The new Center for Turning and Furniture Design of the Department of Art/Art Education and College of Fine Arts at http://old.www.iup.edu/images/iup_top.gif is the first program in the country to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine arts with a studio emphasis in both turning and furniture design. The recent expansion of our prior Woodworking and Furniture Design program includes the addition of a new studio core featuring advanced experimental studies in turning. Enrollment for each class is set at 14 students, offering more personalized instruction and accessibility to the studio resources.

The main emphasis of our program focuses on the professional development of the emerging artist of turned objects and furniture. The curriculum of the Center for Turning and Furniture Design offers a broad range of instruction in areas of creative concept development, design and drawing, turning, joinery, and construction applications. Each student is encouraged to develop his or her own creative and technical abilities and to challenge new ideas and approaches applied to conventional and innovative processes and materials. Advanced students have the opportunity to focus on contemporary issues of recycling, reinvention, and renewal while exploring creative applications of new technologies and computer numerically controlled machining systems. Current trends and historical issues of noted designers, artists, and craftsmen in the disciplines of turning and furniture are studied throughout the program.