Art

Professor William Swann, Chair, Division of Fine Arts

Professor Carl Gombert, Coordinator

The Maryville College Art Department strives to prepare students for lifelong intellectual and emotional engagement with the study and practice of art. The purpose of the art program is to introduce, encourage and strengthen skills, attitudes and knowledge that enable students to become creators, caretakers and advocates of the arts. The Art Department is an academic community committed to challenging students with a stimulating program of study that balances individual instruction, cooperative learning and independent research. For Art Majors and Art Minors, the art curricula complements broad knowledge grounded in the liberal arts tradition with specialized expertise in the students’ chosen field. For all students, the curriculum embraces the belief that art both enriches and is enriched by its interconnectedness with other areas of human endeavor.

Students successfully completing the program of study will have achieved the following learning outcomes:

  1. Exhibit high standards of scholarship, creativity and integrity.
  2. Demonstrate a broad knowledge of diverse styles, genres, media as well as technical and aesthetic proficiency in at least one medium.
  3. Show a commitment to and self -critical awareness of their own work.
  4. Understand major art historical movements and the broad historical and cultural contexts in which they occurred.
  5. Demonstrate understanding of key aesthetic, ethical and technological issues that inform contemporary debate in the arts.
  6. Make and defend informed judgments concerning historical and contemporary works of art.
  7. Express sufficient understanding of the art world and how it works to enable effective participation.
  8. Commitment to developing an understanding of critical vocabulary to analyze and evaluate one’s own work as well as the work of others.