CSULB Ceramic Arts Studies Program

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The Ceramic Arts Program
Student Studio Access
Ceramic Arts Undergraduate Studies at CSULB
Ceramic Arts Undergraduate Preparation for Graduate Study
BFA Degree Option Requirements
Applying to the BFA
Ceramics BFA Portfolio and Statement Submission Guidelines
Ceramic Arts Post-baccalaureate Studies
Ceramics Minor Requirements
Declaring the Minor
Ceramic Arts Graduate Studies at CSULB
Ceramics Track MFA Requirements
Applying to the MFA Ceramics Track
Ceramic Arts Student Club

The Ceramic Arts Program

Learning and the student experience are the ultimate focal point and point of origin for all that we do.

The CSULB Ceramic Arts Studies Program is a large and highly active instructional component of the CSULB School of Art committed to providing equitable, accessible, inclusive, and expansive instruction in the ceramic arts for a highly diverse student population of undergraduate and graduate students.

For decades, the Ceramic Arts Studies Program has been a destination for affordable and excellent instruction and student experience in ceramics. The program draws together students of diverse backgrounds and perspectives who share a profound interest and intensity when it comes to working with clay. The product of this coming together is an ever-renewing vibrant community of learning and making.

During the fall and spring semesters, we offer a full slate of ceramics undergraduate courses and graduate instruction/consultation, and during the summer we often offer special workshops with enrollment limited to students majoring and minoring in ceramics.

Students work with a faculty comprised of active artists and scholars who also are engaged, committed, and generous teachers. Core faculty members maintain studios in the ceramic arts area and work alongside our students. Part-time faculty also are encouraged to work on the premises, and students benefit from being able to work alongside Guest Artists making art on our campus as part of our Center for Contemporary Ceramics programming.

Together, the Ceramic Arts Studies Program and the Center for Contemporary Ceramics have evolved into a special institutional presence in the field of higher education in the ceramic arts. We strive to embrace and engage an ever-evolving, always interesting, and highly diverse community of students, faculty, staff, guest artists, visiting artists and scholars, and community participants in the production and discourse of the arts—empowering the artists, scholars, educators, audiences, and advocates who will shape the culture of the twenty-first century.

We also enjoy close and collaborative relationships with the School of Art’s other material and spatial arts areas of study including 3D Foundation, Fiber, Metals & Jewelry, Sculpture/4D, and Wood, as well as regular exchange with all discipline areas within the school.

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Student Studio Access (Subject to Change)

Student access in the Ceramics Area is limited to students currently enrolled in ceramics courses, and limited to weeks when classes are in session.

At present, and subject to change, access hours are from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM Monday Through Friday, with additional evening hours and weekend hours available to students who have completed an additional safety verification process, and who have requested and been approved for additional access.

NOTE: The campus is closed to students on dates designated as Campus Closure Days in the CSULB Academic Calendar. These commonly include:

• December 24 through January 1
• Martin Luther King Day
• Caesar Chavez Day
• Memorial Day
• July 4 and any additional day of observation
• Labor Day
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving Day and the Friday following

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Ceramic Arts Undergraduate Studies at CSULB

At the undergraduate level, there are multiple ways students enjoy studying ceramics at CSULB with varying degrees of immersion. With the Ceramic Arts Studies Program’s commitment to equity, inclusion, diversity, and access, we welcome students interested in any of these possibilities, which include the following.

Ceramics courses as part of the university experience. Most undergraduate courses offered in the Ceramic Arts Studies Program are open to all undergraduate students, regardless of major. 

Minor in Ceramics in addition to an undergraduate major. This allows a student to pursue a major chosen from among the university’s many undergraduate degree program offerings while also studying ceramics within a manageable fifteen-unit structured minor program of study and earning a minor acknowledged on the student’s transcript.

BA Studio Art major including ceramics courses. The BA Studio Art major allows students the option of earning an undergraduate art degree at CSULB without taking as many units as required for a BFA degree option; without focusing on a specific discipline; without the requirements of taking culminating coursework that can extend time to graduation; and without the demands of completing a culminating BFA project or exhibition. Students who desire a more flexible and streamlined university experience may pursue this option while still enrolling in a variety of ceramics courses that can satisfy their BA Studio Art degree requirements.

BA Studio Art major plus Minor in Ceramics. This combination of major and minor allows an undergraduate student to earn an undergraduate degree in art plus a transcript-acknowledged Minor in Ceramics, still without the full demands of completing the BFA Option in Ceramics.

BFA Option in Ceramics. This is the most immersive undergraduate program of study in ceramics offered at CSULB. Students are admitted to the BFA degree program based on portfolio review, with over thirty students enrolled in the BFA program at any given time. The BFA degree is specifically structured as a pre-professional and pre-MFA program, with a core foundation art curriculum and a general curriculum in both studio art and art history combined with ceramics-specific coursework including paired three-semester (beginning, intermediate, advanced) sequences of courses in wheel-thrown/wheel-derived and hand-built/sculpted ceramics totaling six courses. Students also take courses in plasterwork, glaze and clay formulation, and experimental processes, as well as coursework for BFA Ceramic Arts majors only, including a two-semester culminating course sequence focusing on advanced independent projects and practice, and a supervised course focused on the development of a culminating BFA project/exhibition. 

While it is understood that not every undergraduate student aspires to go on to study in a Master of Fine Arts program or pursue a ceramics-related profession, it is a basic goal of the Ceramic Arts Studies Program to bring all students earning the BFA Option in Ceramics to a level where they would be competitive in seeking admission to an excellent MFA program and/or begin participating professionally in the field.

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Ceramic Arts Undergraduate Preparation for Graduate Study

The Ceramic Arts Studies Program maintains an exceptional success rate in preparing students to apply to and gain admission to MFA programs. 

Roughly 40% of students who complete BFA or post-baccalaureate ceramic arts studies at CSULB go on to MFA programs. The significance of this success rate is put into sharper focus when one considers that nearly half of our BFA graduates opt not to apply to MFA programs in order to pursue other paths and goals after graduating. Of those who apply to MFA programs, roughly 90% are offered admission to one or more programs.

In recent years, our BFA and post-bac students have been offered admission to excellent MFA programs in ceramics, material studies, sculpture, and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary art studies including those at Arizona State University, the California College of the Arts (CCA), the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), the Claremont Graduate University, Hunter College, Kent State University, the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Notre Dame University, the Royal College of Art in London, Rutgers University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Tyler School of Art, the University of Arkansas, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, USC, Virginia Commonwealth University, Yale University, and others.

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BFA Degree Option Requirements

The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program is demanding, requiring a high level of commitment to advanced production and discourse in order to develop the professional competence of talented students toward successful entrance into the professional art field. Unlike other undergraduate degree programs on our campus, most of which total 120 units including GE requirements, electives, and major-specific required units, the BFA Option in Ceramics totals 132 units including all standard GE requirements and an extensive, immersive set of requirements in art and ceramics-specific coursework.

Students who fall below a GPA of 3.0 in upper-division courses in Ceramics for two consecutive semesters will be removed from this BFA program. Additionally, minimum grades are required for some courses to count toward the BFA.

In addition to meeting CSULB General Education requirements, students admitted to the Ceramics BFA program must complete the following courses while meeting degree-specific and university standards.

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Applying to the BFA

Freshmen applicants cannot apply to enter directly into a BFA option with a discipline-specific specialization; however, freshmen applicants may indicate a preference for a pre-BFA admission with a specified discipline, and will, if offered admission, be admitted in a pre-BFA status. Admission under a pre-BFA status does not guarantee subsequent admission into a BFA major option. Freshmen who enter the School of Art with a pre-BFA major status must subsequently meet specific criteria and apply to the BA option in Studio Art, and if accepted to the BA, must again meet specific criteria and apply to a BFA option with a portfolio. This application process can be highly competitive, with limited admission available to BFA options. Admission to the BFA option in Ceramics is a selective process. Not all students who enter the university under a pre-BFA status with the discipline specification of Ceramics graduate with a BFA Degree Option in Ceramics.

Transfer applicants who qualify for admission to the university and meet supplemental admissions criteria may apply for admission directly into the BFA Option in Ceramics (portfolio required at the time of application) OR may apply to the BA Option in Studio Art (no portfolio required at the time of application) and, if admitted, may later, as a continuing CSULB student, apply for the BFA option.

Continuing CSULB students who are interested in the BFA Option in Ceramics, and who meet additional criteria, may apply to the BFA option with a portfolio when they have completed a minimum of 60 units, but may not apply after they have completed more than a maximum of 96 units.

When applying for the BFA Option in Ceramics, please follow all requirements, specifications, and deadlines published by CSULB and the School of Art.

Because applicants may apply to the BFA Ceramic Arts program twice, applicants who feel they can provide a portfolio meeting the general requirements above are encouraged to apply earlier rather than waiting. It is the preference of Ceramic Arts faculty when possible to bring students into the BFA program as early as possible, and students who are not admitted to the program on the first try always have the option of applying a second time after further developing their portfolios.

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Ceramics BFA Portfolio and Statement Submission Guidelines

For the BFA application portfolio, we ask that you submit a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20 images of your artwork. The majority of these should represent work in ceramics and may include both class projects and self-directed works. Wheel-thrown, hand-built, or ceramic work made using other processes all are acceptable. You may also include work in other media, whether 2D or 3D. No more than two images in your portfolio should represent detail shots or alternate views of works already represented in other images in the portfolio.

We encourage you to organize your portfolio with the goal of best representing your level of accomplishment working in ceramic media, as well as your interests as an artist—whether formal, material, technical, or conceptual—and indications of what you might wish to explore in the ceramic arts at a more advanced level.

The BFA application process requires the submission of a portfolio and a statement. Together, these constitute your opportunity to make the case for your admission into the BFA Option in Ceramics, to show us and tell us about yourself as an artist, as a potential student in our degree program, and as a potential participant in our learning and making community—who you are, where you’re coming from, what you’ve done, what you’re doing, what you want to do, and how you think. We encourage you to make the most of this opportunity.

Please carefully follow image formatting specifications published by the School of Art.

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Ceramic Arts Post-baccalaureate Studies

The Ceramic Arts Studies Program does not have a formalized post-baccalaureate program of study. On an invitation-only basis, pending space availability, the Ceramic Arts Studies Program enrolls students in post-baccalaureate supervised coursework. Such enrolment is very limited and often unavailable due to demands on space and faculty with our regular curriculum and enrollment and is limited to the specific purposes of developing specifically proposed, duration-determined projects, and/or developing portfolio work for applying to MFA programs. These students are admitted via extension enrollment, usually during the summer term when possible.

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Ceramics Minor Requirements

The Minor in Ceramics is designed to allow undergraduate students throughout the university to enhance their education with both creative and intellectual engagement in a studio discipline: Ceramics. The Minor in Ceramics also affords the opportunity for students in more general visual/creative degree programs in the College of the Arts to augment their degrees with additional studies in material and spatial arts. 

The Minor in Ceramics is open to students in all majors except the BFA Option in Ceramics.

For School of Art Majors pursuing a minor offered by the School of Art, some units may be double-counted toward both the major and the minor; however, 9 units of coursework must be unique to the minor, and cannot be double-counted for the major. 

Students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher in courses required for the minor in order to graduate with the minor. 

Required Courses:

• Intro Studio: Ceramic Arts - Hand-building
• Intro Studio: Ceramic Arts - Wheel-throwing
• Core Studio: Ceramic Arts - Hand-building OR Core Studio: Ceramic Arts - Wheel-throwing
• Core Studio: Ceramic Arts - Material Formulation OR Core Studio: Ceramic Arts – Plaster
• Advanced Studio: Ceramic Arts – Sculpture OR Advanced Studio: Ceramic Arts - Wheel-based 

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Declaring the Minor

The minor must be successfully declared in order to register for upper-division courses. Students must meet with a School of Art Advisor to determine if the minor can be completed within timely graduation units. Students must also meet minimum GPA requirements (3.0 GPA in their declared major, 2.0 GPA overall), and have completed lower division courses in the minor with a 3.0 or better. 

Alternative admission requirements may apply during times when the School of Art is impacted.

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Ceramic Arts Graduate Studies at CSULB

The Ceramics Track in the School of Art’s Master of Fine Arts Concentration in Studio Art degree program provides an opportunity for graduate students to develop highly individualized programs of study supervised by core faculty.

MFA students consult individually with Ceramic Arts faculty, and work with graduate committees comprised of faculty from the Ceramic Arts Studies Program as well as other discipline areas within the School of Art. Graduate students work independently, and participate in a cross-disciplinary cohort of MFA students within the School of Art. Graduate students in the Ceramics Track may call the Ceramics Area their home on campus, but succeeding the MFA will require participating in the broader neighborhood of the School of Art, and we encourage our graduate students to reach out into experiences in the broader world of the university. This engagement with faculty and fellow graduate students beyond the discipline area of ceramics is a structural expectation of the MFA program of study. For this reason, the admissions review process for the Ceramics Track is conducted by Ceramic Arts faculty in consultation with faculty across multiple discipline areas within the School of Art.

MFA students are admitted on a highly selective, individual basis. We usually have no more than three or four graduate students focusing on ceramics at any given time. The typical residency for a graduate student is three years. 

Ceramic Arts MFA students have the special benefit of working side-by-side in a shared studio location with Guest Artists who are in residence as part of the programming of the Center for Contemporary Ceramics at CSULB.

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Ceramics Track MFA Requirements

Though it can be completed in fewer or more semesters, the MFA program of study is designed to be completed over the span of six semesters. Though our studios are open to our graduate students during the summer, we do not offer summer graduate coursework, so a six-semester commitment is a three-year commitment.

General requirements for the MFA Studio Art Concentration, Ceramics Track include:

• A minimum overall GPA of 3.0, with no grade below a “C”;
• Successful completion of an Advancement to Candidacy review; and  
• Successful completion of all required courses and approved elective courses in the MFA program of study.

Required coursework for the MFA Studio Art Concentration, Ceramics Track (60 units)

• Graduate-level Art History course (3 units)
• Graduate Studies: Art Theory/Criticism (seminar taken in the first semester, 3 units)
• Writing for Artists (seminar/working group taken in the second semester, 3 units) in the second semester
• Graduate Studies (critique/discussion/studio course, minimum six semesters, with at least four under a ceramics designation totaling 18 units)
• Additional coursework as approved by MFA Project Committee (totaling 15 units, with most courses being 3 units)
• Graduate Studies: Directed Studio (supervised by student’s MFA Project Committee, minimum four semesters totaling 12 units)
• Graduate Studies: MFA Project (supervised by student’s MFA Project Committee in the final semester totaling 6 units, leading to the completion and presentation of the MFA Project)

Transferred units are allowed on a case-by-case basis. A minimum of 70% of units applied to the degree must be 500 and 600-level courses taken at CSULB, including double-numbered courses (400/500).

Undergraduate coursework applied to the degree must be upper-division (usually 400-level). Undergraduate courses may not be used as substitutes for any course specifically required by the course number for the degree. All double-numbered (400-level/500-level) courses applied to the degree must be taken at the 500 level. All coursework applied to the degree must be approved.

At least 39 units must be in studio courses. No more than 3 units of ART 693 (teaching internship) may be applied to the degree.

More information is available in the CSULB Catalog and on the School of Art website.

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Applying to the MFA Ceramics Track

When applying for the MFA Studio Art Concentration, Ceramics Track, please follow all requirements, specifications, and deadlines published by CSULB and the School of Art. 

MFA applications are reviewed within the School of Art by appropriate faculty. We review applications for Fall admission only. The admissions process for all graduate programs is highly competitive, and only those applicants who are recommended by the reviewing faculty may be admitted. Admission is not complete until the applicant has received both notification of acceptance from the School of Art and official notification from the CSULB Office of Enrollment Services. All applicants must be accepted by the School of Art in order to be officially accepted by the University. 

Application and Review Process

Admission to the MFA Art degree program at CSULB is a two-part process that requires application to and acceptance by both the University and the School of Art into a specific degree program. 

The CSU application for Graduate Admission to the University is available online through CSUMentor (www.csumentor.edu). 

School of Art application forms and deadlines are available on the SoA Website (www.csulb.edu/school-of-art).

Acceptance decisions are normally sent out by the second week of April.

More information is available in the CSULB Catalog and on the School of Art website.

MFA Prerequisites 

CSU general requirements include: a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution; a grade point average of at least 2.5 in the last 60 semester units taken; and good standing at the last college attended. We do not require that an applicant have a prior degree in ceramics or in art, though significant experience in art and in ceramics, as evidenced by the overall application, is a minimum expectation to secure a recommendation for admission from reviewing faculty.

An applicant may be accepted if, in addition to having satisfied specific prerequisites set by the School of Art for each degree concentration, the applicant has satisfied the minimum university standards.

The School of Art requires a minimum GPA of 3.0 in upper-division (junior and senior level) art prerequisite units.

In rare and compelling circumstances, an applicant who does not qualify for admission under usual provisions may be admitted by special action if on recommendation of the appropriate faculty of the school/ college concerned and in the judgment of the Associate Vice President for Graduate and Undergraduate Programs or his/her designee there exists acceptable evidence that the applicant possesses sufficient academic, professional, and other potential pertinent to her/his educational objectives to merit such action, as shown through aptitude scores, recent academic performance, and experiential background.

More information is available in the CSULB Catalog and on the School of Art website.

Ceramics MFA Portfolio and Statement Submission Guidelines

REMEMBER that the application process is a two-part process, with an application to CSULB and an additional application (including portfolio and statements) to the School of Art.

For the MFA application portfolio, we ask that you submit a minimum of 20 images of your artwork. The majority of these should represent work in ceramics. We embrace a broad understanding of what constitutes ceramics. You may also include work in other media. No more than four images in your portfolio should represent detail shots or alternate views of works already represented in other images in the portfolio.

We encourage you to organize your portfolio with the goal of best demonstrating your accomplishments working in ceramic media and representing the nature and trajectory of your practice as an artist. We encourage thorough captioning of images to provide more context for your work.

The MFA application process requires the submission of a portfolio, an artist statement, and a statement of intent. Together, these constitute your opportunity to make the case for your admission into the MFA Ceramics Track, to show us and tell us about yourself as an artist, as a potential student in our degree program, and as a potential participant in our learning and making community—who you are, where you’re coming from, what you’ve done, what you’re doing, what you want to do, and how you think. We encourage you to make the most of this opportunity.

Please carefully follow the image formatting specifications published by the School of Art.

More information is available in the CSULB Catalog and the School of Art website.

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Ceramic Arts Student Club

The CSULB Ceramic Arts Student Club is a student-run, faculty-advised organization recognized by the CSULB Division of Student Affairs and CSULB Associated Students Inc.

The club is comprised of mostly Ceramics MFA, BFA, and Minor students, and also welcomes any CSULB students with an interest in ceramics and a willingness to be involved club members.

The Ceramic Arts Student Club hosts an annual student art holiday sale, sponsors events and experiences for learning beyond the curriculum, organizes social events, collaborates with other on- and off-campus organizations to explore meaningful intersections between our students and other interest groups, and functions as a primary hub for communication and exchange among student participants in our learning and making community.

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