Bachelor of Arts - Visual and Critical Studies

Study art history in the place art and design is made at Canada’s biggest art and design university. Our program is unique, in that you also get to take studio courses and make art and design yourself.

The program emphasizes the expanded field of modern and contemporary art history, which includes design, photography, architecture, performance and new media, as well as painting and sculpture.

The Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Visual and Critical Studies offers students the opportunity to pursue the academic study of art history in the creative and dynamic environment of Canada’s premier art and design university.

The unique features of this Honours BA program include: • An emphasis on the expanded field of modern and contemporary art history, which includes design, photography, architecture, performance and new media, as well as painting and sculpture. • Integration of select studio courses into the core program of study, which provides students with the opportunity to pursue studio minors. • A range of innovative interdisciplinary minors to choose from, such as Indigenous Visual Culture and Digital Futures, as well as minors in English, Creative Writing and Social Science. • Access to international study opportunities, including OCAD University’s flagship Florence Program. • Fourth-year honours seminar, which provides students with the opportunity to research and produce a major research paper.

Core faculty members in the BA in Visual and Critical Studies are internationally recognized scholars in the fields of art, design and new media art histories, and are professionally active in the fields of curating and publishing. The range of their scholarly expertise in Asian, Latin American, African, Islamic, Indigenous, Canadian, mediaeval, renaissance and modern European visual culture ensures that the study of art history at OCAD U is genuinely global in scope.

The exceptional educational experience offered by the Honours BA in Visual and Critical Studies prepares graduates for careers in curating, arts management, arts journalism and criticism, publishing and digital industries, such as writing for websites and gaming. The program’s academic specialization and breadth — with more than 90 visual culture courses and more than 80 breadth courses in English, humanities, social sciences and science/ technology to choose from — also provides a thorough foundation for post-graduate study in art history and related fields. The program accepts applications for direct entry into the first year of the program, and for advanced second-year entry from students wishing to transfer from OCAD U studio programs or other universities.