Our Arts Programs

Our arts departments—all of which are infused with a collaborative spirit and focus on community—offer some of the most robust opportunities available at a small liberal arts college anywhere. All programs are open to majors and nonmajors alike.

Art: We offer our students an exciting and synergistic learning environment in which to practice the visual arts and to study art in historical and theoretical contexts. We are committed to helping you achieve the visual literacy that is increasingly essential to negotiating the world today. We prepare you to pursue advanced degrees in graduate school; for careers as visual artists or in galleries, museums, or arts administration; and for a life enriched by the visual arts.

Creative Writing: Lewis & Clark College has one of the longest-standing creative writing programs in America. Our faculty members have been recognized for excellence in teaching and have won some of the country’s most prestigious writing awards. Courses include poetry, fiction writing, and creative nonfiction courses, playwriting, and screenwriting.

Music: Performance and academic courses are taught by faculty who are distinguished performers, composers, and musicologists. Our aim is to prepare you for further musical study, careers in music, and global citizenry. We offer merit-based music scholarships to all students who demonstrate skill and potential, regardless of their major.

Rhetoric and Media Studies (RHMS): Our goal is to provide you with effective theoretical and methodological tools for understanding how public messages, images, texts, stories, conversations, and symbols work. Our RHMS department is one of the first programs in the country to offer a major that integrates training in film/television studies with media and rhetorical analysis. Majors and minors join an inclusive community that works collaboratively on a challenging curriculum, innovative research, and on applying the things they learn across campus and beyond.

Theatre and Dance: Over 1,000 students a year participate in theatre and dance as performers, designers, directors, writers, dancers, production crew and audience members. We offer a robust major with three concentrations as well as two minors. Our production program invites all students, regardless of major, to participate in creating professional productions ranging from classics to contemporary work to musicals to original student written work.