Welcome to Fine Arts

Fallen log in the bush is carved with the words "NOW AND THEN"
Artwork of a box with a cutwork pattern, lit from inside and projecting Islamic patterns on gallery walls
Artwork of two sheer curtains with an organic leaf print that hang from tree branches suspended from the ceiling.
Detail of four small, colourful paintings and hung edge to edge in a line. The paintings show views of a pedestrian overpass between building.
Three large photographs of a posed figure superimposed on a landscape. The person is dressed in three different costumes with a western/cowboy aesthetic that is altered to question gender stereotypes.
Group of people seated with one standing at the front of the room, in front of several black and white photographs of objects.

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.

Students in an art class, seated at easels drawing fabric.
Half opened sketchbook with written notes and a drawing of Big Ben clock in London.
View from above of an artist's studio with the artist working on a painting

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, Cora Cluett. 

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.

View "Why Study Fine Arts At The University Waterloo? An Intro to Our Program and Facilities" on Vimeo

News

MFA Thesis 1, Racquel Rowe and Karice Mitchell artwork at www.uwag.uwaterloo.ca
Wednesday, April 14, 2021

2021 Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition I

The Department of Fine Arts and UWAG (University of Waterloo Art Gallery) present the first of two 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.

Large scale photographic installation of family on photos from the 1960s installed on the windows of a building
Monday, April 12, 2021

Aaron Francis photographic installation on East Campus Hall windows

Tamarack Drive is a series of images from 1969 taken by Jamaican-born, Waterloo, Ontario-based photographer Roy Francis. Originally captured on Kodak Ektachrome 35mm transparency film and developed by Roy at the family home on Tamarack, the series offers a candid glimpse of early Caribbean-Canadian life in Waterloo Region. Curated by Roy’s grandson Aaron Francis, whose grandmother, mother, and uncles appear here alongside one another outside the family home and on family trips to Niagara Falls and the Canadian National Exhibition.