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Art and Design Minors

Whether you’re wondering about a future in a creative field, or simply want to bring more art into your everyday life, you’ll find a way to embrace your passion at Drake.

College of Arts & Sciences | On-Campus

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What You'll Learn

Art and design offer powerful tools for expression, communication, and cultural understanding, skills that matter regardless of the career you pursue. Drake’s minors in studio art, graphic design, and art history are intended for students outside of the Department of Art and Design who want to sharpen their creative edge and gain a wider visual perspective.

Whether you’re exploring a new creative interest or laying the groundwork for future study, the Art and Design minors help you build foundational skills while deepening your understanding of visual culture. Through hands-on studio work and engaging classroom discussions, you’ll explore materials, methods, and meaning—gaining insight into the impact of visual arts across time and media, from historical analysis to digital design and traditional studio practices.

As a minor, you’ll be guided by a faculty of practicing artists, designers, and scholars dedicated to helping you develop creative confidence, visual literacy, and critical thinking skills that complement any major.

About Our Art Minors

  • Be part of a thriving arts community, both on campus and in Des Moines.
  • Gain access to professional-quality studio spaces in graphic design, painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and other media.
  • Learn in small classes (typically 10-20 students) with personalized guidance from expert faculty.
  • Drake’s Department of Art and Design is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Program Facts

  • 20-22 credit hours for a minor
  • Two years to completion

Program Options

Even if you’re not planning to become an artist, you can still make art a part of your academic journey. Drake’s Art and Design minors invite students from all disciplines to engage with visual culture in meaningful ways—whether through research, creative making, or design.

Art History Minor

Explore how art has evolved across time and cultures, and discover how visual works reflect, shape, and respond to the world around us. The Art History minor also highlights connections between art and other disciplines—revealing its influence on politics, religion, science, and more. To deepen your understanding of how artists think and work, you’ll take at least one studio course, bridging theory with hands-on practice.

Graphic Design Minor

Learn how design functions in today’s media-rich environment. You'll explore design thinking, typography, visual systems, and communication strategies through studio-based courses in graphic design and its history.

Studio Art Minor

Students outside the Department of Art and Design who are interested in exploring their talent and engaging in basic visual practices can declare a minor in Studio Art. You can either focus on a particular medium or sample several.

Meet the Faculty

Holding the highest degrees in their fields, our faculty are educators, practicing artists, designers, and scholars: they exhibit their works widely, lead successful design practices, and conduct cutting-edge research.

Jamey Hart

Jamey Hart

Assistant Professor, Studio Arts

Maura Lyons

Maura Lyons

Professor, Art and Design

Neil Ward

Neil Ward

Associate Professor, Graphic Design

All Faculty Members

Outside the Classroom

Art is hands-on by definition. At Drake, you won’t just study art—you’ll live it. As an Art and Design minor, you’ll have access to the same resources as art majors and opportunities to engage with the creative community on and off campus.

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Studio and Lab Spaces

Practice your craft in dedicated studios for drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, as well as two graphic design labs supported by industry-standard tools.

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Student Organizations

Meet other students interested in art and make professional connections through several campus groups, including the Visual Arts Association of Drake.

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Collaborative Projects

From the juried student exhibition in the Anderson Gallery to student-led shows in the Weeks Gallery and community murals, Drake students gain real-world experience through exhibitions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and community-based art projects—both on and off campus.

Careers & Skills

As an Art and Design minor, you’ll develop many of the same creative and analytical skills as majors in the Department of Art and Design. Our graduates carry with them a deeper understanding of visual expression—and the confidence to use creativity in meaningful, personal ways.

Opportunities

  • Publishing and media
  • Marketing and advertising agencies
  • UX/UI and software development
  • Non-profit and advocacy organizations
  • Museums and cultural institutions
  • Graduate and professional school

Skills

  • Critical and contextual thinking
  • Creative problem-solving
  • Visual communication
  • Collaboration and workplace communication
  • Studio and digital media skills
  • How art informs multiple aspects of everyday life
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Salary & Growth Outlook

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Median salary for editors in 2024. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

You don’t have to be an artist, or an Art and Design major, to be enriched by culture. For Morayo Adeyoju BN’17, AS‘17, who double-majored in actuarial science and math, an exhibition at Drake’s Anderson Gallery gave him a chance to share his heritage as the grandson of a Yoruban king in Nigeria. As part of the exhibit, organized by Drake Art History Professor Emeritus Lenore Metrick-Chen, Adeyoju lent his perspective to some of the artifacts on display. “Some of the [artifacts] I’ve seen a lot growing up, but others were all gone during my generation,” he said. “So I was surprised to see them. It was nice to see them and to be able to share some of my culture.”

Related Programs

Pursuing a minor helps you develop new skills and perspectives, whether you choose one directly related to your career goals or simply because you’re curious about the subject.

Theatre Design & Technology, Minor

Set the stage for a career in theatrical technology in Drake University’s Theatre: Design and Technology minor.

Chemistry, Minor

Build practical chemistry skills and explore real-world applications in agriculture, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and forensics with a flexible, hands-on minor.

Environmental Sustainability and Resilience, Minor

See the big picture, and make it greener and more adaptable, in a minor focused on improving the world we live in.

Take the Next Step

Everybody’s life is enriched by art and design. Add a new perspective to your view of the world as an Art and Design minor at Drake.

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