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Anastasia Meadors
Program Director

Student Success Story

"To accomplish your dreams, you have to invest in them, and coming to a program like this is the first step." —Lina Janusas, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts graduate

View student projects in the Art and Design Gallery.

Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts

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The Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts provides a critical bridge between talent and skill. This exciting curriculum includes expert instruction and rigorous studio experience to help you take your creative ideas to the next level in a supportive atmosphere. It includes theory and critique seminars designed to develop creative and conceptual thinking; visual art history courses that integrate issues of contemporary art within a historical context; and visual arts electives chosen from a wide array of studio courses in painting, drawing, digital photography and other media. The combination of the studio practice with the conceptual and art-historical framework enables you to develop a portfolio of work for application to an M.F.A. program. All courses are approved by UC Berkeley and take place in the heart of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena arts district. This certificate can be completed a part-time or full-time basis. Join our email list to stay informed about this certificate.

Courses

The table contains the required courses for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts, as well as the terms they are typically available for enrollment.

6 Required Courses, 1 Art History Elective, Minimum 6 Art Practice Electives
24 Semester Units (360 Hours of Instruction)

Required Courses	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom
Modern Art: History and Theory	X441	2	Fall
Contemporary Art: History and Theory	X442	2	Spring
Post-Baccalaureate Seminar I: Portfolio and Visual Dynamics	X401	2	Fall
Post-Baccalaureate Seminar 2: Portfolio and Critique	X495	2	Spring
Post-Baccalaureate Seminar 3: Portfolio Development and Professional Practices	X495.1	2	Summer
Portfolio Review	801		Spring Summer

Electives	Course Number	Units/CEU	Classroom	Online
Post-Baccalaureate Mentorship	X495.5	1	Fall Spring Summer

Electives (Art History)	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom
Abstraction vs. Figuration: Five Decades of Modern and Contemporary Art	X446.2	1	Fall
American Art	X427	2	Summer
Ancient Greek Art (offered future term)	X400.4	2
Art of the Impressionists	X407.1	2	Spring
Art of the Post-Impressionists (offered future term)	X407.2	2
The Grand Tour: Art and Travel of the 18th Century	X426.5	1	Summer
Rococo to Revolution: Art of the 18th Century (offered future term)	X406.1	2
Roman and Etruscan Art (offered future term)	X400.6	2

Electives (Drawing)	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom
Anatomy for Artists	X415.5	2	Fall
Advanced Anatomy for Artists	X415.7	1	Spring
Drawing Intermediate	X406	2	Spring
Experimental Drawing	X433	2	Fall Spring Summer
Exploring the Portrait and Self-Portrait	X434	2	Spring
Extremities: Drawing Hands and Feet	X415.6	1	Fall
Figure Drawing	X415	2	Summer
Large-Scale Drawing	X408.1	2	Fall
Pastel (offered future term)	X408	2
Pen and Ink Drawing (offered future term)	X432	2
Perspective Drawing for Artists	X406.6	1	Summer
Working in Series	X413.3	2	Spring

Electives (Painting)	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom
The Abstract in Nature (offered future term)	X427	2
Approaches to Abstraction in Painting	X412.1	2	Fall Spring
Chinese Brush Painting	X449	2	Spring
Chinese Landscape Painting (offered future term)	X449.1	2
Color Theory for the Visual Arts	X403	2	Fall Spring
Colorful Painting: Observation and Intuition	X411.2	2	Summer
Contemporary Painting With Water-Based Media	X414.3	2	Fall
Contemporary Realism: Painting Techniques of the Masters	X442.1	2	Fall
New! Light and Space	X411.4	2	Summer
Mixed-Media Painting	X440	2	Fall Spring
Painting Intermediate	X411	2	Fall Spring
Painting Workshop	X470	2	Fall Spring Summer
Simplifying the Complex (offered future term)	X406.9	1
Watercolor Fundamentals	X414	2	Spring
Working in Series	X413.3	2	Fall Spring

Electives (Photography AND Film)	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom	ONLINE
New! Beat Cinema	X426.1	1	Summer
Digital Filmmaking Fundamentals	X415.1	2	Spring
Digital Filmmaking Intermediate (offered future term)	X415.2	2
Digital Photography in Practice and in Context	X405.7	2	Fall Spring
Digital Photography Intermediate	X405.2	2	Fall Spring Summer
Digital Printing and Presentation	X405.9	2	Spring
New! Film History: 1880s to 1940s	X401.1	2		Summer
History of Photography: A Dynamic Study and Practice	X405.8	2	Spring
Independent Projects: Film and Video (offered future term)	X490	2
Landscape and Horticultural Photography	X430	2	Summer
Multimedia Storytelling	X416.1	2	Spring
Photography Workshop	X406.1	2	Summer

Electives (Other Media)	Course Number	Units/ CEU	Classroom
The Image of Text and Sound	X440.2	2	Spring
Intermedia: Conceptual Practices	X424	2	Fall
Monoprinting Fundamentals	X417.1	2	Summer
Monoprinting Intermediate (offered future term)	X417.2	2
Play as a Subversive Strategy	X433.1	2	Summer
Printmaking and Street Art as Activist Art Tools	X417.3	2	Summer
Woodblock Printmaking	X417.4	2	Spring

Course availability is subject to change.

To enroll, click on a course title above and choose a section.

You may enroll in individual courses without registering for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts.

Who Will Benefit

This certificate is ideal if you are an intermediate to advanced practicing artist with an undergraduate degree (in any major) and a desire to apply to an M.F.A. program or pursue a career in the arts.

Prerequisites for Admission

A bachelor's degree is required for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts and completion of a specialized program of study in painting, drawing, digital photography or equivalent, as determined by the program director. Note: The revised prerequisites apply to new students registering for this professional certificate on or after Jan. 1, 2011.

Curriculum Requirements

The curriculum comprises a minimum of 12 courses and a final portfolio review for a total of 24 semester units (360 hours of instruction), including 6 required courses (10 semester units), 1 art history elective (2 semester units) and a minimum of 6 art practice electives (12 semester units). Candidates must pay a nonrefundable certificate application fee.

The curriculum includes theory and critique seminars designed to develop creative and conceptual thinking; visual art history courses that integrate issues of contemporary art within a historical context; and visual arts electives chosen from a wide array of studio courses in painting, drawing, digital photography and other media.

All coursework must be completed within five years of registering for the certificate. However, requirements may be updated based on new developments in the field of study; we recommend completing the curriculum in a timely fashion. For more information, please see the completion requirements and the substitutions, waivers and transfer credit policies.

How to Register for This Professional Certificate

By registering, you declare your intention to complete the curriculum. To register for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts, submit the online registration form with your credit card information or complete the mail-in registration form. The registration fee is nonrefundable.

Send an official transcript of your bachelor's degree to:

Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Visual Arts
UC Berkeley Extension
1995 University Ave., Suite 110
Berkeley, CA 94704-7000

Estimated Cost

Each course is priced individually, and you pay the course fee at the time of enrollment. The certificate has an estimated total cost of $5,800 (not including course materials or registration fee). Course fees are subject to change.

Contact Information

To contact the department office, email visualarts@unex.berkeley.edu or call (415) 284-1041.

Advisory Board

Susanne Cockrell
Associate Professor, Fine Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, Community Arts and First-Year Program
California College of the Arts

Richard Kamler
Associate Professor, Department of Art and Architecture
University of San Francisco

Ted Purves
Assistant Professor and Chair, Fine Arts Department
California College of the Arts

George Rivera
Executive Director and Senior Curator
Triton Museum of Art

Richard Shaw
Professor, Department of Art Practice
UC Berkeley

Mark Van Proyen
Associate Professor and Chair, Painting Department
San Francisco Art Institute

Lewis Watts
Associate Professor, Department of Art
UC Santa Cruz

Dominic Willsdon
The Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Programs
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Professional Certificates