Bachelor of Liberal Arts – Arts and Literature Concentration
Unique Offerings
The goal of an Arts & Literature concentration is to prepare you to work in fields such as writing, publishing, the visual and performance arts, curating, and arts management. You also acquire the necessary prerequisites for successful graduate study. While students often choose to focus on writing/literature or visual/performing arts, this concentration encourages cross-disciplinary study and work.
• 25% of Arts & Literature concentration may be completed via Educational Partners such as Freehold Theater, Richard Hugo House and Pratt Fine Arts Center.
• Antioch University Seattle publishes Knock, a print and digital literary arts magazine that is designed and produced by B.A. students. This is a unique opportunity to gain first-hand publishing experience.
You can take courses in each of the following four core subject areas:
- Writing Workshops
- Art Studio - Visual and Performance Art
- Literary and Art History Seminars
- Seminar in Professional Skills - Publishing/Editing and Curating/Installation
General Requirements
The degree requirements for graduation are satisfied when you complete:
A total of 180 quarter credits (at least 45 credits taken at Antioch University), including:
- Up to 48 credits of prior learning
- At least 60 upper division credits
- Three required core courses:
- Liberal Studies Seminar; Diversity, Power and Privilege; Inquiry and Research
- An area of concentration (six required courses)
- Four quarters of study at Antioch University Seattle (or more)
- A portfolio of your work reflecting academic progress
- A Senior synthesis project and Symposium presentation
Length of Program
Most students graduate from the BA completion program in two years or less. Completion of 180 quarter credits is required for graduation.
Tuition & Fees
- Tuition: $560 per credit
- Required fees: $145 per quarter
- $6,865 tuition and required fees per quarter, full time (12 credits)
- $27,460 typical annual tuition and fees
- Credits documented for Life Experience: $140 per credit
Annual tuition and fees based on 2013-14 rates for four quarters. Antioch University Seattle students typically attend classes all year.
Career Opportunities
Opportunities may include jobs in art studio management; publishing; writing/screenwriter; editing; fine-arts organizational management; design work.
Program Summary
The goal of an Arts and Literature concentration is to prepare you to work in fields such as writing, publishing, the visual and performance arts, curating and arts management. You also acquire the necessary prerequisites for successful graduate study.
This area appeals to creative people or those who want to work in a creative discipline.
While students often choose to focus on either writing/literature or the visual/performing arts, the concentration encourages cross-disciplinary study and work. Arts and Literature students also have opportunities to work on Knock, a print and digital literary arts magazine. This is a unique opportunity to gain first-hand publishing experience.
Core Coursework
Writing Workshop
This coursework emphasizes peer and instructor feedback on original creative writing and performance in a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, play/screenwriting, and nonfiction. Critical reading and writing complement the creative work. Workshops are repeatable for elective credit with change in content. Sample classes that would meet this core requirement:
- Many Voices: Study in Short Fiction
- Writing Poetry: Imagination, Craft, Audience
- Telling Stories: An Introduction to Live Art
- Writing for Stage and Screen
Art Studio
The focus of the coursework is peer and instructor feedback on original visual and performance art in a variety of areas, including painting, drawing, sculpture/ceramics, theatre, photography, printmaking, and dance. Critical reading and writing complement creative work. Studios are repeatable for elective credit with change in content. Sample classes that would meet this core requirement:
- Clay Handbuilding
- Drawing the Still Life and the Landscape
- Painting
- Collage
- Introduction to Vocal Improvisation
- Theatre classes through AUS's partnership with Freehold Theatre Lab
Literary and Art History Seminars
These courses combine critical, theoretical and creative study focused on one or more of the following methods: period; genre/area; schools/movements; region; ethnic/postcolonial. Additional special topics in literary/art criticism and history will be offered as well. Three seminars total; cross-disciplinary study is required (e.g., two literary and one art history seminar). Sample classes that would meet this core requirement:
- Border Crossings: A Multicultural Journey Through Film and Literature
- Expressionist Drama and Theatre of the Absurd
- Ecoliterature: Narrative and Ecological Conflict
- Northwest Native American Art
- Contemporary Women Writers
- Narratives of Resistance
- Literature of Displacement
- Architecture as if Life Matters: Green Building Across Culture
Seminar in Professional Skills
Seminars and practica in the arts and literature focused on publishing/editing and curating/installation include features such as magazine production, art exhibition, film showings, performances, reflective practica, guest writer/artist series, and portfolio construction.
Sample Electives
- Postcolonial Fiction and Drama
- Birds in the Imagination and in the Field
- Music of the Celtic Peoples
- Gothic and Romantic Visions of Horror and Beauty
- Inquiring with the Mind of the Body: Making an Art of Wilderness and Civilization
- The Postmodern Novel: Wit, Relativity and Chaos
- History and Image of the American Family
- Outsider and Alternative Art
- Epic Mythology as History of Civilization
- An acting class at Freehold Theatre Lab
Sample Community/Field-based Learning Experiences
- Complete a publication practicum with KNOCK, Antioch University Seattle's literary journal
- Apprentice with a local artist, writer, or filmmaker
- Assist with teaching a studio ceramics course
- Help install an art show
- Organize a lecture series at Hugo House
- Perform in a production of "The Vagina Monologues"
- Complete a practicum with a street theatre troupe
Sample Synthesis Projects
- Complete a creative project such as a portfolio of writing or art, a film/video, etc.
- Write a critical thesis
- Guest edit a special edition of a journal
- Design the logo, letterhead, poster, website, etc. for an event
Arts and Literature students have opportunities to work on KNOCK, a literary arts magazine published twice each year at Antioch University Seattle.
Aaron Dietz
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
Antioch has a good reputation, he says, for being able to educate self-learners and for keeping students involved in the learning process. He says he was able to create classes geared toward writing and publishing his own book, something he says would have been much harder to do at a state college.
Bob Hasegawa
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2003
Now Eleventh District Democratic Representative, he says his experience at Antioch surprised him by pushing him beyond his areas of concentration and stretching him in directions he'd never thought of going.
Carson Marshall
B.A. Liberal Studies, MA Whole Systems Design, 2001, 2003
He learned the program supports everyone's unique exploration. He said he realized he could create the way he wants to present himself to the world.
Cheryl Honey
BA Liberal Studies , 2004
It was serendipitous that she ended up going to Antioch. She says her advisers taught her she had special gifts to offer this world and she didn't have to ask for permission to make her unique contribution.
Chris Plyman
BA Liberal Studies, 2009
He happened to be walking along Sixth Avenue in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood when he came upon Antioch University. It looked like a place where he could do some exploring, so this retired Army warrant officer decided to give it a try.
Colleen Crotty
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
Antioch teaches you to look at things differently and to get involved in the community. She says she wouldn't trade her experience for anything.
Danielle Cameron
B.A. Liberal Studies, M.A. Psychology, Art Therapy with Mental Health Counseling, 2002
She says the more she learned about Antioch, the more she realized it was a school most likely to help her get where she wanted to go. She says it is the school for students who are independently motivated.
Debra Sund
BA Liberal Studies - Individualized Program: Holistic Early Childhood Education , 2008
She very much appreciates the freedom at Antioch and the smaller class size. She says it has a supportive and comfortable atmosphere for an adult learner
Dimitri Azadi
BA Liberal Studies - Individualized Program: Leadership and Diversity Studies, 2009
When many of his friends came to Antioch for their undergraduate studies, they told him it was a wonderful experience. He says he feels as though he is putting energy into his own well-being at Antioch.
Dollviola Eldred
B.A. Liberal Studies - Current student, M.A. Psychology - Mental Health Counseling, 2007
The only thing she needed to succeed was a good education and — thanks to Antioch — she has advanced in her career and predicts she will continue to climb.
Lance Wischler
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
He says the personal attention he experienced from his first phone call to the admissions department was a factor in coming to Antioch. The personal touch allowed him to feel like he mattered, and that he was not simply another number to be shuffled through the process.
Margie King Bloch
B.A. Liberal Studies, M.A. Whole Systems Design — Organization Systems Renewal, 1997
She chose Antioch because she wanted to learn more about the changing face of leadership, and she wanted to do it in an experiential educational setting
Maria Teresa Blankenship
BA Liberal Studies - Individualized Program: Psychology, Health Healing & Herbalism; MA Psychology, Mental Health Counseling, 2006
With a background in nursing and her interest in health healing, herbalism and psychology, she created a program for herself that she describes as an unforgettable journey.
Mary Sherhart
B.A. Liberal Studies, 1999
She says Antioch is an intense experience, a great place for self-motivated and well disciplined people with lots of meaty life experience under their belts.
Oliver Chadd
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
He was up for the unique method in which Antioch educates. He says he was always a quiet student and knew Antioch was set up in such a way he would be in situations where he could not just fade into the background.
Patricia Cavit
BA Liberal Studies, 2005
She says her independant study was an excellent experience. She was able to investigate exactly the areas she was interested in and receive mentoring from the advisers who were supervising.
Rachel Beals
BA Liberal Studies, Spiritual Studies concentration, 2009
Antioch's Spiritual Studies concentration, she says, is a one-of-a-kind undergraduate program. Her priority? She wants to reduce the isolation and despair so many people face today.
Richard Long
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
He chose Antioch because of its commitment to adult education and its social ideology. He says if the concept that a student, through study, research and relationships, obtains the basic philosophies of the institution they attend, then he is a better student, friend and person.
Stephanie McDonald
BA Liberal Studies - Individualized Program: Depth Psychology; MA Psychology, Mental Health Counseling, 2007 & 2011
Antioch is a transformational place where you can find your voice, build confidence and thrive, according to Stephanie McDonald. After completing her BA, her desire to continue learning was on fire and she entered Antioch University Seattle's graduate program in mental health counseling.
Tina Grant
BA Liberal Studies, 2007
Antioch is a place where you can find what it is you want to do with the rest of your life. She says it is not that the teachers will tell you, but that they create a space for you to explore, experiment and find what it is that fills you with passion.
Young-wha Coulter
B.A. Liberal Studies, 2007
Getting credit for life experience was validating for Coulter, who had been a para-educator working with elementary special education children in the Highline School District.
