:: Foundation

To paint something lasting, you first take the time to carefully prepare the canvas. There's stretching and layers of gesso even before you ever get to your color palette. When it is primed, then you can be as inventive as you like.

Your first year at AIB is a lot like that. During your "foundation year," you learn and become proficient in the basics—from a professional artist's perspective. That means, for example, you don't only practice (and practice) drawing the world around you, you learn how to think about what you experience and observe, about how artists' perceptions of the world have influenced your own perceptions. The Foundation Year gives you invaluable perspective on what it means to be an artist. You will explore and expand your ways of seeing, drawing, and designing.

Through studio and theory courses, we help you understand a visual vocabulary and then "speak" in your own original ways. The classes you take in areas like drawing, painting, and conceptualization help you think, see, and communicate like an artist. The curriculum examines fundamental art principles, explores multiple approaches, and gives you the confidence to meet the challenges of further, intensive art study.

Foundation gives you the chance to explore techniques, influences, and ideas, before focusing on specific concentrations in art history, fine arts, illustration, animation, graphic design, or photography. After Foundation, you feel like a more informed artist because you have discussed 20th century artistic movements and how they evolved; a more capable artist because you have learned the structure and dynamics of drawing as a means of visualizing ideas; a more engaged artist because you have been exposed to all the possible methods and mediums that can be used for visual expression, be it in the printmaking room, the woodshop, or the computer lab.

Foundation classes are traditionally taken during your first year, but they can also enrich your AIB experience at different points along the way—an elective in perspective drawing could bring real depth to your design skills or perhaps a course in clay work would bring substance to your new interest in animation. Foundation Year includes your first class in your major area of study, so you can get a jump-start on your specific interests.

If you are an advanced student with prior study (say you're transferring in from another art school) and have already decided on your major, you may be able to get an exemption from some or all of the foundation courses. If this is the case, you may be able to begin studies in your chosen field during your first year.