Degrees Offered:
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Electronic Arts Degree
Overview
At Barton, you’ll find one of the state’s foremost small-college art programs with a faculty that includes award-winning teachers and internationally recognized artists. Our Electronic Arts major will develop your skills in visual literacy, web and interaction design and creative coding. You will learn the expressive capabilities of the computer as a creative tool, as well as you’ll be trained in creative problem solving, and you’ll learn to offer effective solutions in the business world. While we emphasize the use of the computer as a design tool and experimentation, we also teach traditional hands-on approaches to art. As a result, you’ll develop a thorough historical, analytical, and theoretical understanding of art and design.
Special Features
Barton’s art professors are working artists who exhibit regionally, nationally, and internationally; serve as professional art judges; and publish and design professionally.
Electronic Arts has an intense focus in User Interface, UI, designing applications for desktop and mobile as well the fundamentals of interaction design. It provides proficiency in creative coding for artists and designers, enabling the production of works that communicate intended messages effectively to their audiences. The curriculum is designed to provide professional training and theoretical preparation in digital and interactive media. Its degree’s business perspective, combined with aesthetic and technical sensibilities, will prepare graduates in Electronic Arts for positions within the web and interaction design industries.
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Course Information
Coursework in the major begins with a broad-based preparatory program that combines practical skills with theory in the areas of general drawing, 2-D composition, 3-D design, and graphic design. These courses develop your conceptual thinking and visualization skills and provide an understanding of the history of art, design, and media. With these foundational skills, you will move into the fundamentals of web design learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript. You will apply all these in low and high-fidelity prototypes using state of the art development platforms.
In your junior year, you’ll take a portfolio course to prepare for a required portfolio review in which you’ll show ten pieces of art that demonstrate your fundamental skills. As a senior, you’ll build a professional portfolio that demonstrates your aesthetic and technical skills and shows that you’re prepared to work in the art and media industry or to proceed to graduate school.
Scholarships and Financial Aid
The Bessie Massengill Art Scholarship is awarded annually to a student selected by the Art and Design faculty and majoring in art.
The Triangle East Advertising and Marketing Association Scholarship is awarded annually to an upper-class student majoring in graphic design who is a resident of eastern North Carolina and who intends to be employed in a related field in eastern North Carolina.
The Rom and Marie Watson Art Scholarship is awarded to a student seeking a studio art degree. The Department of Art and Design faculty choose a recipient based on the artistic merit of the student’s work through the process of portfolio reviews, with preference given to student who participated in the Scholastic Art Awards.
The department also awards the Stuart Walston, Inc. Endowed Scholarship and the Price-Watson Annual Scholarship to qualified students.
Internships
Our students have interned at:
- The Women’s United Soccer Association
- Duke Press
- Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.
- Carolina Mudcats
- Advanced Rehabilitation Seminars Company
- The Arts Council of Wilson
- Barrett’s Printing House
- Theatre at Barton
- Carolina Cabinet Company
- The Collegiate, Barton College’s Student Newspaper
- Creative Graphics
- Hendersonville Printing Company
- Images Photography Inc.
- Jerico Screen Printing
- Wilson County Fair
- Reynolda House
- Signature Dance Company
- Type A Design Concepts
- Wilson Times
Career Opportunities
In addition to work in the creative arts, an art degree may lead to careers in many applied art fields. Our alumni work as:
- Art Directors
- Commercial Photographers
- Graphic Artists
- Graphic Designers
- Web Designers
- Gallery Directors
- Industrial Designers
- Photo Retouchers
- Photofinisher Specialists
- Photojournalists
- Public Relations Directors
- Stage Designers
Clubs and Organizations
The Art Students’ League of Barton College hosts bi-weekly meetings and cookouts, and sponsors student exhibitions.
The Friends of Visual Arts organizes lectures and exhibitions, and brings to Barton College visiting artists of regional, national, and international status.