Murfreesboro, NC - Chowan University has consolidated the Department of Graphic Communications with the Department of Visual Art to form the Department of Communication Arts. With an eye to the future, Chowan is creating a setting were creativity and innovation will merge to produce a student that is aesthetically, theoretically, and technologically trained in graphic design, interactive design, print technology, packaging design, and/or studio art. By combining its technological resources and faculty expertise, the university will renew its efforts to develop students’ creative ideas, artistic ability, self-expression, and professional skills as they study video, digital design, print design, drawing, digital imaging, packaging, web design, photography, painting, ceramics, mixed media, etc., at the intersection of art and technology. Whether using “centuries-old methods or by pushing the boundaries of digital creativity,” the department will produce unique and confident graduates with the skills that contemporary print technology, design, and the arts demand.

The new Department of Communication Arts will be lead by Tom Brennan, formally department head of the graphic communications program. Brennan brings thrity-eight years of industry and educational experience to Chowan. “The constantly changing and evolving relationships between art and technolgy requires our graduates have a leg up in landing rewarding careers”, says Brennan. Chowan has created a truly unique transdisciplinarity approach. There are very few programs in the country where graphic design, graphic communications and visual arts live and interact under one umbrella. Brennan said, “Art and science cannot exist without each other. Both George Seurat  and Ansel Adams studied intensely the physics of light and color and produced some of the worlds finest artistic creations”. 

Students completing the Communication Arts program at Chowan University receive either a four-year degree in Graphic Communications, Interactive Design or Visual Art. For more information contact Tom Brennan at [email protected] or call 252-398-6207.