Studio Art
The Studio Art Program invites students into a rigorous, exploratory practice of making, thinking, and perceiving the world. We offer courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, video, architecture, and digital art—along with hybrid and interdisciplinary classes that cross materials, methods, and media. Studio Art at Vassar fosters the development of flexible creative intelligence: learning how to look closely, think deeply, take risks, and test ideas through materials.
Our Foundations course welcomes students with a wide range of experience and provides the entry point to the curriculum. Studio Art Foundations: Approaches to Making (ART 107) is a one-semester course that runs both fall and spring semesters that introduces core practices of contemporary art-making: observation and invention, research and experimentation, form and concept, through hands-on projects, studies in theory and contemporary art, and sustained assignments. Students learn to work iteratively, document process, and articulate intentions, while gaining practical familiarity with tools, materials and strategies that provide a foundation for further study across mediums. Studio Art Foundations is the pre- or co-requisite for intermediate studio courses.
Across the program, studio courses are open to majors and non-majors and emphasize inquiry, revision, and dialogue. Many courses are cross-listed with Vassar’s multidisciplinary programs. Students work in our creative shops and making spaces, with access to individual studios that support sustained practice. Our faculty bring their expertise as exhibiting professional artists to mentor students in developing a disciplined studio practice grounded in the broader liberal arts. Program-wide multidisciplinary critiques bring students, faculty, and staff together, sharpening visual analysis and cultivating feedback that is specific, generous, and challenging.
Students have the opportunity to exhibit in Vassar’s Palmer Gallery, and the Studio Art Major culminates in an ambitious independent Senior Project exhibition. An active visiting artists program, close collaboration with Vassar’s Art History program, and vibrant use of the many resources of The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, connect students to contemporary practice, exhibitions, and professional pathways—expanding the studio into a wider cultural and intellectual field.
Courses and Requirements
Academic requirements and courses are available in the Vassar College Catalogue.