Studio Art

Obtaining a degree in Studio Art from the College of Charleston is an intellectual pursuit engaging intuitive and analytical decision-making skills, personal enlightenment, communication and exploration. We offer programs in five major fine arts areas: Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Photography and Sculpture. Our students are engaged in the vital, creative environment of the working artist. They are exposed to historical as well as contemporary images of art, trained in the processes of making art and challenged to develop problems in critical thinking and arrive at creative solutions.

One very significant factor contributing to the success of the Studio Art program at the college has been the consistently superior caliber of our artist-teachers. The faculty has an impressive accumulation of awards and grants and all members are actively exhibiting both nationally and internationally.

Our department has an “open door” policy encouraging interested students from any discipline to explore the possibilities of our creative curriculum. In keeping with the ideals of a liberal arts education, the department offers an introduction to the development of visual images and concepts while at the same time providing insights into the greater appreciation of the art and ideas of our time. This indoctrination will engender an interest in creating or at least appreciating art that will last a lifetime.

A fine arts curriculum fosters critical thinking and problem solving skills, teamwork, reativity and innovation; skills considered vital to competing in the global marketplace. Our Studio Art majors are well prepared for further study in the country’s most competitive and challenging graduate programs.

Active Learning Opportunities

Exhibitions. You will find many opportunities to exhibit your work to the public, both on campus and in the city of Charleston.

The College of Charleston student gallery displays the most current student work. The Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art annually presents Young Contemporaries, a juried show of student work. Recently, selected works from this show were exhibited by the Metropolitan Arts Council in Greenville, S.C.
Salon des Refusés is an exhibition held concurrently with the Young Contemporaries show. Honoring a long-standing tradition in the art world, works not chosen for the main exhibit are also on public display.
Students have also recently had their work accepted in shows at Charleston’s City Gallery, Columbia’s City Art Gallery, Clemson University, and at other area galleries.

Miscellany. The College of Charleston literary magazine regularly features the work of studio art majors.

Visual Arts Club. Membership in this student organization is open to all students, but consists primarily of studio art majors. Activities include organizing exhibits, hosting art auctions both on and off campus, sponsoring a visiting artist lecture series, and holding fund-raising events to support student attendance at off-campus conferences.

Cougar Iron Pour and Iron Road Show. On campus and on the road, sculpture students demonstrate the visually engaging process of creating three-dimensional art by pouring molten iron into molds. Our students are involved with the entire process, including instructing participants on how to create molds from blank scratchblocks.

Dixie Day. Every year, students have the chance to experiment and create on-site installations of art at Dixie Plantation, an 800-acre nature preserve owned by the College of Charleston Foundation.

Learning Resources

Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art hosts six to ten exhibitions annually. The focus is on the issues and images of contemporary art with an emphasis on works produced by emerging and mid-career artists of national stature. Facilities currently consist of a 750-square-foot downstairs gallery and a 980-square-foot upstairs gallery, but current improvements will nearly triple the exhibition space.

The Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts is a new 74,000-square-foot building that will include specialized teaching spaces for studio art and a new art gallery, complete with a media room and a space for special collections. A short walk from campus, the Gibbes Museum of Art features American art with a Charleston perspective from the 18th century to the present day, as well as an excellent collection of Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period. Several recent College of Charleston graduates have served as instructors at the Gibbes Studio School.

“At the College of Charleston, I discovered that I truly love to paint and that, without painting, my life seemed incomplete. It is my belief that this love was a direct result of my relationships with my professors – in particular, my advisor. Through these relationships, I found the guidance, refinement, and challenge I needed to communicate visually. I learned that painting is not easy. It requires effort and sacrifice, but it is ultimately worth doing because of its challenges and the beauty that results from them.”

Joel Leonard Parker ’06