Everything in art and design begins with visual communication.
Creativity in all forms takes strategy and practice — often starting with a sketch — to bring what you see and feel into the world. The Tyler School of Art and Architecture teaches you that and more. It’s why you spend your first year in Temple University’s art and design degrees immersed in the Art Foundations program. Your success builds upon it.
Tyler requires a full year of art and design foundation classes to build your creativity and your technical and practical skills. Beginning with foundational experiences in drawing, 2D, 3D, time-based and digital media, you will expand your creative abilities, develop essential studio practices, and discover your full potential as a maker and thinker.
Bonus? You also gain transferable skills like these, no matter which art or design major you choose.
The Tyler School of Art and Architecture features its own admissions team, who can provide you with the information you need to make the best decision for your educational and career goals.
Tyler’s first-year Art Foundations program gives you the opportunity to begin your art school journey by expanding your mind and building your creative skills.
Slow down and truly see everything around you with fresh eyes and a clear head.
Balance your creative bursts and experimental tangents with ways to hone your focus (that work for your brain and how your rhythms of inspiration hit).
Experiment with your work persona, materials and methods to find clarity about your messages and motivations.
Question and move beyond what you already believe about the creative process, visual communication, and design. That’s where innovators and change-makers thrive.
Transform your life and creative work with the support and feedback from your passionate and welcoming classmates.
The Tyler School of Art and Architecture offers students a close-knit community of interdisciplinary thinkers, makers and boundary pushers who believe in the power of creative disciplines to promote change.
Your creative education encourages you to explore what’s possible and to establish meaningful bonds.
“Foundations teaches you how to develop ideas, respond to feedback, and see the world in new ways. Whether you’re becoming a professional artist, designer, or art educator, the process begins here.”
Photo by Joseph V. Labolito
“I love supporting students as they begin to see themselves as creative people. Foundations is where they learn the technical and conceptual tools, but also how to plan, make choices, and find their own path forward. I’m proud of the faculty in this program—they care deeply for students, meet them where they are, and help them build a path to success from day one.”
Photo by Joseph V. Labolito
“I love teaching in Foundations — I teach drawing. No matter what you’re going to do as a designer or an artist, you’re going to need to communicate visually with people. Drawing is super direct and connects people.”
“3D Foundations helps students understand how the objects and spaces around them are made. Through hands-on experience with tools like the woodshop and sewing machines, they learn to speak the visual language of everyday items—and begin to insert their own voice into the world. Students leave the Foundation program feeling confident, curious, and critical of the often unseen labor that shapes their lived experience.”
Meet the faculty who teach Tyler’s first-year foundation courses for all art majors.
Experience the creativity, art, and expression of your future classmates.
Lamont Speller Student
Student
Hayley Clayton Student
Student
Daphne Philippoussis Student
Ruby Shtino Student
You ask. We answer the most common questions about why and how Tyler structures art degree programs and design degree programs for your academic and career success.
Short answer? Because art and design basics matter a lot. The highly structured, immersive and trans-disciplinary foundation classes prepare you for success — before and after graduation. These courses give you the chance to try various types of art and design and potentially uncover new strengths and interests.
Natural creativity and talent only take you so far. Successful artists, designers and other creative professionals need trans-disciplinary knowledge and practical skills, too. In foundational courses, you gain these skills and beyond.
By studying these foundations, you better root your studio practice in the legacy of those who came before you across time and across creative disciplines.
By learning the elements of the creative process from an idea’s spark through technical challenges of materials and methods, you build flexibility and problem-solving skills. It’s important to recognize the common places creatives get stuck. It’s even more important to know effective ways to get unstuck.
By learning time management strategies that work with your brain and creative rhythms, you learn to be a reliable and valued professional in any career you choose or imagine.
Yes, Temple University houses 17 schools or colleges, including the Tyler School of Art and Architecture on its campuses in Philadelphia and Ambler, Pennsylvania. Depending on your chosen major and other interests, your classes include options from both Tyler and Temple.
