Academic Bulletin Art - 2007-08

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Faculty: G. Huebner (chair), D. Calisch*, J. Gower, E. Morton, K. Wilkins (Spring '08) 

* Sabbatical leave, full year

The Curriculum. Studio course work takes place on three levels: Foundations (Art 120 through 124), Intermediate (Art 225 through 228), and Advanced (Art 330 through 433). On all three levels, the student is asked to develop his ability to give his ideas and emotions visual form. This progress is realized through improving his technical control of particular media and understanding more clearly the ideas or emotions that are being communicated visually. On all three levels, the art student studies the work of other artists, both past and present, in order to improve his understanding of theoretical and technical possibilities and to widen the range of options for treating particular themes.

The purposes of art history courses are to develop a greater understanding of human creativity as manifested in the visual imagery of all societies across time. The student develops analytical, research, writing, and verbal skills as well as a descriptive vocabulary as he investigates the artistic achievements of diverse societies, historical periods and styles, and critical theories and methodologies. Art history courses support the studio by offering the student a wide range of creative solutions to the various technical and intellectual problems that are presented in the studio. Studio courses, in turn, support the work in art history by providing the student with the opportunity to experience the creative process first hand and to become personally aware of the potential and the limitations of art making.

Goals of the Department. By the end of the senior year, the student majoring in art has pursued those discoveries, made first in the foundations and intermediate-level courses that seem most important to him. He has discovered for himself what it is to work in a disciplined way as an artist and/or art historian. He has realized that art making or art historical study is an individual process, which usually involves testing new areas of thought, methods, and/or materials. He has developed a critical engagement with the past, especially with historical questions and experiments, and he has begun to evaluate the present. Benefiting from discourse with colleagues and faculty, the student has also begun to set his own problems and his own path for finding possible solutions to them. He also has accepted responsibility for evaluating these solutions. He is expected to have sufficient control of his chosen field and to be sufficiently able to arrive at insights that can be expressed through it, so that he can produce work worthy to be included in a capstone course taken by all senior majors. (For studio students this would be an exhibition of their work and for art history students this would be a semester-long research project.) In the case of the best student, this experience is also able to challenge all of us to think and see differently.

Students will have the choice within the art major of focusing in either Studio or Art History. Both “tracks” require students to select from a group of entry-level courses, taking a minimum of four, creating a common early experience for all art majors. In addition, all majors will take History of Western Art and 20th Century Art History. The two tracks have specific requirements above these common courses that build a focused experience for either the art history student or the studio art student. Although the two tracks move students in different directions, art majors (from either track) continue to share additional experiences through the exhibition program, shared field trips, and a small “tight” department. The written comprehensive is structured to allow the student a choice of questions that best test their “track” within the major.

Requirements for a MAJOR: Studio Track

Foundation Level Courses:
Take two courses (120 and one course from 121 or 123).

120.  2-D Art,  one course credit.
121.  3-D Art, one course credit.
123.  Ceramics, one course credit.

Intermediate Level Courses:
Take both courses.

227.  Sculpture, one course credit.
228.  Painting, one course credit.

Advanced Level Courses:
Take one course credit.

330/331.  Advanced Studio, one-half or one course credit, each semester.

Senior Studio:
Take one course credit.

432/433.  Senior Studio, one-half or one course credit, each semester.

In addition, a student taking a studio track must take the following 2 Art History courses including:

101.  History of Western Art, one course credit.
209.  20th Century Art History, one course credit.

Recommended courses:
Students considering graduate school in art should meet early and often with departmental faculty to discuss future goals and course selection. Students anticipating graduate school should plan on taking an 11 course major including Art 120, 121, 122 and 312.

Requirements for a MAJOR: Art History Track

Seven courses from Art History offerings as follows:

Take three courses from the following:
Art 101 and at least one course must be taken in Classical or Non-Western Art History (ART 103, 104, 105).

101.  History of Western Art, one course credit.
103.  Greek Art and Archaeology [Same as CLA 103], one course credit.
104.  Roman Art and Archaeology [Same as CLA 104], one course credit.
105.  The Spirit Visualized: Ritual Objects and Native American Cultures, one course credit.
207.  Renaissance and Baroque, one course credit.
208.  19th Century Art, one course credit.

Take three course credits (all):

209.  20th Century Art, one course credit.
210.  Special Topics in Art History, one course credit.
311.  Art Theory and Criticism, one-half course credit.
312.  Post Modern Art and Culture, one-half course credit.

Take one course credit:

434/435.  Senior Project in Art History, one-half or one course credit, each semester.

In addition students will select two courses from the following list of studio courses.

120.  2-D Art, one course credit.
121.  3-D Art, one course credit.
122.  Life Drawing, one-half course credit.
123.  Ceramics, one course credit.
124.  Photography, one course credit.
225.  Special Topics in Studio, one-half course credit.

All students considering the art history track of the art major are required to meet with their advisor, in order to construct a program that is a logical extension of the student's interests. With a wide selection of possible allied courses (History, Classics, Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Language) it is important that students take advantage of building a broader cultural context for their major. Students considering graduate school in art history should meet with departmental faculty to discuss future goals and course selection. Students anticipating graduate school should plan on taking an 11 course major and should also consider taking more than the recommended two years of foreign language. Minoring in a foreign language is excellent preparation.

Requirements for an ART MINOR:
Note: An Art Minor will consist of the following three required courses; 101, 120, and 121 or 123, and two additional art courses, one of which must be at the 200 or 300 level.