Art/Art History (ART)
ART SCE Senior Capstone Experience 2 Credits
ART HISTORY MAJORS: Meant to be the summation ofall one has done in the Department. The SCE mayconsist of a comprehensive examination OR a thesispaper that presents an original contribution tothe study of a particular work of art, group ofworks, artist, or artistic tradition. FOR STUDIO ART MAJORS: Required of all graduatingseniors within the studio concentration, thiscourse is defined by each student's engagementwith a project of active learning and integrationof materials and concepts within the major. Acontinuation of the work initiated in the StudioArt Senior Seminar, students are guided by afaculty advisor and other studio art faculty. TheCapstone is an intensive period of advancedindependent studio practice with feedback frompeers. Students employ their course of study fromwithin the department to think critically, conductresearch, and independently produce a substantialbody of work. The culmination of this course isthe Spring Thesis exhibition in the Kohl Gallery,conceived and produced by the course'sparticipants, and the associated supportingactivities.FOR STUDIO ART & ART HISTORY MAJORS: A year-longresearch project combining studio practice and arthistorical methodology, developed in consultationwith Art + Art History faculty; OR separate SCEprojects in each field according to therequirements listed above for each major.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 105 Introduction to Global Art History 4 Credits
A survey of the arts of Asia, Africa, theAmericas, and Oceania from prehistory up to the20th century. This course also serves asintroduction to the basic tools and concepts ofart historical analysis, which synthesizes form,content, and cultural context to develop a deeperunderstanding of artworks.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ART 110 Intro to the History of Western Art 4 Credits
A careful discussion and analysis of a selectionof significant topics in the history of Westernart from prehistory to the 21st century. Thiscourse also serves as an introduction to the basictools and concepts of art historical analysis,which synthesizes form, content, and culturalcontext to develop a deeper understanding ofartworks
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 115 Arts of the Islamic World 4 Credits
An introduction to the art history of Islamicsocieties from the 7th century to the present,including discussion of the place of art in theIslamic faith, the relationship between art andpower, and the importance of cross-culturalexchanges. Basic art historical methodology isintroduced. Lectures and some discussion.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 151 Visual and Critical Thinking 4 Credits
This introductory level studio course investigatesconceptual and material skills useful for makingvisual art. The curriculum is interdisciplinaryand designed to emphasize the development ofstudio fundamentals through hands-on studioprojects that allow for technical practice,critical thinking, and experimental approaches.Basic visual design principles are covered, whilecontemporary examples are presented throughlectures and applied to studio problems.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 161 Collage 4 Credits
Collage is one of the most familiar and accessibleart forms. Taken from the French word 'coller,' meaning 'to stick together orglue,' collage is simply the art of combining existing materials to create complex images andcompositions. And yet, because itgenerates new relationships between existingmaterials, it can be fantastically incisive, subversive, or visionary. This studio art courseexplores collage as an art form, technique and strategy. Assignments will askstudents to create collage-based artworks in response to a series of creative andconceptual prompts, while in-class lectures and discussions will examine the impactof collage on 20th and 21st century art and culture.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 163 Artist Books 4 Credits
An artist book is an artwork in the form of abook. It can be one-of-a-kind or produced in alimited edition. Some artist books take familiarforms, while others are sculptural, conceptual orperformative. Through this course, students willlearn hand-binding techniques to create a range ofboth traditional and experimental book structures,and will build upon this knowledge to generatebook-based artworks in response to conceptualassignment prompts.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
ART 183 Art as Inquiry 4 Credits
In this introductory class you will learn to makeart through processes of exploration, curiosity, inquiry, and play. You will also learn to developand follow your own interests, instincts, and lineof questioning in your art projects - all criticalskills for any creative thinker. Art will be approached as a meaning-making endeavor used toexamine, experiment with, and contemplate theworld. As an introductory studio course you willbe given creative prompts, technical strategies,and other hands-on feedback that encourage you todevise unconventional, surprising, and open-endedvisual art projects. We will focus more on ways ofmaking and thinking than on the final artproducts. Failures and unexpected turns arewelcome and encouraged. Precedents for art as aninquiring and exploratory process will be studiedthrough lectures, readings, videos, researchprojects, and other class activities.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ART 194 Special Topics 4 Credits
View Available Sections for titles anddescriptions of Special Topics offered thissemester.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 211 Making Gods in Mediaval&early Modern Art 4 Credits
This art history course surveys the materialculture of the religions of Europe from 300 to1500 CE, including Christianity, Judaism, andpolytheistic traditions. The function of artworksin religious practice will be discussed, withparticular attention to controversies over the useof art in religious practice. Lectures with richdiscussion.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
ART 212 Beauty&Power in Medieval & EarlyMod Art 4 Credits
This art history course examines how art andarchitecture served to project power and prestigeamong cultural elites in Europe from 300 to 1500CE. Considers how imagery, materials, andtechnological elements enhanced the socialstanding of the people who created, owned, anddisplayed a work of art. Lectures with richdiscussion.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Even Years
ART 222 Body, Nature and Nation in American Art 4 Credits
Although this art history course sketches in theart of the early colonies, its main body begins atthe period of the American Revolution. Lecturesand discussion explore the changing significanceof the visual arts in American life and culturethrough the 1930s. Field trips to museums inWashington. This course is cross listed underAmerican Studies.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Odd Years
ART 235 Art in the Anthropocene 4 Credits
This course brings students into the chemist's laband artist's studio at turns to offerinterdisciplinary insight into the overlap betweenscientific versus artistic processes of inquiry.Students are taught the chemical processes ofvarious art materials and how to make, harvest, orfind their own environmentally friendly materialswhich are then incorporated into self-designed artprojects. The laboratory curriculum asks studentsto identify environmental hazards of artmaterials, understand the link of these hazards torelated ailments and devastations, and identifysustainable science solutions that avoid use ofthe hazards. The studio curriculum introducesstudents to aesthetic and conceptual frameworksthat contemporary artists use, and encouragestudents to develop a distinctive creative voicethat considers the meaning of the materials andprocesses they work with. This course fulfills thedistribution requirement for either the Humanitiesand Fine Arts OR the Natural Sciences andQuantitative. Chemistry majors on the non-ACScertified track, Chemistry minors, and Art and ArtHistory majors/minors can count this course as anelective for their major or minor. ACS-certifiedmajors can only count this course as an electivefor the Fine Arts distribution.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 241 Environmental Art 4 Credits
This seminar course introduces students to thebasic concepts of environmental art through aseries of environmental art projects made bothinside and outside, in the field. The curriculumcenters on deepening student awareness of how arange of materials, spaces, and approaches can beused to make environmental art projects. Thecourse will explore both individual andcollaborative strategies. Students will engage increative work and basic environmental research,supported by related class discussions andcritiques. Readings and screenings aboutenvironmentally engaged artists coincide withcreative projects.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 245 Introductory Photography Studio 4 Credits
This studio course serves as an introduction todigital photography, and will cover basic cameraskills and photographic processes, although courseemphasis is on the conceptual and creative uses ofphotography as an artistic medium. Students willgain the technical and critical skills to fulfillcreative goals. Complex relationships betweenimagery, composition and meaning will be exploredthrough creative assignments, lectures,discussions, and readings. The work ofcontemporary artists working in photography willbe explored at length.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ART 247 Introductory Video & New Media 4 Credits
This studio course introduces students to aninterdisciplinary grounding in the techniques,concepts, and empirical experiences they will needto engage video and new media technologies in themaking of art. Students develop the necessaryconceptual and technical grounding to engage thecreation of imagery through digital means bystudying various video and computer imagingstrategies. Contemporary artists working in themediums of video and new media are examinedthrough lectures and screenings.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ART 250 Introductory Drawing Studio 4 Credits
This studio class introduces students to drawingthrough a range of material, conceptual, andskill-based approaches. While focusing on basicskills and concepts of drawing, the curriculum isalso interdisciplinary in nature. In addition todrawing fundamentals, the course also placesemphasis on experimental approaches and onconnecting conceptual thinking to one's broadercreative practice. Contemporary and historicalexamples of artists working within such a creativepractice are covered through readings, lectures,and screenings.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 251 Visual and Critical Thinking 4 Credits
This introductory level studio course investigatesconceptual and material skills useful for makingvisual art. The curriculum is interdisciplinaryand designed to emphasize the development ofstudio fundamentals through hands-on studioprojects that allow for technical practice,critical thinking, and experimental approaches.Basic visual design principles are covered, whilecontemporary examples are presented throughlectures and applied to studio problems.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 260 Introductory Painting Studio 4 Credits
This studio course focuses on the fundamentals ofpainting including material, technical, andconceptual perspectives. The curriculum introducesbasic skills and theories while also exploringinterdisciplinary, experimental, and expressiveapplications of the medium. Basic materials andprocesses are covered to help students move fromconcept to completed works. Emphasis is placed onthe field of contemporary painting in particular.Artists who work within a painterly tradition areexplored in lectures, screenings, readings, andresearch projects.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ART 265 Intro Printmaking Studio 4 Credits
Using a range of traditional and experimentalmethods, this course introduces printmaking as anartistic and expressive medium. Printmakingtechniques generate artworks that may berepeatable or unique, and assignments highlightthe multiple as a conceptual or strategic choice.Course builds upon and expands students' skills indrawing, 2D design, color, and composition whileemphasizing the relationship between concept,imagery and form. Printmaking's role incontemporary art is examined through readings,lectures and screenings.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
Fees: $50 Lab Fee
ART 270 Introductory Sculpture Studio 4 Credits
This introductory course introduces students tothe basic skills, processes, and conceptualconcerns of contemporary sculptural approaches.The curriculum examines the expansiveness ofsculpture's inherently interdisciplinarydefinition. In addition to sculpture fundamentalsthe course engages the critical and theoreticalrelationship between meaning and making. Artistswhose works exemplify historical and contemporaryapproaches are examined through lectures,screenings, and readings.
Cross-listed as: .
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
Fees: $50 Lab Fee
ART 277 The Creative Process 4 Credits
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 290 Art Internship 4 Credits
An internship focusing on the administrative workof running an arts organization, includingmarketing, finances, program logistics, volunteercoordination, and other managerial work. Thestandard syllabus for AME Internships must befollowed as the internship contract unless anotherarrangement is made with the AME director. GradedA-F. 45 hours, per credit are required.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 294 Special Topics 4 Credits
View Available Sections for titles anddescriptions of Special Topics offered thissemester.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 297 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and astudent letting the student study a topic ofinterest not offered at WC. 45 hours are requiredper credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 310 Art & Nature in Med & Early Modern Eur. 4 Credits
An art historical exploration of how ideas aboutthe natural world can be perceived in artworksfrom Europe from 500 to 1500 CE. Topics includethe depictions of animals and landscapes, the useof natural materials in art, and cultural conceptssuch as Creation, wilderness, and wonders.Lectures with rich discussion.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ART 312 Depicting Difference in Med&earl Mod Art 4 Credits
How did medieval Europeans view human differences?What defined ethnicity for them? Did they have aconcept of race, or is that a wholly modernphenomenon? This course explores these questionsand more through the art of the Middle Ages andEarly Modern period, as well as modern revivals ofmedieval culture.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Odd Years
ART 318 Romanticism to Post-Impressionism 4 Credits
Starting with Romanticism, this art history coursegives intensive coverage to the majornineteenth-century movements in European art. Theart of the period is seen in its cultural contextwith special reference to art criticism and tosocial conditions. Prerequisite: one art historycourse or permission of instructor.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ART 110 or ART 200
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ART 320 20th Century Art 4 Credits
This art history course discusses major artisticdevelopments and key figures in twentieth-centuryart from Matisse and Picasso into the twenty-firstcentury. The emergence of abstraction, thehistorical position of the avant-garde, andtheories of visual modernism are among the themesdiscussed in the course.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ART 110
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Odd Years
ART 322 Body, Nature and Nation in American Art 4 Credits
Although the course sketches in the art of theearly colonies, its main body begins at theperiod of the American Revolution. Lectures anddiscussion explore the changing significance ofthe visual arts in American life and culturethrough the 1930s. Field trips to museums inWashington.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ART 110
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Odd Years
ART 324 Photography's First Century 4 Credits
This art history course examines historicaldevelopments in photography from the 1830s to the1920s, from the medium's inception through earlymodernism. Lectures and discussion consider topicsat issue in debates about photography's place inthe history of art, such as changing attitudestoward photography's dual role as aestheticcreation and as documentary artifact.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ART 110
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
ART 343 Art and Language 4 Credits
Our society and traditions separate what wordsmean from the way words look. However,contemporary artists such as Glenn Ligon, BarbaraKruger, Yoko Ono and Bruce Nauman have exploredwords as aesthetic and conceptual material. Thisseminar course emphasizes written, printed andspoken language as a medium for making 2D, 3D,installation and time-based art. This course istaught from a studio art perspective but welcomesstudents of poetry, creative writing and all otherdisciplines.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 345 Photography Intensive 4 Credits
This studio course examines the production andpertinent concepts of photographic based images.The curriculum is primarily centered oncamera-based work, while allowing for theexploration of other methods of photographic imagecreation such as scanners, cell phones, andcopiers. Technical instruction and principles ofcomposition are employed to form an understandingas to how the construction and manipulation ofphotographic images implicate form and meaning.Contemporary photographic based image-makers areexamined through screenings, readings, andlectures.
Cross-listed as: ART 345/ART 281
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Even Years
ART 347 New Media Intensive 4 Credits
This is an advanced studio course in the study ofthe intersection between art and technology. Abroad interdisciplinary investigation of theskills, concepts, and applications that arenecessary to develop a creative practice versed inthe technologies of our time are pursued.Particular emphasis is placed on the conceptualimplications of choosing such a practice, and howthose implications inform each student's work.Current practitioners within the discipline areexamined through lectures, readings, andscreenings.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ART 350 Drawing Intensive 4 Credits
Drawing is both a verb and a noun; it is apractice and an outcome. The making of a drawingcan be highly personal and intimate or public andcollaborative. A drawing can be a mark on a pageleft by the hand, a line or residue on thelandscape or in three-dimensional space, or anaction in time. Drawing Intensive focuses onexpanded definitions of drawing and methods ofmark-making in 2, 3 and 4 dimensions. Assignedprojects allow for maximum opportunity to exploreindividual subject matter interests, whetherideological, political, environmental, aestheticor otherwise.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ART 360 Painting Intensive 4 Credits
Painting Intensive offers students a chance toexplore the materials and strategies associatedwith contemporary painting in a sustained,in-depth way. The course may be taughtthematically to align with or complementprogramming happening on campus or in KohlGallery, respond to current news and events, andmeet challenges posed by students' individualinterests. Areas of emphasis may includewatercolor, advanced acrylic techniques, or otherexploratory processes. No prerequisites.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 365 Printmaking Intensive 4 Credits
Students expand upon previously-developed skillsin relief, monoprint, silkscreen and experimentalprintmaking techniques, with an emphasis onidentifying and actualizing individual creativegoals. Assignments and coursework arestudent-driven and participants must possess ahigh degree of independent motivation.
Requisites: Pre-req: ART 265
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 370 Sculpture Intensive 4 Credits
Sculpture Intensive offers students a chance toexplore the materials and strategies associatedwith contemporary sculpture in a sustained,in-depth way. The course is taught thematically toalign with or complement programming happening oncampus or in Kohl Gallery, respond to current newsand events, and meet challenges posed by students'individual interests. Skills developed may includecasting and mold-making; fabrication strategies;soft sculpture; kinetic art; responding to site;socially-engaged practices and other topicsaccording to student interest. Assigned projectsoffer maximum opportunity to explore individualsubject matter interests, whether ideological,political, environmental, aesthetic or otherwise.No prerequisites.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
Fees: $25 Lab Fee
ART 375 Arts Administration 4 Credits
This course explores various aspects ofleadership, management, and entrepreneurship forthe visual and performing arts. Students learn howarts organizations define themselves, makedecisions, and plan for the future. Topicsmay include: leadership & governance, mission &strategy, program planning & evaluation,intellectual property & contracting, marketing &public relations, and/or budgeting & fundraising.This course has no curricular prerequisite, butrequires a baseline interest in and understandingof the arts.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Even Years
ART 383 Advanced Art as Inquiry 4 Credits
This advanced studio course asks you to see artless as a finished aesthetic product and more as a process of inquiry and experimentation thatdraws on interdisciplinary and humanistic concerns. Making art becomes a mechanism for youto explore and contemplate the world, and draw out new meanings and insights in the process.Over the course of the semester, you will select areas of creative interest to develop,research and ultimately make visual art about. Youcan draw on any field, curiosity, or personalpassion as you follow your own instincts and lineof questioning. As an upper-level course you willbe encouraged to be ambitious, self-direct, and take creative risks, as you devise unconventional,surprising, open-ended visual art projects. Precedents for art as an inquiring and exploratoryprocess will be studied through lectures, readings, videos, research projects, and otherclass activities
Requisites: Pre-req: Any 100 or 200 Level Studio Art Course
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
ART 390 Art Internship 4 Credits
An internship focusing on the administrative workof running an arts organization, includingmarketing, finances, program logistics, volunteercoordination, and other managerial work. Thestandard syllabus for AME Internships must befollowed as the internship contract unless anotherarrangement is made with the AME director. GradedA-F. 45 hours, per credit are required.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 392 Contemporary Practices 4 Credits
This course provides a practical and theoreticalframework for students who wish to pursue a lifein the arts. Students begin to define theircreative practice by writing an artist statement;learn about the range of professional and careeropportunities in the field and develop the skillsneeded to present their work professionally.Students will gain familiarity with the field ofcontemporary art through studio visits withpracticing artists, field trips to galleries andmuseums, and independent research. Required of allmajors in Studio Art and recommended forinterested minors. Prerequisite: major orminor status, any 300 level studio art course orpermission of instructor.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 394 Special Topics 4 Credits
View Available Sections for titles anddescriptions of Special Topics offered thissemester.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 397 Independent Study 4 Credits
Exceptional students in their Junior or Senioryears seeking to define their own course of study,distinct from the course offerings in thedepartment, may submit a formal application to doso. The deadline for applications is the end ofthe 7th week of the preceding semester and mustconsist of a 1-page written proposal for thestudent's course of study, a portfolio of recentwritten work, a bibliography of texts relevant tothe proposed course of study, and a proposedcourse syllabus. Proposals will be reviewed, andnotice will be given by the department's faculty.If the student's application is accepted,notification of acceptance will be accompanied byan assigned art history advisor to facilitate thecourse of study during the desired semester.Prerequisite: one art history course.
Requisites: Pre-req: One Art History course or Advanced Studio.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 425 Women Artists & Feminist Art History 4 Credits
This art history seminar examines the variety ofapproaches that feminist art historians have takenin studying art made by women in the modern andpostmodern periods. We are concerned both withthe historical analysis of individual works of artand with an exploration of how feminist theories,practices, and political commitments haveaffected, and can continue to change, thediscursive and institutional construction of thehistory-or histories-of art and visual culture.
Requisites: Pre-req: One Art History course
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
ART 490 Museum Internship 4 Credits
This internship is for seniors with a strongacademic record in the Department. In recentyears, art majors have held internships at suchplaces as the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; theMassachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, NorthAdams, Massachusetts; the Kunst Museum, Bonn; andthe British Museum, London. Students can alsointern for academic credit at the College's KohlArt Gallery.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 491 Studio Art Senior Seminar (fall) 0 Credits
Required of all graduating seniors preparing forthe Studio Senior Capstone Experience, this courseinstigates a concept-driven and research-supportedproject. Guided by a faculty advisor and otherstudio art faculty, the seminar is an intensiveexploratory period of weekly studio work andresearch with feedback from peers. The curriculumprepares each student for the culminating SpringThesis exhibition by guiding them through theprocess of developing a coherent body of work,including the ideas and influences driving thatwork, and the practical issues that need benavigated in order to fully realize each student'svision. Each student's performance in thisnon-credit bearing course will influence theirgrade earned at the completion of the StudioSenior Capstone Experience. Should be taken in thefall semester of senior year.
Requisites: Pre-req: ART 392
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
ART 492 Studio Art Senior Seminar (spring) 0 Credits
Required of all graduating seniors preparing forthe Studio Senior Capstone Experience, this courseis a continuation of the intensive weekly studiowork and research begun in ART 491 culminating inthe Spring Thesis exhibition. Each student'sperformance in this non-credit bearing course willinfluence their grade earned at the completion ofthe Studio Senior Capstone Experience. Should betaken in the spring semester of senior year.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
ART 494 Special Topics 4 Credits
View Available Sections for titles anddescriptions of Special Topics offered thissemester.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
ART 495 On-Campus Research 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty memberand a student researching a topic of interest thatis relevant to a student's major or minor.Research is conducted on campus. Students must beenrolled before the research can begin. 45 hoursare required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: Summer, All Years
ART 497 Art Independent Study 4 Credits
Exceptional students in their Junior or Senioryears seeking to define their own course of study,distinct from the course offerings in thedepartment, may submit a formal application to doso. The deadline for applications is the end ofthe 7th week of the preceding semester and mustconsist of a 1-page written proposal for thestudent's course of study, a portfolio of recentwritten work, a bibliography of texts relevant tothe proposed course of study, and a proposedcourse syllabus. Proposals will be reviewed, andnotice will be given by the department's faculty.If the student's application is accepted,notification of acceptance will be accompanied byan assigned art history advisor to facilitate thecourse of study during the desired semester.Prerequisite: one art history course.
Requisites: Pre-req: One Art History or Advanced Studio course.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years