Fine Arts Core
Aside from the Loyola Schools core curriculum required of all LS students regardless of school or degree program, the Department of Fine Arts has its own core subjects. These are four subjects—Introduction to Art and Aesthetics (FA 101), Research in the Fine Arts (FA 102), Art Apprenticeship and Outreach (FA 103), and The Creative Professional (FA 104)—required of all BFA majors, regardless of whether they are in Art Management, Creative Writing, Information Design, or Theater Arts.
FA 101 and FA 102 are introductory inquiries into what art is and can be. In these courses, students are immediately confronted by the social, philosophical, historical, and political forces that affect the personal decision to pursue the arts. Taken during sophomore year, these courses establish early in the major a seriousness and respect for academic rigor in his/her pursuit of a BFA degree.
Taken during the graduating year, FA 103 and FA 104 are courses that prepare BFA majors for the professional world and life after undergraduate studies. The FA is currently the only unit in the School of Humanities that requires its majors to take on professional internships outside of the Ateneo before graduating. Furthermore, financial, legal, and ethical issues related to the creative practice are discussed in-depth. This is part of the FA’s belief in an artistic life that is productively and critically engaged in the world.
Major Curriculum
The heart of the BFA major’s program of study is his/her major curriculum, degree-specific courses that are taken during his/her sophomore year onward. Each FA degree program has its own set of required courses but each degree program curriculum is similarly comprised of theoretical or historical courses as well as practical or hands-on subjects.
Art Management majors are to be versed in the history of visual arts as well as in art theory and criticism, and they are also proficient in matters related to exhibition design and the care and maintenance of art, skills learned and fine-tuned in laboratory spaces like the Ateneo Art Gallery.
Through reading-intensive courses, Creative Writing majors are to be knowledgeable about the development of their genre specializations (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama) across several world literatures. Through workshop or faculty-facilitated peer-critiquing courses, CW majors hone their writing skills within their chosen genre.
Project-intensive classes in drawing, illustration, and graphic design drill our Information Design majors’ design skills while historical courses in art and design as well as analytical courses in field-specific inquiries into print publication, web, and branding are the ID majors’ edge once they enter the professional world.
Theater Arts majors have plenty of opportunities for hands-on training in acting, directing, technical theater, and theater design, but the discipline of textual analysis and the context and insights provided by theater history invaluably enrich the TA majors’ practice.
Seniors’ Creative Project
The BFA major’s training culminates with a Senior’s Creative Project, the FA equivalent of a thesis. AM seniors’ are tasked to propose and execute a project that fills an existing need in the landscape of Philippine visual arts from a managerial, curatorial, or promotional standpoint. ID seniors are to propose and execute projects that solve a design or communication problem of importance.
CW majors would have graduated after having completed the manuscript of their first book which evidences not only skill but the willingness to experiment towards advancing Philippine literature. Similar is the mandate of the TA seniors; they are tasked to stage a production that is at-par with professional theater while also pushing forward the already rich narrative of Philippine drama.
Experimentation and progression are espoused regardless of the project. The BFA major’s final year in many ways is less about proving what has been learned than it is about using what has been learned for future endeavors in ways initially unforeseen.