Middle Georgia State University (MGA) is adding a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Art & Design following approval by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents on Tuesday, Nov. 12.  
 
The program is a professionally focused degree created to serve Georgia’s growing art, entertainment, and recreation industry. MGA already offers an associate’s degree in art – a holdover from the University’s days as a state college – that the new bachelor’s degree will build upon.
 
MGA expects to launch the degree in fall 2020.
 
“We expect significant interest in this degree based on the popularity of the two-year arts programs that were part of MGA’s predecessor colleges for many years,” said Dr. Mary Wearn, dean of the School of Arts & Letters, where the new bachelor’s program will be housed. “We have established arts facilities on both our Cochran and Macon campuses, so MGA is in a position to begin delivering the bachelor’s degree almost immediately.”
 
What is now MGA was created with the consolidation of Cochran-based Middle Georgia College and Macon State College. Both colleges offered associate’s degrees in art. The Cochran Campus is home to Peacock Gallery, founded in the early 1970s to educate students and the general public about artwork in general and the creative processes behind it.
 
As described in the formal degree proposal presented to the Regents, MGA’s B.A. in Applied Art & Design will be the only program of its kind in Georgia. The program includes market-oriented art concentrations in film and visual communication that are specifically aligned to Georgia’s film production, graphic arts, and advertising industries. The program will require students to earn a professional certificate affiliated with, for example, the Georgia Film Academy, or to minor in business, information technology, professional writing, or web design.
 
“The curriculum follows current trends in art education, including a technology infused coursework, significant professional training, and an interdisciplinary approach that prepares students to seek employment within the creative economy as well as career opportunities outside the arts,” Wearn said.
 
In 2017, the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Georgia Council for the Arts reported that the state’s creative industries generated $62.5 billion in total economic impact in 2015.  According to the council’s research, the creative industries in Georgia represent a combined $37 billion in revenue and employ an estimated 200,000 people statewide, making up 5 percent of employment in the state.

MGA will provide traditional face-to-face classes in the new degree program on both the Cochran and Macon campuses. Some of the non-studio classes will be delivered online.
 
Wearn said MGA can launch the program with existing faculty and resources.  The degree will be housed both on the Macon and Cochran campuses.  Art students at MGA’s Warner Robins and Dublin campuses can earn up to 48 credits hours at those locations before transferring to Macon or Cochran to complete the 120 credit hour degree program.