History of the Department
The programme started in the 2009/2010 academic session under the School of Visual and Performing Arts, College of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences with the then Dr. (now Professor) Binta A. Sulyman as the pioneer Head, before becoming a full-fledged department. In 2018, the Department of Fine and Applied Arts received a Resource Visit from the National Universities Commission (NUC) and got an interim accreditation in the 2021/2022 academic session. The department is now preparing for a full accreditation status. Following the unbundling of the Faculty of Humanities, Management and Social Sciences, the department was moved to the Faculty of Arts in 2023. The department hopes that with the successful conduct of the 2023 accreditation exercise, it will become domiciled in the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the university to run programmes in the areas of Fine and Industrial Designs like other universities running the same programmes.
The department currently has two units. These are the Fine Arts and Applied Arts units. The Fine Arts unit has sections comprising Sculpture, and Painting, while the Applied Arts unit covers Textile Design, Graphic Design, and Ceramics. There is also a section for Art History and Art Education as well. Drawing and other core departmental courses are compulsory for all students, irrespective of the unit they belong to.
Vision Statement
The Department of Fine and Applied Arts seeks to be the foremost in expanding the frontiers of knowledge and advancing the cause of humanity through the provision of skills and knowledge for self-reliance.
Mission Statement
The Department of Fine and Applied Arts seeks to produce graduates in Fine and Applied Arts with a high level of skills and knowledge, and who can contribute to the development of the country through their wealth of experience and training.
Goals
The goals of the programme include:
- to develop, produce, and motivate highly skilled professionals, top academics, and researchers for the public, private, and international organizations, universities, and other institutions of higher learning as leaders in professional services.
- to develop students’ artistic skills in accurate expression in Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Graphic design, Ceramic design, Textile design, and related studies.
- to integrate approaches to production, theory, critical thinking, professional practice, technical development, and manifestation.
- to produce creative art practitioners as well as develop necessary imaginative, intellectual, theoretical, and practical skills for personal development and professional practice within the arts.
- to engage students in active participation in education and aid them in defining their practice, theory, research, creativity, improvisation, and the questioning of orthodoxies.