Ahmedabad University offers a five-year dual degree Programme in Integrated Arts for students seeking rigorous and holistic education in the fields of Performing and Visual Arts. This is a multidisciplinary programme that provides intellectual preparation within the liberal arts tradition while building skills and capabilities within specific art forms. Students will acquire in-depth technical and creative skills in their chosen field of practice while being exposed to an integrative knowledge of various art forms. While the programme is conceived as an integrated Master’s degree, students have the option to exit from the programme after four years with a Bachelors (Honours) degree.
The idea of Integrated Arts is for a student to be exposed to a wide range of creative art forms within a liberal arts educational environment. Students learn about the various art forms that make a creative world, learn how they can be combined or integrated to provide an innovative framework and build a deeper understanding of one or more art forms.
The student has the choice of specialising in a particular art practice such as music, theatre, dance, photography, or painting, or building their entire educational programme through the integrated arts framework.
Students will take courses in myriad Performing and Visual Arts disciplines in the first four years. These courses may be wide-ranging (in the spirit of the Integrated Arts programme) or focused (leading to a concentration in the practice of an art form). Students are expected to gain professional experience through a Summer Internship at the end of their third year. Immersive courses starting from the summer of the second year provide an opportunity to learn the craft deeply from one or more experts. An Integrated Arts project in the fourth year will bring together all the learnings of the preceding three years. In the fifth and final year, the student will participate in studio learning and carry out an independent project in the Visual Arts or Performing Arts supplemented by a written research component.
The programme offers opportunities to study Integrated Arts for the entire duration of the programme or undertake a specialisation in the form of Pathways and Concentrations at the Master’s level in this dual degree programme. The Bachelors component of the dual degree programme exposes the student to a variety of art practices.
To begin with, the dual degree programme in Integrated Arts will offer two broad Pathways: (a) Performing Arts; and (b) Visual Arts. Each Pathway is defined to target a particular set of artistic Concentrations (Music, Theatre, Painting, Photography) and open up specific career opportunities related to those practices.
Three degrees, namely Master of Arts (MA), MFA (Master of Fine Arts) and MPA (Master of Performing Arts), are offered under the Programme in Integrated Arts.
The specifics of the degrees are the following:
MA Integrated Arts caters to students who want to become academic scholars (in History of Art, Musicology, etc.), curators, arts managers, auctioneers, museum professionals, gallerists, arts entrepreneurs, cultural policy makers, and more. Students may choose to focus on either Visual Arts or Performing Arts through their major electives, internships, immersive courses, the 4th-year project, the advanced studio, and the graduation project.
MFA and MPA degrees are primarily for students who want to become artists, performers, practitioners, etc.
An exit option offered at the end of 4 years leading to a BA (Honours) in Integrated Arts. In that case, the 4th year project will carry more credits than what is laid out above, so it may be considered as an undergraduate Honours graduation project. The total credits required for the BA (Honours) is 167.
Minimum Programme Credits: 200
Degree Awarded: Bachelor of Arts in Integrated Arts, and a Master of Arts in Integrated Arts OR a Master of Performing Arts OR a Master of Fine Arts (DUAL DEGREE)