Sculpture

Sculpture at AUArts is a rigorous, experimental program where you’ll learn to shape the future of three-dimensional art. Explore everything from welded metal, cast bronze and carved wood to kinetic installation, performance and digital fabrication. Here, the object becomes a conversation with space, context and culture. Whether you’re creating immersive installations or intimate objects, you’ll be supported to push boundaries, find your artistic voice and engage with the big questions of our time.

AUArts Sculpture is a community of thinkers, makers, and doers. Individual studios for upper-year students, regular group critiques, collaborations with other programs and gallery exhibitions foster a sense of belonging and healthy creative competition. Faculty and technicians are hands-on and deeply invested in your growth, and visiting artists bring fresh perspectives from across the globe. You’ll be challenged, supported, and inspired—every day.

Program Overview

At AUArts, Sculpture is a deep dive into the possibilities of three-dimensional art, guided by both foundational skill-building and radical experimentation. You’ll begin with hands-on experience in traditional and new media—working with clay, plaster, wood, metal, found objects and even electronics—while exploring core methods like additive, reductive, constructive and reproductive processes.

As you move forward, you’ll master the art of making multiples (from mold-making to bronze casting), investigate how material choices shape meaning, and experiment with everything from performance and wearable objects to site-specific installations. Courses are built around active studio projects, critical research and peer critiques that push you to develop your own artistic vision and voice.

You’ll learn conceptual and practical strategies for building a personal practice—experimenting with methodologies, seriality, language and play. At the intermediate and advanced levels, you’ll pursue self-directed work, panel critiques and seminar-style research to sharpen your practice and professional readiness.

Program Highlights

• Master All Methods: Learn traditional sculpture (carving, welding, bronze casting) and contemporary approaches (installation, performance, digital fabrication, found objects, wearables).
• Material Exploration: Get hands-on with clay, wood, metal, plaster and non-traditional media; develop your own processes for mold-making, replication and large-scale projects.
• Radical Experimentation: Dive into performance art, site-specific work, social practice and cross-disciplinary collaborations—push sculpture beyond the pedestal.
• Concept-Driven Practice: Build your practice through research-led courses on methodology, systems, language and process as content.
• Professional Launchpad: Develop a capstone body of work, refine your portfolio and gain real-world exhibition experience before graduation.