Sculpture Garden outside of the Rolland Art Center

Academics

School of Creative Arts

Your Life in the Arts Starts Here

Join a thriving community of artists in our School for Creative Arts, where you’ll:

  • Push the boundaries of your own creative potential
  • Collaborate with artists from various disciplines on real projects
  • Connect with professionals in your major
  • Grow through a personalized and progressive education

See SOCA in Action

SOCA Programs

Undergraduate

Graduate

Minors

  • Art History
  • Communication
  • Museum Studies
  • Music Technology
  • Sequential Art
  • Speech
  • Studio Art – 2-D
  • Studio Art – 3-D
  • Studio Art – Photography
  • Visual Development

Talent Scholarships

Twice a year, SOCA hosts Talent Scholarship Day. If you’re a high school junior or senior or a college transfer student, you can have your work reviewed by professional SOCA faculty for a talent scholarship.

Create in Top-Notch Studios and Facilities

Students have 24-hour access to our safe and secure labs.

Animation Lab with industry-standard software, including:

  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Autodesk Maya
  • Final Cut Pro
  • Pixologic ZBrush
  • Toon Boom Studio
  • High-end PC computer lab
  • Non-linear video editing stations
  • Comfortable 25-seat movie screening room
  • Community lounge area
  • Traditional 2-D animation lab

Art Education Lab: Set up like an art classroom; also used to teach Saturday Art to students in the Fort Wayne community

Art Studios

  • Ceramic Studio: Equipped with pottery wheels, kilns (raku, reduction, soda, wood firing), and a separate glazing area
  • Drawing & Painting Studios: Spacious studios with natural light and a high-quality ventilation system; Includes a mat cutting and framing area (with Fletcher 2100 and Fletcher 3000 mat cutters) and a separate spray room
  • Metalcraft Lab: Equipped with kilns, vacuum casters, a centrifugal caster, grinders, rolling mills, vices, a stained-glass kiln, lapidary equipment, stone diamond saws, tumblers and a jeweler’s lathe
  • Photography Lab: Include a 20-station black & white darkroom with large-print capabilities, film and print dryers, and a separate film-loading and processing area; Lighting studio with Speedotron Brown Line systems, a large hot lighting set, and more; Also available: cyclorama wall and several backdrops, numerous cameras, lenses and accessories
  • Printmaking Studio: Ideal for intaglio, lithography, woodcut, relief printing; includes a 30”x 60” litho press, two etching presses, two combination presses, assorted litho stones, and paper cutters
  • Sculpture Lab: Houses equipment for making wood, stone, metal, and clay-based projects; features a separate plaster room, stone-carving area, and bronze foundry
  • Woodworking Studio: Includes a woodshop with assorted table saws, grinders, buffers, lathes, drill presses, milling machines, and hand tools; Finishing studio for final assembly, sanding, and finish work.

MAC Computer Lab: Continually updated with the most current professional software, including Adobe Creative Cloud.

Dance: Facilities in the Auer Center for Arts and Culture (Fort Wayne) include:

  • Four rehearsal studios complete with sprung floors for dance (Marley and/or hardwood)
  • Four large, mirrored dance studios with barres, observation windows, and pianos

Music Technology Center: All recording studios, ensemble and performance room, and mix/edit suites are digitally interconnected so all spaces can be used to record, produce, and perform.

  • Studio A, with a 32-channel Neve 5088 Recording Console
  • Studio B, with an Avid ICON digital console
  • Mastering Studio
  • 12 Mix/Edit Production Suites
  • 7 Practice Rooms
  • 2 large Ensemble Rooms
  • 2,000-Seat Auditorium

Television Studio: Features a three-camera television set-up with full switching, editing, video, graphics and audio production capabilities, and seven Adobe Premier editing stations. The studio has digital and tape-based cameras for on-location shooting.

Theatre Facilities: Our performing arts programs use two stages.

  • The USF Performing Arts Center, part of USF’s downtown campus, provides a performance hall with over 2,000 seats for SOCA’s theatrical and musical productions.
  • On campus, our North Campus building houses a 500-seat auditorium, dance studio, gallery space and Music Technology classrooms, including computer music labs, a recording studio and rehearsal spaces.

Plus, Art Galleries for on-campus exhibitions: SOCA provides gallery exhibitions with regional, national and international artists in its multiple galleries on campus. Students also exhibit in our annual student show.

USF Marching Band

Use your talent to show your Cougar pride! Celebrate our championship teams and student athletes by participating in the Marching Pride, USF’s marching band. All USF students are invited to audition. You can even win a $3,000 scholarship!

To learn more, contact:
Dr. Steven Kandow, Marching Band Director
skandow@sf.edu
260-399-7700 ext.8024

Learn from Professional Faculty Artists

SOCA faculty members are artists, writers, animators, musicians, producers, and more.