Providence College (Art and Art History)

Our curriculum has been planned to provide a thorough experience in Studio Art and Art History within the context of a comprehensive liberal arts environment.

All of our students begin with a series of foundation courses that establish a visual literacy and point the way toward a specific medium or topic of interest.

As this personal awareness develops, a studio concentration or art historical subject gradually becomes focused into a thesis in the senior year. The capstone of the Art and Art History curriculum, the thesis project becomes an exhibition in one of our galleries for Studio majors and a public presentation of their research thesis for Art History majors. As a final appreciation of our students' accomplishments, all thesis projects are published in the Department's own imprint, the Art Journal.

Our students' efforts are not limited to coursework. We have a thriving Art Club that hosts the campus-wide Student Art Show every fall, presents a Crafts Fair and shares in presenting an Art and Music Festival in the spring. As important as these activities are, the students in the Art Club have also, for three years, volunteered to establish an Art Club and teach studio art at San Miguel Academy in Providence , earning a Providence College Distinguished Service Award for their efforts.

We are an active and dedicated Department with many options in Studio and Art History.


Mission Statement
To provide an environment in which the aesthetic, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the whole person are articulated through the interdisciplinary study of human creativity and the practice of visual form.

* To provide a core foundation of courses upon which a student and advisor may construct a challenging, rewarding and concentrated field of study which culminates in the thesis project.

* To encourage exploration of diverse cultures through the study of languages and a series of courses on the arts of Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and North and South America.

* To present a thorough examination of the history of Art from the prehistoric to the contemporary, including the various theoretical methodologies of professional art historians.

* To prepare students for advanced study and entry into arts related professional fields.

* To afford an awareness of current ideas and issues visual art as they relate to contemporary society.

* To have each student acquire the technical skill and experimental vocabulary necessary to complete an original visual statement.

* To set a goal of exposing students to the latest technologies available in image production.

* To remain alert to the safety of materials used in the classroom.

* To institute the evaluation of Department standards and goals through a formal annual review and ongoing dialogue among students and faculty.


History of the Department
Artistic expression has always been integral to the life of the Dominican Order. One has only to recall the frescoes of Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolomeo's drawings; both men were Dominicans who were also artists. It is natural, therefore, that Providence College, a Dominican institution, offer a major in the fine arts.

The seeds for a studio art and art history curriculum at Providence College were probably first planted by John J. Sullivan, O.P., who came to the college in 1931.

It is said that Fr. Sullivan, the first Dominican artist at PC, was very interested in establishing a department of art here, but the Depression years did not permit this. Fr. Sullivan, whose studio was in downtown Providence, became the unofficial artist-in-residence at PC. A number of his paintings and drawings can be found throughout the College today.

It was Lawrence M. Hunt, O.P., however, who was at the very center of the drive to establish an art department. A native of Richmond, VA, Fr. Hunt graduated from Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, with a Ph.D. in architecture in 1928, and was ordained a Dominican priest in 1935. He joined the College faculty in 1936 and taught mathematics and art history, which was the sole art course offered at that time.

Fr. Hunt used funds from his own allowance to collect books, furniture, slides, and art works which could be used for the current course as well as for establishing a future department of art. As an additional supplement to the art history course, Fr. Hunt had his students meet at the MFA in Boston on Saturdays to go on instructed tours.

The Department began to take root as Fr. Hunt sought out young Dominicans with an interest in art, asking them to come to Providence College not only to teach art courses, but to assist in setting up a department of art. Two such Dominicans were Ambrose McAlister, O.P., who came to the College in the fall of 1967, and Adrian Dabash, O.P., who came to PC as a student in 1958 and as a professor in 1974.

By January 1968, an art elective program was established, which many see as the formal beginning of a department of art on the PC campus. However, all studio art courses were still taught through the School of Continuing Education. Over the next few years, courses such as ceramics, printmaking, photography, and painting were added to the evening curriculum.

When a request for a formal art department in the day school was made and approved on October 28, 1970, Fr. Hunt’s quiet and continuous efforts finally came to fruition and the Department of Art and Art History was established. Fr. Hunt served as the first chairman of the Department, a position he would hold until 1976. He would continue to serve as professor of art history and assistant Department chairman until his death in 1980.

In 1971, studio courses were finally added to the day school program of studies, and the first lay -- and female -- faculty members joined the Department. Suzanne d’Avanzo was hired in the Studio division and Alice Hauck in the history of art. With an M.A. in art history, Ms. Hauck (later earning a Ph.D. and changing her surname to Beckwith after marriage) designed and implemented a full art history curriculum and major, increasing the number of art history faculty along the way.

During the summer of 1970, before the establishment of the Department, the Pietrasanta (Italy) Summer Study Program was instituted. This program ran for twenty years under the direction of Fr. McAlister, based at the studio of Dominican sculptor, Thomas M. McGlynn, O.P.

Fr. McGlynn, a member of the Providence College faculty at one time, was the inspiration for the Pietrasanta Program, and was its first professor of sculpture. He traveled to Pietrasanta in 1956 to carve a 15 1/ 2 foot marble statue of Our Lady of Fatima for the Shrine at Fatima, Portugal, and remained in Pietrasanta for the rest of his life. After his death in 1977, the program took over Fr. McGlynn's Pietrasanta studio. His archives and sculptures were brought to PC in 1978, where they have been catalogued and set up for viewing.

Three McGlynn works grace the PC campus today--the statue of Martin de Porres near the library, the statue of St. Dominic located next to Ditraglia Hall, and the bust of Pope John XXIII, the focal point of the McGlynn Sculpture Court, located at the Hunt-Cavanagh building.

In 1976, Providence College acquired the Chapin Hospital property on Huxley Avenue, and the Art and Art History Department was given a building on this "lower campus" for studio art work, as well as space in another building for ceramics courses. All previous art space in the library was given up, and art history moved to Stephen Hall, its original home.

In 1983, the studio art building was dedicated in honor of Fr. Hunt and John Cavanagh, a liturgical artist and founder of the world's largest altar bread manufacturing company.

A Providence native, Cavanagh was a 1935 alumnus of the College who devoted countless hours designing religious artifacts for churches and chapels throughout the country. Artist, silversmith, and designer of the PC mace, which is carried at all College ceremonies, Cavanagh was a member of the College Corporation, the president's council and a president of the National Alumni Association.

In 1994, Art History and the Slide Library moved to their permanent home in Hunt-Cavanagh Hall, and drawing, painting and design moved across the street into the Service Building, finally bringing the Department together into one general area.

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Art and Art History Art School Location

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