B.A./B.S. in Art (Visual Arts) - Art Therapy Concentration

If you’re drawn to helping people manage their emotions and wellbeing, and art is one of your personal interests, then explore the transformative impact of art therapy through our undergraduate art therapy program.

In the classroom, you’ll learn the creative use of art materials and practices that can assist with raising people’s self-esteem, improving their contact with reality, and with facilitating their personal development. Through fieldwork in the community, you’ll be introduced to organizations that work with people experiencing various illnesses, trauma, or challenges in living. You will witness and participate in the application of art therapy practices through supervised, hands-on experiences. Additional courses in studio art, art history, and psychology will challenge and enhance your discipline-specific skills and knowledge.

Students completing the Bachelor of Arts concentration in art therapy graduate with resume-building practical experience and are fully prepared to apply for advanced degrees in art therapy or counseling and to work in the mental health field.

Did You Know?

• UW-Superior offers one of the few undergraduate art therapy programs in the Midwest. It is the only undergraduate art therapy program in the University of Wisconsin system.
• You will have ample opportunities for off-campus internships and service-learning activities in the vibrant Superior-Duluth community.
• All our art professors are accomplished artists.
• The Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center facilities include spacious studios for painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, printmaking, drawing, woodworking, metalworking, stained glass mosaics, and weaving.

Through a concentration in art therapy at UW-Superior, you will:

• Understand the theory, psychology, and use of color
• Understand how to engage people's minds and feelings through art
• Understand and be able to use the connection between art and psychology in therapy
• Develop self-awareness and self-expression and promote it in others
• Be challenged to practice and improve your visual arts technical and creative problem-solving skills

UW-Superior's undergraduate art therapy program will prepare you for a career in mental health care, encompassing a variety of positions working with children, adolescents, adults, or geriatrics on an individual or group basis, in settings such as:

• hospitals
• community health centers
• residential treatment homes
• halfway houses
• prisons
• development centers