Overview
Mark Alan
Amy Brener
L. Ella Gant
Robert Knight, chair
Katharine Kuharic
Rebecca Murtaugh (on leave 2024-25)
Grace Troxell
The goal of the Art Department is to raise students to a level of self-sufficiency, independent critical thinking, and proficiency in the creation and discussion of works of art in order that they might sustain a lively, generative, and relevant practice outside of the College environment.
Students Will Learn to:
- Construct meaning using visual information
- Demonstrate a knowledge of the basic tools and techniques of new and traditional media
- Analyze their studio processes by diagramming the stages in creative thinking
- Use critique to formulate and build personal direction
- Generate a public exhibition
A concentration in art consists of 11 courses:
- ART-104 Introduction to Drawing or ART-160 Figure Drawing
- ART-203 Introduction to Painting, ART-235 Intaglio Printmaking, or ART-233 Introduction to Printmaking
- ART-106 Introduction to Ceramics ART-109 Introduction to Sculpture or ART-107 Art and the Environment
- ART-116 Introduction to Photography, ART-213 Introduction to Video, ART-221 Introduction to Animation or ART-105 Introduction to Media: Integrated Media and Emerging Practices
- One 300-level course in the same area as the senior project before the end of the junior year
- Art Elective (beginning with the class of 2022: ART-380 Junior Seminar in Art)
- Art Elective
Note: Art electives may not be cross-listed courses.
- Art History (a course that spans a broad range of periods)
- Art History (other)
Note: Students wishing to fulfill the art history requirement with a course about film must get approval from the Art Department chair. Students may not fulfill the art history requirement with a course cross-listed in Art History from another department.
- ART-501 Senior Project I
- ART-502 Senior Project II
All senior concentrators are required to register for Senior Project I in the fall of their final year. Based on a review by the studio faculty, students who have successfully completed Senior Project I must continue by registering for Senior Project II. Students who do not receive a grade of B- or above in Senior Project I will complete an additional 300-level course in studio art. In either case all students will be required to have a public exhibition during their final semester.
A minor in art consists of ART-104 or ART-160, one art history course and three additional studio art courses (which are not repeatable and are not all in the same media area). An independent study may not count toward a minor in art. Interested students should meet with the chair.
Concentrators in the Art Department will fulfill the Social, Structural, and Institutional Hierarchies (SSIH) requirement through participation in the department’s annual Visiting Artist Series and through subsequent discussion forums mediated by members of the art faculty in the contexts of their classes. Students must participate in a discussion of SSIH issues in the visiting artist series in at least two classes before engaging with these issues through the Visiting Artist Series as part of the senior program.
Honors in art will be awarded on the basis of a cumulative average of 3.7 or above in coursework toward the concentration and distinguished performance in the Senior Project. View a complete description of the Senior Project.
Students interested in studying abroad should consult with the chair of the department as soon as possible. Concentrators will need to consider the most appropriate means of integrating study abroad with the Advanced level course and other requirements and preparation for their Senior Project.