Visual Arts

The Program

Majoring in Visual Arts at Eckerd

We are a small liberal arts college art department, with all the advantages that come with the breadth of education that the liberal arts offer, and the intimacy of a smaller, more personal working environment. As a college we seek to educate the whole person, and as a department we seek to raise each student’s awareness of his/her own creative potential. The qualities we possess that our students routinely claim to value most are our accessibility as teachers and mentors, and the climate of freedom we provide.

The media we offer include but are by no means limited to drawing, painting, photography (both digital and film), ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, and video. In the spirit of encouraging self-motivation, independent study is available for advanced students who wish to pursue any given medium. We also have available as many as twenty semi-private studio spaces for qualified students, accessible 24 x 7.

At the end of their four-year experience our majors are expected to put on a full gallery exhibition, either as a solo- or as a two-person show. We expect each senior to work in a sustained manner while developing a coherent body of work in one or more media, to demonstrate the ability to organize and professionally present this work, and to demonstrate the ability to write and speak articulately about her or his art.

At any given time within the past several years we have had in our midst about fifty visual arts majors in our residential program. Some take advantage of our liberal arts setting and plan from early on to double major in art and “something else.” It’s also possible to have a visual arts emphasis within a relatively new major: Interdisciplinary Arts.

Visitors enjoy an exhibition in the main gallery of the Nielsen Center for Visual Arts.