About Faculty
The Faculty of Fine Arts is a dynamically developing institution of the University of Rzeszów, conducting artistic, scientific and didactic activities. Its existence helps shape the artistic identity of future creators, and at the same time encourages a broader perspective on current phenomena occurring in the area of contemporary art.
The unit was established in 1995 at the Higher School of Pedagogy in Rzeszów. The Department of Art Education was established, which became a part of the Institute of Pedagogy within the Faculty of Pedagogy. Students majoring in pedagogy were given the opportunity to choose a specialization: art education. These were 3-year full-time vocational studies. The year 1997 was a breakthrough for the Department, which was transformed into the Institute of Art Education. There was a need to establish a new major due to the growing interest of young people from the region who wanted to take up studies with this profile, and research on the level of art education in primary schools in the Rzeszów province showed significant gaps in teachers' qualifications. In the following academic year, the Institute obtained the right to 5-year master's studies.
Since October 1999, the Institute of Fine Arts has also been educating young people in the part-time system, and in accordance with the reform of primary education, it has launched 3-semester postgraduate studies in the field of fine arts education for people with a master's degree in pedagogy. All this resulted in further changes - transformation into the Institute of Fine Arts and from the academic year 1998/1999 receiving a seat in Krasne near Rzeszów. In 2008, by resolution of the Senate of the University of Rzeszów, the Institute separated from the structures of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Arts and in its place was established the Faculty of Arts, which in 2014 acquired a new seat at al. Mjr. W. Kopisto. Thanks to this, it became more visible and recognizable to the local community.
The directors of the Institute of Fine Arts, and then the deans of the Faculty of Arts were, successively: prof. Stanisław Górecki, prof. Tadeusz Nuckowski, prof. Irena Popiołek-Rodzińska, prof. Jadwiga Szmyd-Sikora, dr hab. Józef Jerzy Kierski, prof. UR, dr hab. Antoni Nikiel, prof. UR.
On October 1, 2019, in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the University of Rzeszów of September 26, 2019, by the decision of His Magnificence the Rector of the University of Rzeszów, the Institute of Fine Arts was established within the College of Humanities, and Dr. hab. Dorota Sankowska, prof. UR, became the Director.
On January 1, 2025, in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the University of Rzeszów, by the decision of His Magnificence the Rector of the University of Rzeszów, the Faculty of Fine Arts was established, and Dr. hab. Łukasz Cywicki, prof. UR, became the Dean.
Teaching activity
The Faculty of Fine Arts offers full-time studies in the following fields:
Visual Arts - first-cycle studies (3 years)
Specialties:
Design Forms and Multimedia
Spatial Forms and Intermedia
Visual Arts - second cycle studies (2 years)
Specialties:
Design Forms and Multimedia
Spatial Forms and Intermedia
Graphics - uniform master's degree studies (5 years)
Graduation workshops: digital printing, relief printing, intaglio printing, flat printing, design workshops and multimedia workshop
Painting - uniform master's degree studies (5 years)
Graduation workshops: easel painting, forms of plastic expression, monumental painting, interdisciplinary multimedia workshop, artistic transgression, experimental drawing.
Scientific activity
The Faculty of Fine Arts conducts four priority tasks within the framework of scientific and artistic activity in the discipline of fine arts and conservation of works of art.
Research/artistic topic: Artistic research of formal means, expression and semantic connections in a work of art in the context of their cultural and social impact and mutual relations with other areas of science.
Task manager: prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Boruta
Abstract: Scientific and artistic research in the Department of Painting is conducted around eternal issues of art (and painting in particular), which were built on the phenomenon of the natural human need to express oneself through plastic form. They concern, among others, the search for a form of painting that allows for the expression of existential experiences of contemporary man and changes taking place in the socio-political and cultural reality. In the conducted research, it is important to analyze Signs, symbols and cultural codes present in culture, "playing" with them in paintings so that they create new semantic connections or redefine those already present in culture. Another important area of research is the creation of paintings on a monumental scale, in public space, in the context of contemporary and historical architectural objects and urban layouts.
Research/artistic topic: Graphic space as a form of free creative creation.
Task manager: dr hab. Joanna Janowska-Augustyn, prof. UR
Abstract: The proposed research topic "Graphic space as a form of free creative creation" gives the opportunity to realize graphic works by academic staff of the Department of Workshop Graphics and Art Theory and students of the Doctoral School of the University of Rzeszów, in the area of various graphic techniques. An unlimited space of creative creation should be the basis of the artist's freedom. Searching for a way to construct a graphic image, choosing a topic and a traditional graphic technique (intaglio, flat, convex printing) and modern (digital printing, object, graphic installation), is an individual form of artistic expression, becomes the starting point for the creation of works.
Research/artistic topic: Research on graphic and multimedia imaging in public space.
Task manager: dr hab. Wiesław Grzegorczyk, prof. UR
Abstract: The aim of the research is to search for the relationship between art and design and the public space of man. Visual identification, design of publications for printing (publishing graphics), illustration, data visualization (infographics), artistic printing, typography and their proper selection for expressing complex design projects are the basis of research work. The selection of methods for implementing the assumptions and theses specified in the topic is important. In the field of multimedia, unconventional workshop solutions are important. Combining disciplines (workshop plus technology) in the context of new media and examining the relationship between visual arts, and their interdisciplinarity is the main direction of artistic and scientific activities.
Research/artistic topic: Function and significance of visual means of expression in designing and shaping the forms of a work of art.
Task manager: dr hab. Dorota Sankowska, prof. UR
Abstract: Creative tasks within scientific and artistic research cover a wide spectrum of issues related to the problems of contemporary art, and in particular to the area of visual arts. This research addresses detailed components of matter existing in the space of painting, drawing, graphics, sculpture and new media. Their implementation is expressed both in the individual artistic creations of individual employees, as well as in scientific and artistic texts and reviews. The topic is implemented in various techniques belonging to the fields of art: drawing, painting, sculpture, digital techniques, and the effects of this implementation of the topic can be seen in many competitions and national and international exhibitions, collective and individual.