Department Facts

Key Allegheny Benefits

• Appreciation of the imaginative, expressive range of visual arts.
• Firm grounding in the fundamentals of art and art history.
• Understanding of the theoretical and technical issues in the production and interpretation of art.
• First-hand knowledge of how artists and art historians develop and explore topics.
• Feel for the processes and effects of visual communication.
• Ability to apply critical thinking skills across disciplines.

Allegheny Distinctions

• Individualized attention, close student-faculty relationships.
• Opportunities to integrate art with other disciplines: recent graduates include double majors in studio art/physics; studio art/biology; studio art/math; studio art/environmental science; art history/English.
• Three distinct major tracks: Art History, Studio Art, and Art and Technology.
• Senior Projects that demonstrate to employers and graduate schools the ability to define and complete a comprehensive original assignment.
• Special balance between depth in the major and the breadth of students' overall programs.
• Important integration of studio art and art history in the departmental curriculum.
• Upper-level seminars that encourage students to examine art's connection with politics, economics and society.

Endorsements

• Gallery programs supported by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
• Department faculty are regularly invited to jury exhibitions, exhibit artwork nationally and internationally, and serve as visiting artists and lecturers at regional and national arts schools.
• "Most of my experience in the art department revolved around creating and then being able to support my own ideas. That ability has been the most critical to my career." - Ben Cammarano '92, computer animator, US-SPO Sports, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington
• "When an intimate group of professors can help transform you from a caterpillar to a butterfly in a scant few years, you know there's powerful stuff going on. My art professors were more than just lecturers or living textbooks; on the contrary, they were each a unique fountain of creative energy, challenging me one-on-one every step of the way. I couldn't have asked for better preparation for life after college, or for that matter, better friends." - Ryan Ott '97
• "As I look back on my experience at Allegheny from my perspective as a teaching artist, I can now fully appreciate what my teachers offered: a respect for the value of the history of art as well as its technical aspects, an expectation that students become both visually and verbally literate' with regard to their own and others' work, and a willingness to teach by example, by inviting us to observe their own continued growth as artists." - Rebecca Allan '85, independent artist and curriculum consultant, Seattle, Washington
• "The training I received at Allegheny in historical, formal and design issues, along with the strong emphasis on independent work, has served me well in my museum career. The breadth and depth of my education has been a tremendous asset-particularly the writing and cognitive skills that might not have been emphasized so strongly at an art school. I feel that Allegheny's art department did a first-rate job in preparing me for the challenges of pursuing a career in the arts." - Adrian Wagner '92, Helena Rubenstein Curatorial Fellow, Whitney Museum of American Art; John W. Draper Fellow, New York University
• "When I think of the experiences I had as an art student at Allegheny, I think of a warm, welcoming community of professors and fellow students who are open to anything when it comes to creating art. I know my personal experiences in the art department have helped me grow as an artist." - Nikki Faychak '00

Facilities' Strengths

• Bowman, Megahan, and Penelec Art Galleries: Among the region's finest art galleries, exhibiting works by students, faculty, and alumni, as well as numerous artists of national renown.
• Allegheny's collections of paintings, prints, drawings, photographs; Hulmer estate collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and Russian icons; General David M. Shoup collection of Oriental pottery.
• Drawing/painting: Spacious, well-lit studio area with no partitions, encouraging movement and interaction.
• Ceramics: Slab roller, extruder, and gas-fired, electric, and raku kilns.
• Computer graphics laboratory: Macintosh computers, digitizing equipment, color printers, and a wide range of painting and animation software.
• Photography: Two darkrooms fully equipped for printing black and white, color, and digital photography.
• Printmaking: Equipped for offering etching, lithography, and relief processes.
• Sculpture: Complete woodshop; oxy-acetylene, arc and MIG welding; stone carving; general casting; clay modelling; plaster, mixed media; and installation.

Student Research and Special Projects

Every Alleghenian completes a Senior Project in his or her major field-a significant piece of original research or creative work that demonstrates to employers and graduate schools the ability to complete a major assignment, to work independently, to analyze and synthesize information, and to write and speak persuasively. Studio art majors create a body of work around a central idea or theme; they then present their work professionally in the galleries. Art history majors, who take two semesters to carry out their projects, often develop interdisciplinary research interests. Recent combinations have included studio art and psychology, studio art and environmental science, art history and English, studio art and biology, studio art and music.

Recent Senior Projects, Studio Art

• "Redundant Consumption: the use of new genre public art to bring awareness on paper use at Allegheny College."
• "Effects of a Therapeutic Art Group on Female Adolescents," an analysis of art as a measure of self-esteem (art/psychology double major).
• "The Yin and Yang of Fungal Ecology: An Aesthetic and Scientific Study of Antibiotic Production and Resistance of Monascus Purpureus and Cercospora Kikuchii," integrating scientific and creative processes in an investigation of the beauty and danger evident in the natural world (art/biology double major).
• "arbiter elegantiarum," an installation of prints and drawings exploring female beauty practices as ritual.
• A series of pastel drawings of dogs awaiting adoption from the Crawford County Humane Society which addressed issues of humanity.
• "Amazing Creeks," an educational activity and coloring book designed to educate elementary school children about the importance of creeks in community history (art/environmental science double major).
• "The Hug-It, Punch-It Project," interactive wall-mounted sculptures installed in public spaces including an elementary school and a factory.
• Feminist interpretations of clothing.
• Sculpture project incorporating video, performance, and found objects.
• "Variation on the Smile," an investigation into the ambiguous and complicated role that the smile plays in identity and social exchanges. Included photography and video installations.
• "Wall to Wall," a series of sited installations of handprinted boxes that are used as building blocks to infiltrate architectural spaces. Included printmaking and sculptural concerns.

Recent Senior Projects, Art History

• "Victorian Womanhood: The Image of Guinevere in Art and Literature"
• "Tragedy or Triumph? The Rise and Decline of the Traditional Arch as a Public Monument in New York City, 1890-1920"
• "His Last Act of Good Faith: A Study of the Four Apostles by Albrecht Dürer"
• "Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Study on Leonardo da Vinci" (art history/psychology)
• "Pop Art: A Critical Dialogue" (art history/English)
• "Analysis of the Roman Tibi Soli Sealstone"
• "The Laocoon-Group: Its Dating and Influence on the Literary and Artistic Traditions of the Renaissance 1506-1525"
• "The Life and Art of Harriet Glazier"

Independent Study

The department's independent study program allows students to study in-depth a subject of special interest. The work may be done off campus (for example, in Washington or Philadelphia) or may be done on campus with Allegheny faculty. Some recent independent projects:

• "The Dialogue in Sculpture: Male vs. Female Perspectives on Slavery, 1851-1913"
• Web Design for the Raymond Shafer, Hulmer Project and the Trees of Allegheny Websites
• "History of Women Photographers"

Selected Student Achievements

• First Prize Winner, Intercollegiate Invitational Art Exhibit.
• Photographs published in The Best of College Photography Annual (from a contest that routinely draws more than 26,000 entries).
• "Criticism of the 1950s and the Work of Helen Frankenthaler," a paper presented at a professional symposium at Slippery Rock University.
• "(In) Between Places," an essay on new German photography, published in PhotoPaper.
• Works exhibited in Erie Art Museum's Annual Spring Show.
• Printmaking internship at the Lower East Side Printshop, New York City.
• Graduate awarded an internship at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
• Printmaking students were invited to display their work at the Southern Graphics Council National Conference.