FACULTY OF VISUAL ARTS
The Faculty of Visual Arts established in 2005 under the university Act No.16 of 1978 by the Gazette No. 1400/24 dated 08th July 2005 of Sri Lanka. The faculty which consists of nine departments is located at No. 46, Horton Place in Colombo 07. It offers four-year Bachelor of Visual Art (BVA) Special Degree in nine programme streams in Visual Arts namely; Painting, Sculpture, Visual Communication Design, Printmaking, Multi-disciplinary Design, Ceramic Art, Textile and Wearable Arts, Multimedia Arts, and History and Art Theory. The Bachelor of Visual Art Special Degree of the Faculty is structured on semester based on credit system. This faculty can be considered as the only faculty dedicated for offering degree Programs in Visual Arts among Sri Lankan universities.
Our vision is to be the most prominent higher education entity in the field of visual arts in Asia, in terms of training students to be leading artists, designers and scholars to transform the world.
Through quality teaching, professional practice and research, fostering a high level of understanding of the principles and practices of visual arts, we strive to enhance desirable links and collaborations with industries and professional bodies incorporating technologies. Inspiring individual creativity among staff and students and encouraging awareness of social and environmental developments are our forte.
As the present Dean of the faculty of Visual Art, it’s a great pleasure to issue this message on behalf of the faculty, which has a history goes back to a century ago. Firstly, I would like to convey my gratitude to all former Deans and retired senior academics who contributed to uplift the faculty to the present state. At the same time, I would like to pay my respect to the founders and well-known artists emerged from this institute like J.D.A. Perera, David Paynter, Stanley Abeysinghe, Tissa Ranasinghe, Mahagamasekara, H.A. Karunarathna, etc. The faculty has well-qualified and well-experienced academic staff who have local and foreign education qualifications under different subject disciplines. Also, most of them are practitioners and scholars who have actively involved in improving the artistic sense, cultural values and social responsibilities of the country. The faculty of Visual Art stands up with a strong foundation of good practices affiliated with the field of Visual Art. As a faculty, we have identified our social and national responsibilities and are being working as a team that was composed of the academics, students, administrative and non-academic staff to improve the quality of Visual Art education. Students who enter the university by passing the GCE (A/L) exam and the aptitude test conducted by faculty in every year are the main assert of our faculty. The composition of students is made of creative and energetic youth of the country who came from diverse social backgrounds and different areas. The BVA special degree program offered by nine departments of the faculty helps the students to develop their creativity, skills, ideology, social responsibilities and to find the right path for their professional career.
M H JAGATH RAVINDRA
Teaching, Learning & Research Facilities
- Studio facilities for Visual Art teaching and learning
- Library facility with the large collection of books in Visual Art
- IT Laboratory
- Computer laboratory facilities for Multimedia Arts and Visual Communication Design teaching and learning with the state of the art techniques
- Studio for Stone carving with soundproof and dustproof facilities
- Kilns for Ceramic Art
- Medical Center
- D. A. Perera Art Gallery for conducting exhibitions of the Academics and Students of the Faculty and to hire for curated exhibitions
- David Paynter Collection (Special Collection of Paintings)
- Faculty Auditorium
Opportunities in the World of Work
The Faculty produces graduates with competencies to be employed in professional, practical and academic careers in the field of visual arts. Painters, Sculptures, Printers, Designers, and Interior Decorators are some of the professions available to our graduates.