Art Programs Undergraduate

MAJORS: 

• Art (A.D.BA)
• Art Education (AE.D.BA)
• Art Education + Art Therapy (AET.D.BA)
• Art Therapy (AT.D.BA)

Minors:

• Art (A.D.SUP.2022)
• Art History for Art Majors (AHS.D.SUP.ART.2022)
• Art History for non Art Majors (AHS.D.SUP.XART.2022)

Specialization:

• Art of Self Care (WE)

Art Major Information

Students engage and develop social, technical and expressive skills creating impact through cultural participation. Students work in the ability-based curriculum and graduate with strong communication, leadership and problem-solving skills necessary to facilitate workshops, lead community projects, speak at public art events, exhibit original artwork or join creative teams.

Students receive a rich foundation in art, art history, design, community art and general liberal studies. Students choose fifteen credits of electives that match personal artistic goals, and options to individualize creative skills, originality and self-expression.  In addition to highly personal artistic practice in the electives students can select international study, art in the museum, or help plan events each semester with a visiting art professional. Students learn to facilitate large group creative projects that explore important topics such as sustainable or greener art, business and networking, cultural expression or socially aware art that benefits communities.

Students build professional skills through courses in art gallery management, self-employment in the arts, grant writing, content development, public art projects or exhibitions on campus and in the broader community. Students explore public speaking, entrepreneurship, art markets, gallery design and social media to define career aspirations, networking and promotion of their creative products. Students select their internships to match their interests and may work at local galleries, museums, design firms, cultural agencies or art organizations.

Students complete their study by designing a final graduating exhibition of their own advanced artwork. They work with other students to design and promote a professional exhibition including several art media, and internship or service projects. They present a public artist talk and host an opening reception to highlight their achievements. This senior seminar affords students the opportunity to develop portfolios, media presence and professional materials that advance their early art career.

Art Therapy Major Information

Art Minor Information

Students from a variety of backgrounds maximize personal creativity for personal enrichment or expand career skills in design, cultural awareness, problem-solving and visual literacy. Students explore broader questions of creativity, human meaning, wellness and physical properties of media while working side by side with peers in interactive art studios.

In beginning and intermediate courses students learn creative and cultural theories in art history and experience learning through visits to museums or in art workshops. Students analyze how and why past and present people have chosen to record their values through art. Students choose advanced studio art electives to express their own point of view. Ideas from personal life or content from their major are applied to art subject matter. Students enjoy many opportunities to exhibit their work and interact with visiting artists and the broader community.

Students create an advanced portfolio of multiple art forms. In their final semester students work in collaboration with peers and the gallery director to create a public exhibition. They discuss meaningful aesthetic choices across their semesters of making art and how they will apply this learning in their professional life. 

Art History Minors Information

Students from a variety of academic backgrounds can expand their speaking, writing and critical thinking skills by questioning how arts of the past illuminate contemporary ideas. Through interactive discourse students investigate historical convention or controversy, ethical dimensions and the spirit of tradition, invention and expression across cultures.

Students engage with a variety of art historical topics from ancient art to contemporary art. They develop an understanding of materials, concepts, cultures and types of criticism that are relevant to the production, display and audience reception of art across time and culture. Through integrated research and hands-on making of art, students begin to connect to sensory perceptions and technical innovations of the past that continue to influence current artistic expression.

Through experiences in the classroom, electronic venues, international settings and visits to local galleries and museums students begin to develop a personal aesthetic viewpoint to formulate valuing positions regarding artworks that arise from social circumstances in a variety of global communities, arts organizations and media venues. Students with a minor in art history bring expanded visual literacy and research and writing skills to careers. Critical thinking, creativity and experiential learning provide students with visual and cultural sensitivity about global aesthetics that are useful to designing media, marketing or social media in the workplace. 

Art of Self Care Specialization Information

The Art of Self Care specialization promotes both personal and professional well-being. Students explore a range of expressive practices focused on nurturing growth, healing, and transformation that can be used in daily practice. This specialization is open to any student interested in engaging with various art media and processes, expressive practices, and developing resiliency as an individual and professional. No experience necessary.

Students pursuing a specialization in Art of Self Care focus on the wellness and community arts frameworks and integrate those into the studio studies. Students must attend the mid-semester event.

Art Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrates understanding of visual art processes, quantitative measurements, tools, technical quality, safety and sustainability of materials across a variety of new and traditional media (Analysis L5 Problem Solving L5).
2. Integrates personal philosophy of creativity, quality, originality and purposes of art with broader questions about human Leaning to produce and critically evaluate several bodies of art using preferred conceptual and aesthetic models (Analysis L5 Aesthetic Engagement L6 Valuing L 5).
3. Articulates critical perspectives about art contexts across time and evaluates relationships between historic and cultural frameworks and experiential learning with development of personal art and aesthetic viewpoints (Analysis L6 Aesthetic Engagement L6 Global Perspectives L 5).
4. Applies appropriate communication and design theory to professional self-presentation in critical and career writing, visual portfolios, dimensions of social media and exhibitions (Aesthetic Engagement L 5 and 6 Problem Solving L6 Communication L6).
5. Demonstrates values and ethics of career professionalism, leadership and collaborative skills within community and social contexts in studio art and articulates career impact of participation in contemporary art, visual culture and diverse experiential learning contexts.

Art THerapy Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrates group leadership skills necessary to effectively facilitate creative art experiences for a wide range of participants and purposes in a variety of community settings, while establishing and maintaining effective supervisory, professional peer and community participant relationships.
2. Demonstrates communication skills necessary to effectively and professionally interact with peers, supervisors and participants in a variety of academic and community art settings.
3. Demonstrates the ability to identify major people, events and theories that contributed to the development of the field of art therapy and apply this knowledge while actively exploring the relationships between aesthetic expression and broader questions of human meaning and value.
4. Demonstrates knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that are congruent with the profession in their approach to creating, viewing and responding to their own artwork and their understanding and experience of artwork created by others.
5.  Demonstrates selective aesthetic judgment in an effective public presentation of her own work while identifying decisions regarding her pursuit of continuing educational experiences, workforce opportunities and advanced degree programs.

Art History Minors Learning Outcomes:

1. Students explore and articulate the relationships of historic aesthetic expressions and broader questions of cultural meaning and values.
2.  Students explore and articulate the relationships between a variety of cultures’ aesthetic expressions and professional or personal goals.
3.  Students make connections among a variety of cultural and historical perspectives, art works, and styles that reflect the knowledge and skills required in art history electives courses

Art of Self-Care Specialization Learning Outcomes:

1. Students identify the multidimensional constructs and interdependent dimension of well-being in pursuit of personal and professional wellness and growth.
2. Students explore creative wellness practices across a variety of cultures. Through hands on exploration students engage in art making and use other expressive modalities and strategies as tools of reflection, self-awareness, and insight to enhancing their personal and professional sense of well-being.
3. Students apply both personal and professional strategies furthering support of the ability and capacity to be empathic, compassionate, and resilient individuals and helping professionals.

Andrea Skyberg, MFA
Director, Art Education; Associate Professor, Art

andrea.skyberg@alverno.edu

Andrea Skyberg is an associate professor and director of the Art Education program at Alverno College. She teaches graduate courses in art education and undergraduate courses in arts education, studio arts, creative writing, and the Accelerate program. Skyberg collaborates with faculty across the college to support initiatives that emphasize experiential learning, creative integration, community engagement, and activism. As an educator, she aims to help students recognize creativity as an innate capacity—one they can draw upon to process emotions, express ideas, and connect with the world around them.

Art Major _(A.D.BA) Requirements  25-26 Catalog

¹

Must Complete 8 Courses

Art Major _(A.D.BA) Map  25-26 Catalog

Art Therapy _(AT.D.BA) Major Requirements  25-26 Catalog

¹

Must complete 7 semesters.

Art Therapy _(AT.D.BA) Map   25-26 Catalog

Art _{(A.D.SUP.2022)} Minor Requirements  25-26 Catalog

Art History _{(AHS.D.SUP.ART 2022)}  Minor Requirements  25-26 Catalog

Art History _{(AHS.D.SUP.XART.2022)} Minor Requirements  25-26 Catalog

Art of Self-Care Specialization Requirements  25-26 Catalog

¹

• FA 111 offered Fall & Spring semesters.  
• FA 111 is also a General Education required course. 
• A 492 is only offered Spring semester. 

²

Complete in Fall Semester and Spring Semester.