Undergraduate Degrees, Visual & Media Arts, Academics, Emerson College

Announcing the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts

Emerson College is proud to announce that the Department of Visual and Media Arts will become the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts effective September 1, 2025.

This change will not disrupt students' course of study. Major requirements, courses, and academic programs previously housed in the Department of Visual and Media Arts will transition into the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts. All websites and documents from the Department of Visual and Media Arts will be transferred to the new School and updated in the coming months.

You can learn more information about the new School of Film, Television, and Media Arts on Emerson Today.

Compelling art can only come from a complete artist. Emerson College’s Department of Visual and Media Arts offers undergraduate programs that combine foundational liberal arts courses with hands-on immersion in a range of media forms and production techniques. Housed in the School of the Arts, the department offers four undergraduate degree programs, two cross-departmental undergraduate degree programs, and four minors.

Bachelor’s Programs in the Department of Visual and Media Arts

Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts Production

The Department of Visual and Media Arts offers a curriculum designed to provide students with a comprehensive education in various media arts, including screenwriting, film, TV, sound design, interactive new media, game design, photography, and others.

Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies

The BA in Media Studies is for students who are interested in pursuing careers in media criticism, publishing, and industry research.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Arts Production

A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) carries a capstone thesis program that requires students to challenge themselves beyond the requirements of the BA program.

Global Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Art

The Global BFA in Film Art is a joint degree program of Emerson College and Paris College of Art. In this one-of-a-kind program, students will benefit from the highest international standard of film and art education within an American academic framework.

Cross-Departmental Programs

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Comedic Arts

At Emerson, we believe that great comedy stems from a huge bank of knowledge. The BFA in Comedic Arts sustains an intense focus on comedy, while remaining rooted in the liberal arts by exposing students to a wide range of perspectives.

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatrical Design & Production

The BFA in Theatrical Design & Production prepares students to enter the theater industry as a professional in their craft: fluent in the language of design and technology, conversant in the tools they will encounter at theaters throughout the country, and with a strong understanding of the essentials of design.

Disciplines

Capstone Project (BA)

The BA Capstone Project course welcomes and supports all types of production including, but not limited to, audio projects, animation, new media projects, scripts, documentaries, experimental film or video and narratives.

Photography (BFA)

Accepted students will have the opportunity to concentrate on a single photographically based project over the course of an entire academic year, and receive $500 in VMA department funding to complete their work.

Courses

Visual & Media Arts courses

Visual and Media Arts Undergraduate Degrees