Visual Arts Graduate Certificate (Online)

The Visual Arts Graduate Certificate offers a broad exploration of art across cultures, time periods, and media. The certificate covers key approaches to understanding and interpreting visual works, with a focus on how art reflects and shapes social, cultural, and historical contexts.

This certificate is designed for learners seeking to deepen their engagement with the arts. You’ll explore frameworks and methodologies for analyzing and critiquing art, as well as focused topics such as modern and contemporary art, global artistic traditions, and the relationship between art, religion, and society.

Through the Visual Arts Graduate Certificate, you’ll learn to:

• Apply frameworks and methodologies to analyze and interpret visual works.
• Evaluate art within its cultural, political, philosophical, and historical contexts.
• Develop critical perspectives on art across different time periods and traditions.
• Examine focused areas such as post–World War II art, Buddhist and Japanese art, and contemporary Latin American film.
• Integrate observation, creative processes, and academic study in the analysis of visual arts.

The Visual Arts Graduate Certificate requires three courses.

Selecting courses. Multiple course options are available during fall, spring, and summer terms. Offerings vary by term. Explore current options in the DCE Course Search & Registration platform.

If you take two courses one semester and one course in a second semester, you can complete your certificate in 8 months. If you prefer a more flexible pace, you have up to three years to finish. There is no formal application required.

To meet the requirements for the certificate, you must:

• Complete the three certificate courses for graduate credit.
• Earn at least a B grade in each course.
• Complete all courses within three years of starting your first eligible certificate course.

Learn more about pursuing a certificate and the process of requesting your certificate.