College of Charleston (School of the Arts)

The School of the Arts is one of six schools at the College of Charleston. It is divided into Departments of Art History, Music (classical and jazz), Studio Art (painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and photography), and Theatre (including dance), with programs in Arts Management and Historic Preservation and Community Planning. Also included are master programs in Arts Management (offered through the MPA program), Historic Preservation and Community Planning (offered in conjunction with Clemson University), an artist certificate program in Music, a graduate certificate in Arts Management, and a Masters of Arts in Teaching: Choral Music (new this year!). The School has a total of approximately 650 majors, taught by close to 100 full time and adjunct faculty members.

The School presents an exciting season of musical events, plays, dance performances, lectures, and gallery exhibits, including the popular Monday Night Concert Series, the International Piano Series, and International Guitar Series, and the Addlestone and Simons lectures in Art History and Historic Preservation. In the summer, we produce many of the events that are a part of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and provide intern support to the City of Charleston Cultural Affairs Office and Spoleto Festival USA.

We offer a wide range of courses and educational opportunities, including travel abroad experiences at our campuses in Annot, France, and Trujillo, Spain. Our exceptionally talented students, faculty, and staff are winning major research grants, competitions, and other awards.

A plan is in the works to enlarge and upgrade our facilities by connecting The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, currently under construction on the corner of Calhoun and St, Philip Streets, to the current Simons Center for the Arts. The new building will contain additional gallery space, dance and art studios, music studios and performance rooms, and faculty offices. The Simons Center will then be completely renovated. Construction is scheduled to be complete by January of 2009.


Art History

Located in the historic and beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina, the Department of Art History houses College of Charleston’s leading and nationally recognized programs in art history and historic preservation. We are one of the largest independent art history departments in the Southeast and among the few in the nation that specialize in undergraduate education. We offer a thorough, diverse and exciting educational experience, leading to a BA in Art History, a BA in Historic Preservation & Community Planning, or a MS in Historic Preservation (joint program with Clemson University). The department’s curriculum combines a wide variety of courses in art history and historic preservation with the advantages of a liberal arts education.

Taught by a faculty of highly trained and published scholars and professors, the department's curriculum prepares students for multiple career options: graduate study, gallery/museum positions, arts administration, preservation planning, teaching, and many others. The department also offers a wide variety of internship positions at Charleston’s many museums, historical societies, preservation projects, and community arts and preservation organizations.

Our faculty members are eager to work with you to plan a program of study that suits your particular goals. Recent graduates of our department have gone on to graduate school in art history, architecture, film studies, law school and medical school, and to careers in museums and galleries.


Music Department

Merging the intense focus of a conservatory with a broad education in the liberal arts, the music program at the College of Charleston is further enhanced by its location in a city renowned for its cultural heritage and devotion to the performing arts. Strong academic preparation coupled with superior musical training places our program in a unique niche.

* All College of Charleston students, regardless of major, benefit from broad exposure to many academic areas through the College’s liberal arts education. Music, one of the original liberal arts, plays an important and distinctive role in the lives and education of the entire campus community.
* Students enjoy small class size and individual instruction by faculty members who are all accomplished professional musicians, including an artist-in-residence and a composer-in-residence.
* The department offers numerous opportunities to perform and to attend performances by world-class artists and distinguished faculty members.
* We offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with a concentration in Performance, Theory/Composition, or Music History, as well as an artist certificate in performance, a two-year, advanced program of study for graduates who want to continue their studies and prepare for professional performance careers.


Studio Art

A Commission of Higher Education report identified the College of Charleston Studio Art program as one of the best in the State. One very significant factor contributing to the success of our program has been the consistently superior caliber of our artist-teachers. The faculty is one of the strongest and most professionally involved in the State, if not the southeast. It includes a Prix de Rome winner, two Guggenheim Fellowship holders, and a Fulbright Fellowship holder. Additionally, the South Carolina Arts Commission selected five of our faculty to help represent 20th Century Art in South Carolina in the 100 Years/100 Artists exhibition at the State Museum. All faculty are regular exhibitors and are frequently invited to participate in major museum shows or international arts festival exhibitions. Most studio art professors maintain studio space on campus, and all have extensive exhibition credits, nationally or internationally. Consequently, students work in a vital, creative environment.

Our students have participated in scores of exhibitions including: shows in the student gallery, which features the most current student work, and Young Contemporaries at the Halsey Gallery, an annual juried show of student work. The College of Charleston literary magazine, The Miscellany features the work of dozens of Studio Art majors. The Visual Arts Club, a student organization comprised primarily of Studio Art Majors, has organized exhibits and hosted a number of successful art auctions both on and off campus.

We are understandably proud of the continuing growth and development in the department. Long range planning certainly includes the incorporation of technological tools for the artist, but the core of our focus is the fine arts. Our mission is to help students cultivate a deeper appreciation for the role of art within the context of the liberal arts education. To that end, students are confronted with the images of art, trained in the processes for making art, and challenged to excel in the study of art.


Theatre and Dance at the College of Charleston

The Theatre Department promotes a love of learning, a desire for excellence and professional behavior in its students and faculty through balanced attention to coursework and production experience. All students are encouraged to seek practical experience in productions.

The Department strongly supports the ideal of liberal education promoted at the College. We believe that by liberally educating our theatre majors in the humanities, sciences, and languages as well as in a comprehensive theatre specialty, we produce superior theatre practitioners.

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School of the Arts Art School Location

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The Art Institute of Charleston Our History Established in 2007, The Art Institute of Charleston is one of The Art Institutes, a system of 35 schools across North America. Ac... Address: 24 North Market Street

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