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The Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design area of the Department of Design is the oldest of its kind at a state university in the United States.
A variety of studio design courses are offered, including jewelry design, holloware, enameling, rendering, professional practices, gemology and historical seminars. Students may choose an elective or major course of study. Each student has personal workspace and locker facilities.
Students may choose a design direction that best complements their personal professional goals. Based on each graduate's individual needs, they may choose a professional direction from a variety of areas, including design for the jewelry and silversmithing industry, retail or wholesale jewelry business, commission work, gemology, trade shop, custom design studio, teaching, or consulting.
The program of study for a Master of Fine Arts degree in Metals is an individualized studio program with relatively few required classes. It is essentially tutorial with students working with various faculty members on an appointment basis to develop his or her work. The 60 hour program is usually completed in three years as most students combine their course work with a teaching assistantship.
The basic requirements for the M.F.A. are 24 hours of studio concentration, 9 hours of related academic course work, usually art history, 3 hours of directed readings, 9 thesis hours, 9 hour of studio electives, and crafts seminar each semester. There is a craft faculty review of each student’s progress after twelve hours of major studio work are completed and again after twenty-four hours of studio work are completed (before thesis work can begin). During the two semesters students take the nine thesis hours, they work with a major advisor and a thesis committee of their choice. The program culminates with a thesis exhibition and oral defense by the students of the exhibition. A written thesis and slide portfolio of the thesis exhibit is also required.
For more information about the MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry, click here.
The Metalsmithing area has three full-time faculty, Jon Havener, Lin Stanionis and Gina Westergard, who are involved in all levels of instruction within the program. The Metals faculty works with the graduate students on an independent basis and encourages a diverse involvement within the discipline. While having strong backgrounds in traditional jewelry and hollowware forms and processes, the faculty are diverse in their individual research activities. Jon Havener uses traditional smithing processes to fabricate large scale sculptures of bronze and steel. Lin Stanionis’ work explores critical and political issues through the reinterpretation of traditional functional forms. Her work is fabricated from metal combined with a variety of non-traditional materials. Gina Westergard’s research activities are directed toward kinetic jewelry, presented in sculptural display stands. Her work includes traditional jewelry and Metalsmithing techniques, stone settings, texture and color applications and mixed media.
The Metalsmithing studio is a new facility, completely renovated in 1990 with state-of-the-art ventilation and safety equipment. The studio is 3,800 square feet, divided into seven rooms. There are separate areas for smithing, plating/electro-forming, a finishing room with a bead blaster, dual speed exhausted buffers, belt sanders, grinder and stake polishing machines. The enameling facility has work space for twelve students with access to four kilns.
The metals shop has a studio space for sixteen majors, a studio for sixteen beginning students, along with a separate graduate studio that accommodates four to six students. The graduate studio is equipped and maintained for graduate use only and allows the student to develop an individual bench space. The metals area is located on the second floor of the Art and Design building with large windows in every room giving a panoramic view of the campus and abundant natural lighting. The studio has major equipment including an anozider, a uni-mat lathe, hydraulic pressing, two rolling mills, gas fluxer, large smithing stakes, a box bender and a variety of Di-Arco sheet metal tools. The studio also has a modest library and a catalogues collection of 2,000 slides. There is a supply store (operated by the student Metalsmithing organization, Alpha Rho Gamma) located in the studio, offering tools and materials at non-profit cost.
For contact information visit the Undergraduate Studies or the Graduate Studies pages.
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The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Lawrence, KS 66045 785/864-3421 |
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