Art (studio)
Why Study Studio Art at W&L?
The intimate setting of the Visual Arts program in its 21st-century building provide all participants with both the resources and the opportunities to make the W&L experience truly special. A vigorous visiting artist program brings to campus contemporary artists who work closely with students, critique their work and provide special workshops for majors and non-majors alike. Some students take advantage of internship opportunities that connect them with internationally known artists.
While rigorous in design and implementation, the studio art curriculum does not echo those employed at schools of art and design. Rather, the major has been crafted to work within the liberal arts tradition that the university has embraced since its inception, and students are encouraged—even advised—to bring to the creative process the ideas and concepts they have learned in classes offered by other departments across the W&L academic landscape.
About the Program
The studio art major consists of 12 courses (36 credits) and encourages experience in design, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. Additionally, majors must take two courses in the history of art, one of which must focus on modern or contemporary art. Seniors must undertake and complete a specific thesis project, exhibited in Staniar Gallery at the end of Winter Term senior year.
Students majoring in studio art often begin their academic experience by taking 100-level foundation courses in drawing and design. They then move on to introductory classes in sculpture, painting, printmaking and photography. Art history courses are often taken before the end of the junior year to help the studio major recognize—before they begin their thesis work—the trends and currents that have influenced their predecessors and contemporaries in the world of art.
Awards and Prizes
- The Studio Art Thesis Award is awarded to a senior studio art major for outstanding work on their Senior Thesis Studio Project.
- The Studio Art Prize is awarded to a senior studio art major for outstanding work done during their time in the Art Department.
- The Class of 1964 Fine Arts Prize is awarded annually to a junior or senior whom the art faculty identifies as having done the most outstanding work in any area of the fine arts. This award is shared with the Music and Theater Departments.
- The Sally Mann Prize for Photography is awarded annually to an exceptional photography student. This is also a purchase prize, used to acquire a piece of the student’s work created while at W&L. The piece becomes a part of the W&L art collection, and is permanently displayed in the photography area of Wilson Hall.
- Scholarships awarded annually to students to fund attendance to the Society for Photographic Education National Conference.
Sample Courses
Light Studies and Optical Culture
Light and optics are the fundamental elements of photographic media and of contemporary media culture. This foundational course introduces students to the formal characteristics of light and lenses by surveying a variety of image-making practices, from primitive photographic devices to digital photography and video. Through a combination of classroom talks and hands-on projects, students encounter principles of black-and-white and color photography, as well as learning camera controls that open up a wide range of expressive possibilities.
Introduction to the Book Arts
A creative exploration of the tradition of the handmade book. Students learn to make several styles of binding, including accordion books, pamphlets and Japanese bindings, developing some skill in letterpress printing, paper decorating and simple printmaking techniques to create original handmade books. Readings, discussions and slide lectures introduce students to the ingenious history of books and printing. Besides constructing imaginative, individual book art projects, students create one collaborative project. Lab fee required.
Intermediate Sculpture
In Intermediate Sculpture: Extended Material Practice, students broaden their understanding of what sculpture can be through projects that materialize memory and imagine new futures. Emphasis is on studio projects in wood, metal, fabric and non-traditional materials, responding to the ways contemporary sculpture pushes at the edges of what defines it. The course compels students to add significant experience in materializing sculptural projects while deepening perceptions of their own practices.
Drawing Italy
Living and drawing on site in Rome, Florence, Umbria and Tuscany, and with day trips to Pompeii, Assisi and other important art sites in Italy. Students explore Italy's vast artistic heritage within its cultural context, then apply this experience to their own art while working in the distinctive Mediterranean light. Media include pen and ink, pastel and acrylic.
Drawing in Place
This drawing course is intended for intermediate drawing students. The goals of this intensive course are to practice drawing skills, learn about the tradition of art of place, and to produce a series of drawings based on a specific place. The first two weeks are spent brushing up on the basics of drawing while reading and discussing writings about place and site-oriented art. Image presentations and group discussion support the readings.
Antique Photographic Processes
An exploration of 19th-century photographic processes within the context of the history of photography. Individual processes are learned through studio demonstration and intensive hands-on lab sessions. Processes covered in this course include salt printing, cyanotype, Van Dyke, kallitype, and platinum and palladium printing and toning, as well as wet plate collodion processes such as tintypes and ambrotypes. Students learn how to make enlarged digital negatives for contact printing from photographs that originate in either film or digital formats. In addition to technique, students learn the historical background of each process, as well as contemporary trends and artists working with these methods.
Meet the Faculty
At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.
