Presbyterian College

Art

The Art Department at Presbyterian College offers a wide array of courses for the major and non-major alike. For the liberal arts student, courses in visual art such as Art Appreciation, Basic Drawing, the Art History surveys, and beginning studio art courses such as Photography and Ceramics allow students to explore the relationships of art to their own experiences of the world. An educated person will understand how overarching themes of the human experience, like love, death, and spirituality, find expression in the visual arts, and these courses provide a beginning context through which to understand this. As with disciplines such as history, literature, and political science, the visual arts form a key component to the liberal arts and to an understanding of the human experience.

For the serious art student, a fundamentally balanced menu of studio courses and art history is provided to allow them to gain knowledge and experience the studio arts and history. This menu will allow them to focus their energies in developing their talents in a chosen area. Within the area of two-dimensional art, students gain insight and skills in the areas of drawing, painting, photography and graphic/computer design. In the three-dimensional art area, 3-D design, sculpture and ceramics challenge student’s spatial manipulation and skill building with a variety of classical and contemporary mediums. Art history courses develop both a historical and social contextual understanding of art production across time and cultures.

The art major currently has two significant tracks or areas of emphasis: studio art and art history. In the junior and senior years, students in each of these concentrations undertake a course sequence that includes junior project, junior seminar, senior seminar and senior show. This sequence trains studio majors to develop professional habits, conceptual focus, and a strong portfolio prior to the capstone exhibition in the campus art gallery. Students with the art history emphasis utilize the same sequence to learn critical research and writing skills, art historical methodologies, and research techniques toward the development of a final research project, which is presented publicly and then submitted as a documented research thesis. Altogether, this series of upper-level, team-taught seminars serves to encourage personal, artistic and intellectual growth while fostering a close and supportive network among the members of the department.

In addition to courses offered in residence at Presbyterian College, the art department coordinates with the international study programs to grant credit toward the degree for classes taken during semesters abroad, in order that students can benefit from the wealth of artistic experience available in other cultures. In addition, the Art Department conducts an annual field trip to a major city in the United States to visit important collections of art in museums and galleries. Recent field trips have gone to New York City, Washington, DC, and Chicago. The Art Department also plans several Maymester experiences in coming years, with one to England in May 2007.

Students who have majored in art at PC have gone on to do graduate work at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York, Tulane University, the Chicago Art Institute, Savannah College of Art and Design, the University of Georgia in Athens, and the University of South Carolina. These and others have gone on to pursue careers in teaching, graphic design, art auctioning, and historic preservation, among others.

The number of art majors continues to grow. The Art Department looks forward to the construction of new facilities and expanded programs to meet the ever-changing and growing needs of talented students in the visual arts areas.



Art Majors

The Department offers several major options as well as minors in Art.

Students may choose from two majors tracks:

Studio art
In the junior year, a student will undertake a course sequence including junior project, junior seminar, senior seminar, and senior show, a sequence designed to train studio majors to develop professional habits, conceptual focus, and a strong portfolio prior to the capstone exhibition in the campus gallery.

Art history
Art history majors use the same sequence as the Studio Artists to learn critical research and writing skills for the purpose of strengthening their final research presentation. Altogether, this series of upper level, team-taught seminars serves to encourage significant personal and artistic growth while knitting the art department into a close and supportive group.

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Presbyterian College Art School Location

Other art schools in South Carolina

Winthrop University (College of Visual and Performing Arts) Mission Statement As the only comprehensive collegiate arts program nationally accredited in all the arts in the State of South Carolina, public or... Address: 133 McLaurin Hall

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), ... Address: 66 George Street

Clemson University (Department of Art) Art and artists thrive on the campus of Clemson University. Clemson is a comprehensive university with the resources and facilities to offer students ... Address: 123 Lee Hall

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