Welcome to Fine Arts

Fine Arts teaches the how and the why of making. The how involves a wide-range of material and digital skills from ceramics, painting, print media, and photography, to cutting-edge technologies such as 3D printing, digital imagery and DSLR filmmaking. The why helps students develop criticality in visual culture—a rigour that hones an understanding of what things look like and mean within the current global condition. Our faculty is outstanding, and students often work with them one-on-one.

Undergraduate students major or minor in Studio and/or Visual Culture; they can also participate in co-op through Waterloo’s Arts and Business program with a Fine Arts major. Graduate students pursue a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) with its unique Keith and Win Shantz International Research Scholarship.

Find out more

To find out more about our department, follow any of the links above or in the main menu. Our faculty and staff are also happy to talk with you via email, over the phone, or in person to answer any questions you might have. 

For undergraduate inquiries contact our undergraduate administrator, Brett Roberts, or our undergraduate chair, Bojana Videkanic. The Fine Arts undergraduate office is in East Campus Hall room 1206.

For graduate inquiries contact our graduate chair, Lois Andison

The Department of Fine Arts stands in support of our Black, Indigenous, POC, and LGBT+ students and supports the Faculty of Arts’ commitment to doing better.

  1. Apr. 20, 2023The intersection between Chemical Engineering and Art
    First Indigenous Female Engineer, painting of people at a lake, art piece with poka dots and navy t-shirt

    Recently people who frequent the halls of Engineering 6 may have noticed many unique art pieces on display. These works elicit a variety of reactions.

  2. Apr. 18, 2023Photography exhibit features Fine Arts Alum Natalie Hunter
    Artwork of a strip of vibrant transparent images that is looped over rods on a wall.

    The exhibition image/object: new approaches to three-dimensional photography is on view at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, BC until May 6 as part of the 2023 Capture Photography Festival Selected Exhibition Program.

  3. Mar. 10, 2023Documentary videos feature Fine Arts Faculty and Alumni
    Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery logo

    KWAG (Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallert) has produced short documentary videos titled Public Domain featuring artists whose work is in the KWAG Permanent Collection. Public Domain engages with the power of art to connect people and build more resilient communities, within the region and beyond.

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  1. June 5, 2023Life drawing session
    Poster for spring 2023 life drawing sessions with a figure drawn from the front and same text as on the webpage.

  2. June 7, 2023Life drawing session
    Poster for spring 2023 life drawing sessions with a figure drawn from the front and same text as on the webpage.

  3. June 8 to 24, 20232023 Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition III

    Opening reception: Thursday June 8, 5:00–8:00 pm

    The Department of Fine Arts and UWAG present the third in the series of thesis exhibitions by Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates from the graduate program in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. MFA Thesis gives the campus and community-at-large an opportunity to see the end result of two years of intensive research and studio production by emerging visual artists.

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