Why Study Art and Art History at K?
Studying art empowers you to intertwine your personal and academic interests with artistic expression and research across visual cultures.
As a studio art or art history student, you will develop critical thinking, analysis, communication, and creative skills that will empower you to navigate and respond to our ever-increasingly visual world. The department courses are split between the two degree programs: studio art and art history.
Studio art courses explore contemporary issues in the visual arts while developing practical and professional skills for your future career, with beginning to advanced classes in drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, printmaking, digital art, documentary video, and combined media. In these courses, you will explore creative visual modes of expression and learn about the traditional and innovative practices of each art form.
The art history program is designed for you to gain critical looking, thinking, and analysis skills so that you can meaningfully navigate and respond to art at a local and global level. In classes like Public Art and Its Publics; “Primitivism” to Surrealism; Art and Gender; and Contemporary African Art—to name a few—you will gain historical and theoretical knowledge about various art forms and visual cultures throughout history. You will also learn how to be a critical consumer of art by developing analytical methodologies that go beyond, and often challenge, the dominant narratives surrounding artwork.
Regardless of your path, your courses will be supplemented with experiential learning opportunities, such as visiting museums and galleries, working with local and visiting artists and art historians, and attending external lectures.
The visual literacy, writing, creativity, critical thinking and communication skills you will develop as an art student at K will prepare you for a variety of careers in industry, education, and non-profit work, as well as for any future graduate studies you choose to pursue.
What can you do with an Art and Art History major?
Below are some of the careers, employers, and graduate schools of our art alumni.
Careers
- Artist
- Art Therapist
- Curator
- Marketer
- Designer
Employers
- Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
- ArtistYear
- Lionsgate
- Toledo Museum of Art
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Graduate Schools
- Washington University in St. Louis
- University of Iowa
- Claremont Graduate University
- University of Washington
- University of Michigan
Program Spotlights
Join the vibrant art scene in Kalamazoo
Our faculty take advantage of the College’s location and active art community, often bringing local artists into the classroom to share their knowledge and experience and partner with institutions in Kalamazoo, like the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, to bring your learning off-campus. Seniors will even get the chance to use the College’s Park Trade Center studio in downtown Kalamazoo to work alongside fellow artists as they create their own exhibition or installation, which will be displayed at the city’s monthly Art Hop open house.
Study away in New York City
While you can choose from any of the College’s 50+ study abroad and study away programs and transfer any relevant courses, many of our students choose to take advantage of our New York Arts Program in NYC. During your term in NYC, you will integrate yourself into the local art community as you study, work on your own pieces, and intern with a professional artist. This is an excellent opportunity for you to network with professional artists, gain hands-on work experience in the industry, and further hone your craft.
Showcase your knowledge and talent in your Senior Integrated Project (SIP)
As a part of your studies at K, you will complete a Senior Integrated Project (SIP), a capstone experience where you showcase all you have learned. For our art and art history majors, SIPs tend to be either the creation of your own body of artwork, in-depth research that expands on your previous studies, or an internship—typically at a museum or gallery—paired with reflection and research. For example, Maeve Henning ’21 reflected on visual and interpersonal aspects of food, from growing to cooking to decomposition, in her ceramics SIP, “Food Stories.”
Meet the Current Departmental Student Advisors
Studio Art
Josie Checkett
Major: Studio Art and Art History
Concentration: Film & Media Studies
Study Abroad: New York Arts
Best Adjective to Describe You: Driven
What is the best thing about being part of this department?
Supportive faculty and staff, opportunities for exhibition, and productive critique. You’ll change and improve quickly and substantially.
What is your biggest piece of advice to students about getting connected to this department?
Start taking art classes as early as possible, and across various media. You don’t have to commit to being a painter or a ceramicist or a printmaker (and so forth) until later on, so take the time to learn what you like. Spend more time in the studio than you think you need to, and go to exhibitions even if neither you or someone you know has work there.
What drew you to the department?
I took a studio art course as one of the requirements for the art history major, and just kept coming back. I find the combination of physical work and creative academic work very appealing and there’s something really rewarding about walking away from that work with a tangible result.
What is your favorite thing about K?
I feel that I’ve been able to develop a personal relationship with every professor I’ve had a class with, which is not something that could be said at every school. The small class sizes can be tough during registration, but it’s been game changing to have the kind of network I’ve been able to build.
How have you taken advantage of the flexible curriculum or experienced breadth in your education?
It’s one thing to have the technical skills to make art, but they’re pointless if you don’t have anything to make art about. Besides Art and Art History I’ve taken classes in English, Religion, Film, German, Critical Ethnic Studies, and WGS. I’ve been a TA and worked multiple campus jobs in different departments. I feel like the more I do outside of art, the more I have with which to return to it. My work can only improve from a broader understanding of the world.
What is your SIP?
I am going to be doing a painting SIP– the great thing about a studio art SIP is we don’t actually put together our final proposal until the fall, and then the SIP is done in the winter. So, I’m not sure what my specific theme will be yet– there is a required fall term Studio Art course for senior majors in the department called Advanced Studio that is heavily focused on specifying your ideas and practice in preparation for the SIP, so I’ll have a better idea then. Ask me again winter term!
What are your career aspirations/next steps after K?
I want to do some sort of hands-on studio-related work after I graduate. I would love to work in exhibit design, in a scene shop for a theatre, in a custom fabrication studio, or something along those lines. I’m still figuring it out!
Elena Pulliam (she/they)
Major: Art History and WGS
Study Abroad: Cáceres, Spain
Best Adjective to Describe You: Introspective
What is the best thing about being part of this department?
Learning about the ways that art influences the past as well as the world around us.
What is your biggest piece of advice to first years and sophomores about getting connected to this department?
Bring your own perspectives and excitement to learning! This is a department that encourages discussion and subjectivity, your ideas are always welcome!
What drew you to the department?
The details and different cultures that intersect within the realm of art. I loved how global the field is, and how it can be applied to our society today.
What is your favorite thing about K?
There is always a community ready to support you and always more opportunities to find more communities.
How have you taken advantage of the flexible curriculum or experienced breadth in your education?
I’ve widened my horizons in how I view the world and what is possible. Because there are so many options, I was able to try a lot of different fields until I found the ones I loved.
What is your Senior Integrated Project (SIP)?
I’m doing a SIP in the music department focusing on arrangements and original songs.
What are your career aspirations/next steps after K?
I hope to be an art conservationist in the future. I plan to go to graduate school eventually, although I will be taking a gap year to work beforehand.