About the Department of Art
About the Major
Studio art majors at Skidmore are trained as artists within the rich context of a liberal arts education. The critical questions of the arts, sciences, and humanities fuel our students’ inquiry throughout their time at Skidmore. Within our major, students balance exploration with a concentration in a particular studio area. Our program offers a rich and diverse range of courses across ten areas of art making and art history.
Explore
Exploration with different processes and materials is an important part of the Art major. There are ten areas within the studio art curriculum: Ceramics, Communication Design, Drawing, Digital Media, Fiber Arts, Jewelry and Metals, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture.
Drawing I is a course that all majors share. Students can begin exploring introductory courses in areas as early as their first year.
Make Connections
Art History provides an essential context for our majors. The Art History department offers courses from Ancient to Contemporary times and includes the study of art from many cultures around the world, including Asia and Africa.
Focus
By spring term of their junior year, majors will have shifted their focus from exploration to concentration in an area as preparation for their capstone experience – the Senior Thesis Exhibition. A secondary emphasis in another area complements their study.
During their senior year, students work closely with faculty to develop the body of work they will exhibit in the Senior Thesis Exhibition at the Tang Museum in May.
About the Minor
Students design an art minor in consultation with the chair of the Department of Art
for program approval. An art minor can be an excellent addition to majors in disciplines
such as Art History, Anthropology, Environmental Science, English, Management and
Business or Psychology.
Learn more about the Minor
Double Majoring/Minoring
With careful planning and steady commitment, students can double major.
Art History, Biology, English, and Psychology are examples of majors that students
have chosen as a companion study.
Students may choose to minor in a discipline that complements their work in the major.
Common minors include: Art History, Arts Administration, Management and Business,
and Media and Film Studies.
Internships
Students gain valuable experience beyond the classroom in internships.
- On campus, the Tang Museum offers credit bearing internship opportunities with experiences such as creating lessons for outreach programs to area schools and libraries, writing for the curatorial department, conducting research for collections, and curating exhibitions.
- Off campus, recent internship projects have included:
Apprentice at Frittelli and Lockwood textile studio (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.); intern at BRIC, which offers contemporary art, performing art, and community media programs (Brooklyn, N.Y.); and intern, Arts Unbound, dedicated to artistic achievement for those with disabilities and seniors (Orange, N.J.).
