Majoring & Minoring - Art - Departments - College of Arts and Sciences

Art

Majoring and Minoring

The Major Programs

The department offers two majors: studio art and art history. Students are not permitted to double-major in studio art and art history because there is significant overlap in courses required for each major.

Students majoring in studio art must choose a medium in which to specialize. Studio areas are ceramics, drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture. Because an introductory-level studio course is fundamental to more advanced work, the department strongly encourages studio art majors to take ART 102 Two-Dimensional Foundations or ART 103 Three-Dimensional Foundations in their first year and before taking any other 100-level courses. Majors are required to take ART 102 or ART 103 no later than the end of their sophomore year. To allow for the planning required in the junior and senior years of the studio art major, students must declare the major and select a faculty advisor by the end of their sophomore year. Studio art majors must present examples of their work, including foundation work, for review to the entire department faculty at the end of the sophomore year or the beginning of the junior year. Before beginning work on the required senior project, studio art majors must complete at least two semesters of work in their chosen medium in addition to ART 102 or ART 103.

Art history majors must take a variety of courses in different areas and complete one of the relevant introductory-level prerequisites before undertaking more advanced work. Art history majors are strongly encouraged to complete their “interdisciplinary requirement” by taking HIST 300, or PHIL 203, or SOAN 245 before registering for the required ART 493 Senior Seminar: Art History.

Major Requirements: Studio Art

A minimum of 44 semester credits, distributed as follows:

Three courses in art history: ART 101 or ART 111. ART 152, ART 153, ART 207, or ART 256. One additional art history course at the 200 level or higher.
One course in foundations to be taken before the junior year, chosen from the following:

Course List

ART 102	Two-Dimensional Foundations
ART 103	Three-Dimensional Foundations

One course in drawing or painting, chosen from the following:

Course List

ART 115	Drawing I
ART 117	Painting I

One course in sculpture or ceramics, chosen from the following:

Course List

ART 113	Sculpture I
ART 116	Ceramics I

Three elective courses in studio art.
ART 411 Senior Seminar: Studio
ART 490A Senior Project: Studio
ART 490B Senior Project: Studio

Major Requirements: Art History

Botticelli; Venus and the Three Graces; Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman; c. 1484 Fresco. transferred to canvas, 211 x 284 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris A minimum of 44 semester credits, distributed as follows:

Three art history courses chosen from the following. Choose at least one Western and one non-Western offering.

Botticelli, “Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman,” c. 1484, Fresco transferred to canvas, 211 x 284 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Course List

ART 101	History of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval
ART 111	History of Western Art: Renaissance to 20th Century
ART 152	History of East Asian Art: China
ART 153	History of East Asian Art: Japan and Korea
ART 207	Pre-Columbian Art
ART 256	Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art

Any two studio art courses.
Interdisciplinary requirement: one of the following:

Course List

HIST 300	Historical Materials
SOAN 245	Visual Anthropology
PHIL 203	Philosophy of Art and Beauty

Four elective courses in art history, at least two of which must be at the 300 or 400 level, and at least one of which must be in East Asian art or pre-Columbian art at the 200 level or higher. CLAS 200 Introduction to Classical Studies may be taken as an elective course for the art history major.
ART 493 Senior Seminar: Art History, which must be taken in the fall semester before graduation. It is only offered in the fall semester.