty who understand how to make a successful life transition in college.

FDN 1000: First-year Experience: Communities of Practice

This 2-credit course at a glance:

  • Offered sequentially in fall and spring with no prerequisites required.
  • Use support, resources, and practical exercises that focus on your development at MCAD.
  • Get introduced to the Minneapolis creative community.
  • Build a sense of community with first-year peers and fellow MCAD students.
  • Meet with faculty who are dedicated to your journey at MCAD.
  • Discover opportunities for professional development.
  • Relax–there is no homework!

FDN 1111 Foundation: 2D
3 credits

Foundation: 2D is an introduction to creative thinking that develops students’ skills in research, observation, interpretation, and self-expression. An emphasis is placed on exploring new ways to read and see the world, as well as new ways to report on it. Students learn basic two-dimensional principles through the use of various media, tools, materials, and processes. As a result, students develop a visual and verbal language for analyzing, organizing, shaping, and communicating two-dimensional form and meaning.

FDN 1112 Foundation: 3D
3 credits

This course is an introduction to understanding of visual creation for the development of knowledge, imagination, and perception. Students are introduced to basic three-dimensional concepts as well as materials and technical production processes. Classroom activities include shop demonstrations of tools and techniques, information, lectures, and discussions appropriate to promote the balanced fusion of practice and theory.

FDN 1211 Foundation: Drawing 1
3 credits

Foundation: Drawing 1 is an introductory drawing course designed to prepare students for study in all majors of the college. Students develop basic drawing skills, including the ability to perceive and express visual relationships, organize a two-dimensional composition, and depict and manipulate form, space, and light. Students work from direct observation of still life, interior space, and landscape.

FDN 1311 Foundation: Media 1
3 credits

Students are introduced to digital resources at MCAD while exploring digital media. Areas covered include the Service Bureau, Gray Studio, and Media Center, along with other digital resources. Students use a variety of software and hardware to learn the basics of working with recorded media, including video, sound, and photography, as well as developing critical language for discussing media and media artists.

FDN 1412 Sophomore Seminar: Contemporary Practice
1 credits

Practice is more than working methods: it’s the context, marketing, and creative space that maintain creative work. Contemporary Practice introduces students to the foundations, variety, and tools of a professional practice. Students upgrade websites and documentation, enter contests, and create professional presentations of their work. Classes consist of lectures, student presentations, and guest speakers from a wide range of disciplines.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Studio Electives

22 credits

varying BFA Studio Electives

Students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program take studio courses as electives; amount determined by your major.

Humanities and Sciences

39 credits

AH 1701 Introduction to Art and Design History 1
3 credits

The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the major stylistic, thematic, cultural, and historical transformations in art history from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century. This course helps students develop critical tools for the interpretation and understanding of the meaning and function of art objects, architecture, and design artifacts within their original historical contexts. Class sessions consist primarily of lecture with some discussion.

AH 1702 Introduction to Art and Design History 2
3 credits

This course introduces students to issues in modern art, popular culture, and contemporary art and design. Topics may include the expanding audience for art, the transformation of the art market, the impact of new technologies, the changing status of the artist, and the role of art in society. This course is taught as a seminar with some lecture.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Art and Design History 1 or faculty permission

EN 1500 Writing and Inquiry
3 credits

Key to the creative and critical growth of the engaged, successful artist is participation in a culture of writing and inquiry. Students in this course focus on the kinds of writing they will encounter and produce in their coursework at MCAD and as creative professionals. Regular writing workshops allow students to concentrate on experiential and practical approaches to writing. Students explore a variety of texts and objects through class assignments, and then develop clear compelling essays employing a variety of rhetorical and narrative strategies.

varying Creative or Professional Writing
3 credits

Creative or professional writing elective

varying Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning
3 credits

Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning classes increase students’ appreciation for the power of scientific and quantitative approaches to knowing the world.

varying Histories, Places, Philosophies
6 credits

6 credits of histories, places, philosophies electives

Total Credit Hours
120