Fine Arts

David Kettner
dkettner@uarts.edu
Chairperson
215-717-6495

The Fine Arts Department is structured to strike a balance between concentrated study in a specific discipline with its groundings in traditional processes, historical paradigms, and contemporary models and exploration of interdisciplinary and multimedia practices and formats.

Students choose to enter one of four programs: painting/drawing, sculpture, printmaking/book arts, and multidisciplinary fine arts. Some courses are shared across these four programs. All fine arts students will gain experience in artistic collaboration and in hybrid forms of art making. On the Sophomore level, students are introduced to research methodology and the basic studio practices of their discipline emphasis, while at the same time taking required introductory courses in the other fine arts areas. In the Junior year, students develop personal authority and commitment within their chosen discipline, and they take seminar classes that examine contemporary theories and issues. The transition from sophomore to senior year emphasizes a progression from assigned projects that develop the necessary skills and awareness of critical issues, to more self-initiated projects aimed at the development of a personal vision and a unique body of work. The Senior year is focused on advanced studio practice and the development of a thesis exhibition.

The creative, technical, conceptual, and expressive abilities of each student are developed while building a broad base of knowledge of the critical, aesthetic, and philosophical issues within the field of fine art. Through critiques, lectures, visiting artists programs, gallery and museum trips, and seminar discussions, the students are guided toward an understanding of the place of their work historically and socially. Integrating studio practices and objectives with liberal arts studies in highly encouraged.

In addition to the major programs, the University offers a Digital Fine Arts  concentration. See the listing of minors and concentrations  for information on requirements.

Having encountered a diversity of concepts, attitudes, and media, from charcoal to the computer, Fine Arts graduates find career opportunities as professional, exhibiting artists, curators and gallery personnel, art critics, mural and portrait painters, decorative artists, set designers, printmakers, bookbinders, paper and book conservators, graphic designers, web designers, commercial printers, mold-makers, commercial sculptors, cinematic prop makers, special effects artists, art therapists, and educators at elementary, secondary, and university levels.

Painting/Drawing (Link) [Inactive]

Stuart Elster
selster@uarts.edu
Coordinator
215-717-6495

The Painting/Drawing major provides a firm basis for students to develop a professional involvement with their work. A balance is sought between the acquisition of studio skills and the development of a critical intelligence.

Students are encouraged, through the rigor of studio activity, to understand the breadth of art in both its traditional and contemporary forms, and to gain authority in their own work.

Courses evolve from the study of basic working methods and concepts to the refinements of personal vision and aesthetic judgment. In the final semester of the Senior year, each student is required to complete a thesis project, which is presented in the combined form of a written paper and a solo exhibition. This project is open to the University community and is reviewed by a collegiate panel comprised of UArts professors from both the studio and liberal art disciplines.

The faculty of practicing professional artists represents a diversity of attitudes and ideals. Through the format of studio instruction, dialogue, and critique, they seek to instill in each student a habit of self-instruction that will serve far beyond the program at the University.

The Painting/Drawing program has its own gallery, gallery 817,  where faculty, students, alumni, and invited artists have opportunities to exhibit their work.

Studio activity is augmented by lectures, symposia, seminars, visiting artists, and field trips to museums and galleries.

Printmaking/Book Arts

Lori Spencer
lspencer@uarts.edu
Coordinator
215-717-6490

The Printmaking/Book Arts major bases its instructional program on the development and realization of visual ideas through multiple image-making processes. The primary objectives are to develop conceptual abilities and technical proficiencies, leading the student to acquire personal imagery and professional competence in printmaking media.

The department provides the expertise of a faculty of professional artists to study traditional and digital methods. The major graphic media explored include relief processes, etching (intaglio), lithography (stone, metal plate, and offset) water-based screenprinting, non-silver photographic printmaking, and papermaking. Courses in book and typographic design stimulate experimentation in unifying the elements of paper, prints, typography, and bookbinding.

Visiting artists, field trips, and guest lecturers supplement the studio experience. Using the city as an extended workshop, Print students attend seminars and museum collections. The Print Study Seminar is held in the Print Room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and furnishes a unique opportunity to study original prints from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries.

The main emphasis over the three-year undergraduate period of study is on the evolution of students as artists who make individualized demands upon the media. As with any study in the fine arts, the experience should be multidimensional, reflective of a broad range of personal and professional involvement, and reinforced with studies in related areas of interest, including drawing, painting, digital arts, photography, graphic design, illustration, sculpture, and crafts.

The undergraduate curriculum is enhanced by the graduate program in Book Arts/ Printmaking. This two-year course of study of 60 credits culminates in a Master of Fine Arts Degree. The program provides the opportunity for the individual artist’s expression in limited edition bookworks. Undergraduate students work alongside MFA candidates in studios, workshops, and some major and elective classes. (Students interested in the MFA degree in Book Arts/Printmaking should contact the director of the program or the Office of Admission.)

Facilities

The Printmaking Department  provides extensive facilities for water-based screenprinting, stone, plate and offset lithography, relief, etching, non-silver photographic processes, and papermaking. The bookbinding room houses book presses, board shear, and a guillotine paper cutter. The letterpress studio contains six Vandercook presses for printing handset type and polymer plates with over 600 drawers of monotype, foundry, and wood type. The offset lithography press room features a Davidson 901 offset press used by the students for hands-on experience. The Papermaking Studio contains a two-lb. Raina beater and multiple moulds for making edition sheets, pulp paintings and cast paper.

Other important resources on which the program draws are the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts and the Imaging Lab. The Borowsky Center is equipped with a Heidelberg KORS offset press and a full darkroom for experimental and production printing of student, faculty, and visiting artist works. The Imaging Lab allows for in-house film and print output and the University’s computer facilities.

Printmaking/Book Arts faculty and students have been committed to the testing and integration of non-toxic printmaking processes and inks in the studios since the late 1970s.

Sculpture

Barry Parker
bparker@uarts.edu
Coordinator
215-717-6104

The field of sculpture today is open and wide-ranging. Sculptors now create works that range from miniature objects to pieces that incorporate the environment and natural landforms. While some sculptors work with traditional materials such as clay and stone, others incorporate light, sound, and video into their work. Figurative sculpture today can be either traditional modeled forms, or interactive robotic forms. The expansive nature of sculpture provides a challenge to institutions that educate artists, and we take that challenge seriously.

The Sculpture program’s aim is to provide a sound, balanced exposure to all the formal, technical, and intellectual aspects of art, in preparation for the student’s continued professional growth beyond the undergraduate years. To this end, our curriculum is structured to provide formal and technical instruction, while at the same time allowing for individual creative development. Seminar classes in the Junior and Senior years engage the student in discussions on sculpture theory, philosophy, and critical thought.

Comprehensive facilities include fully equipped wood and metal shops, a foundry, a plaster shop and figure modeling studio, as well as an open studio for general use. Juniors and Seniors have individual studios. A full-time shop supervisor provides technical assistance and supervision. Faculty members are all practicing professional sculptors, representing a wide variety of styles and interests. Classroom instruction is supplemented by visiting artists, gallery and museum visits in Philadelphia, and field trips to New York and Washington, D.C.

Our graduating students are recognized nationally for their creativity and diversity, and for their preparation for the next steps in their professional careers.

Facilities

The Sculpture Department has much to offer a student in space and facilities. The department’s five shops provide equipment and machinery for carving, welding, forging, woodworking, metal casting, and moldmaking. There is also access to digital video and sound equipment for installations. In addition, upperclassmen are given individual studios to help facilitate their personal development. Students in Sculpture and other departments have access to equipment for digital 3D.

Multidisciplinary Fine Arts

Mara Adamitz Scrupe
mscrupe@uarts.edu
Coordinator
215-717-5495

Many contemporary artworks fall outside traditional single-media disciplines and can include sound, digital video, painting, sculpture, performance, etc. This major is for the student who wishes to explore a variety of media traditions and to experiment with innovative ideas and methods by which they can be effectively combined. 

Students will choose an emphasis in one of eleven studio programs within the fine arts, crafts, or media arts departments, while at the same time taking courses in collaboration strategies, inter-media projects, digital applications, seminars on contemporary issues, and other elected studio courses from a multidisciplinary menu.

The ultimate goal of the Multidisciplinary Fine Arts major is the development of the student’s ability to create expressive artworks that engage contemporary issues through the integration of diverse media skills and traditions.