Join the Academic Accelerator for Studio Art at American University! Gain credits in as few as two semesters. Apply now for a vibrant learning experience!
The Academic Accelerator Program (AAP) may be completed in as few as two semesters and is designed specifically for students who are ready to succeed in immersive English-speaking classrooms. The Academic Accelerator program gives students a firsthand, practical, and cultural understanding of the American University campus and the Washington, DC, area through its contextual curriculum. They may enter the program in the spring or fall and progress into year two of their undergraduate education with up to a full year’s worth of academic credits. Depending on their intended degree, they may choose their elective curriculum in social sciences, humanities, or the sciences. The Department of Art encompasses the creative activities of the fine arts (painting, sculpture, printmaking, and new media practices), the artistic applications of design, and the theoretical and historical concerns of art history. These complementary programs function together, so that the student gains not only depth of knowledge in a chosen specialty but also the breadth of experience that yields understanding of artistic traditions, values, cultural awareness, and contemporary issues. A faculty of exhibiting artists, practicing designers, published and respected historians, and strong studio programs focused on giving students facility with materials and familiarity with visual and theoretical concepts make the art department, in effect, an art school within a university. The study of art awakens the ability to undertake a serious exploration of visual form, opens the mind to the special meanings encoded in visual language, and develops the creative, expressive, and analytic abilities inherent in all people. In studio courses, students learn to see with acuity, to explore forms in nature or from the imagination, and to make images that are formally coherent and personally expressive. In art history courses, they are introduced to the art of civilizations past and present, learn how to interpret works of art critically and historically, and discover how art functions both to reflect and to shape social values. In graphic design courses, they develop an understanding of the dynamic power of visual imagery and learn to apply their knowledge of the formal elements of art to the production of effective graphic communication.
