Course description
The artist at Hampshire is in a unique position to create work that expresses not only his or her personal vision in relation to a multidisciplinary education. Rather than limiting themselves to one or another medium, studio arts concentrators are exposed early to a variety of different tools and materials that they may use to express themselves and explore their artistic voice within a liberal arts context. A broad array of studio courses, critical theory, art history, and a portfolio of independent work are required components of a studio arts concentration.
This type of training not only enables students to overlap disciplines and technologies, but actually allows new forms to emerge as well. Consequently, Hampshire graduates in studio art have gained admission to the top MFA programs nationally and internationally. Alums are currently exhibiting at premier galleries and museums in NY and worldwide.
Sample First-Year Course
Sculpture Tutorial
Sculpture Tutorial provides students with a conceptual framework for the exploration of three-dimensional form. Fundamental sculptural principles are linked to the development of skills and ideas within a range of materials such as cardboard, clay, wood, plaster, steel, and lightweight concrete. Subject matter will include the figure, abstraction, environmental sculpture, and installation art. Readings, research projects, slide lectures, visiting artists, and group critiques will provide a theoretical framework for the development of independent work.
Sample Courses at Hampshire
Five College Advanced Drawing Seminar
Advanced Painting
Advanced Sculpture
Artists’ Books
Books, Book Arts, Artists’ Books, Bibliophilia
Digital Art: Multimedia, Malleability & Interactivity
Drawing Foundation
In Search of Character
Intermediate Drawing
Intermediate Painting
Intro to Art Education
Intro to Painting
Sculpture Tutorial
Sequential Imagery
Studio Arts Division III Concentrators Seminar
Through the Consortium
Body & Space (MHC)
Collaborative Art (AC)
Digital Animation (UMass)
Landscape Studies (SC)
Printmaking (AC)
Watercolor Painting (SC)
Facilities and Resources
The Studio Arts building, also know as the Arts Barn, is well-equipped with two large classroom spaces for work in drawing and painting, faculty offices, a slide room/critique studio, a sculpture studio that houses equipment for working in wood, clay, plaster, concrete, rubber molds and other materials, a computer lab devoted to animation and design, and studio space for Division II and Division III studio art students.
The Lemelson Center for Design provides resources for students interested in working in additional media( drop heavier) media, such as metals, textiles, electronics and plastics (drop wood as this is taught in the sculpture studio wood. Equipment includes a soft goods design area, a machine shop for metal work, and an inventions lab equipped with computer 3D modeling stations and CAD/CAM metal working facilities.
Studio Arts students at Hampshire are able to take advantage of the art facilities at the other schools in the Five College Consortium in addition to the resources available on-campus. In particular, Amherst College has excellent printmaking facilities and instruction.
The faculty in studio art collaborate to offer a unique team taught course once each year. The Five College Advanced Seminar in Drawing aims to give upper-division students an opportunity to carry on a semester-long visual exploration of a theme as they are exposed to a multitude of perspectives and styles and mediums presented by faculty from all five campuses, many of whom are practicing artists who show regularly. The course has space for up to four upper-division students from each campus and sessions rotate from campus to campus each week. One faculty member serves as coordinator of instruction and meets with the class twice a week. Up to nine other members of the faculty take turns offering one lecture a week.
