Art
Studio Art at Denison
Dazzling Impact
We are living in a time filled with a wealth of options for the serious art student. Ours
is a program that respects art traditions of the past but has a progressive eye to the
future. We realize and celebrate the dazzling impact visual culture is having on our
diverse contemporary lives.
Our Students
One of the primary goals of the Art Department is to encourage independent and creative
thought. Our students are hard workers and are always active in the department. You can
walk through the studio buildings late at night and still find our students at work!
Graduating seniors present their original work at the annual Senior Show at the Denison
University Museum. Our graduates are also high achievers. We have studio graduates
studying in graduate schools across the country and working as professional artists.
Many of our students go on to study design and work in the realms of advertising, media
and commercial art.
Our Program
We offer two studio art degrees: the B.A. in Studio Art, and the B.F.A. in Studio Art. We have five faculty in the Studio Art Program. The state of the art technology continues to move our program in exciting new directions. Our Studio courses include painting, drawing, life drawing, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, bookmaking, new media/digital technology, photography and performance art. We also offer specialized courses in comics, film, fibers and design. These Studio Art courses are often taught through the First Year Studies and Honors Programs. Our Studio faculty exhibit their work nationally and internationally in a variety of venues.
Our B.F.A degree is unique for a school our size. It allows students interested in both an art school and a liberal arts academic experience to have both. Allowing for more in-depth time in the studio, the B.F.A is an integrative program in the fine arts that encourages fluidity and collaboration between art, cinema, music, theater and dance. In addition to involvement with the Honors Program and First Year Studies, our art faculty engage studio practice and courses with the many interdisciplinary programs on campus, including Women's Studies, Black Studies, Environmental Studies, Queer Studies and International Studies. Along with making skillful great art, our curriculum focuses students to understand the context with which they make their art on personal, social and cultural levels.
Ceramics Professor Carrie Olson
Our Facilities
We are currently in the midst of a 14 million dollar renovation of Cleveland Hall, home of the Studio Art program. When it is completed in January 2009, the 102-year-old historic building will be transformed into a state of the art, technologically savvy arts facility that truly projects us all into the future. Bringing art history and studio art together within its walls, the Bryant Art Center at Cleveland Hall will be a true diamond for the Arts on a national level. During the course of construction, the Studio Art program is part of an interesting adventure. As our curriculum strives to demonstrate the integrative nature of arts in all areas of contemporary life, Studio Art and Art History are physically demonstrating this ideal by teaching in buildings amongst our colleagues in the sciences, social sciences, humanities as well as the other fine arts. As an example, my own courses in Printmaking are taught in a special studio classroom built within Denison's library. This allows me and my students to further explore the relationship, not only between print and literature, but the important impact of research on artistic practice. We are excited about this transition period and its potential to really make evident the importance of studying art in the rich liberal arts context Denison has to offer.
Denison Museum at Burke Hall
Our Gallery and Museum
The Denison University Museum is an important resource used by Studio Art faculty, providing internships and research experience for students. It possesses a wide range of works, including a large Asian Art collection and exciting contemporary art exhibitions.
Painting Professor Chris Barnard
Students and Faculty Work Side by Side
Denison is a liberal arts college, and we try to balance our students' courses in the Art Department with their other academic interests on campus. We offer small classes with a lot of personal attention, particularly for majors. We also offer students a variety of ways to approach art activity with faculty and the community. Art students work alongside our art faculty who create their own work in our studios. Several art courses include
service-learning components that allow students to collaborate with community members and agencies in nearby Newark, Ohio. Students work in our museum, some on art exhibitions of works taken from our extensive permanent collection, others with visiting artists helping to install shows of their work. Studio majors curate and install their own exhibitions. As a part of our goal of having students work closely with faculty, we have created
student jobs in the department, ranging from research assistants to teaching assistants who help studio faculty in their classrooms. We also generate opportunities for students to work in the Slide Library and in the University Museum. But more than that, our students see first-hand the work that their teachers are making.
Working Beyond the Denison Campus
Beyond the campus, our students have participated in prestigious internships through the Denison Internship Program and the Michele Myers Internships in the Fine Arts. Students consistently are accepted into competitive study abroad programs around the world with special emphasis on studio art and art history. We have two juniors accepted by portfolio and currently studying at Goldsmith College, an internationally renowned art school in London. Other students participate in the New York Arts Program and The Philadelphia Center as interns with artists or in museums, galleries or community centers. Still other students have participated in the Denison Internship Program. Our faculty are leaders for the Deuce (Denison Experience in Urban Culture and Expression), a First Year Studies pre-orientation program in Philadelphia aimed at students interested in the arts and visual culture. The department also gives academic credit for a variety of in-term and summer internships. We have had students intern at the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Sotheby's, ABC News, Marvel Comics and the Columbus Museum of Art, to name a few.
Studio Art Professor Ron Abram
The Vail Visiting Artist Series
The department is fortunate to have a very active and well-endowed Vail Visiting Artist Program. In recent years the program has enabled us to host well-known artists from a variety of disciplines, including artists challenging our notions of what is art, through installation, site-specific environmental work, and cutting-edge technology. Artists not only present their work through a public slide presentation, but also spend significant
time with students, either through one-on-one meetings and critiques, or the creation of a collaborative work of art on campus.
Come Visit Us!
Denison's Studio Art program is a dynamic one with a distinct richness and variety of talents. I feel fortunate to be here with great colleagues and amazing students. If you have the opportunity, I hope you will come by for a visit or call us at (740) 587-6596, if you have any questions.
Ron Abram
Associate Professor of Drawing and Printmaking
Chair of Studio Art