Curriculum Overview
We offer a broad range of courses in the history of Asian and Western art, visual culture, and film, and studio classes in drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, book arts, video, and digital media. The curriculum prepares students to become professional artists, art historians, filmmakers, media practitioners, scholars, and educators. Graduates have pursued a variety of professional activities, including: exhibitions and screenings in museums, galleries and film festivals; curatorial work and education in museums, libraries, archives, and other non-profit institutions. Students regularly attend graduate programs in fine arts, film and media studies and art history. By the nature of the subject, study of the visual arts requires close personal collaboration between students and faculty. Students may anticipate frequent consultations with advisors to determine their individual interests and goals, to assess the level of their artistic or scholarly abilities, and to plan individual programs of study designed to achieve a satisfying level of competence by the end of the senior year. Because the maturation of creative ability requires time as well as effort, students who may desire a major in studio art should consult with departmental advisors and begin taking studio courses as early as possible in their first year, and should declare a major early in the sophomore year. Students wishing to go abroad should plan to do so in the junior year.
Students desiring to take courses at Cal Tech or the Art Center
Students must be full-time and not a freshmen. The Art Center program is designed for Art majors.
Courses taken at the Art Center/Cal Tech can not have an equivalent course at Oxy.
An Art Center/Cal Tech application is available in the Registrar’s Office. The application must be completed by the student and approved by the student’s advisor and the chair of the “course” department must also sign the application.
Courses may be used to satisfy a requirement in the major with the approval of the student’s advisor and the major department chair. The Core Office must approve any course to be used for a Core requirement.
Cal Tech operates on a different system then Oxy. 9 Cal Tech units equal 3 oxy units and 12 Cal Tech units would equal 4 Oxy units. The Art Center is a semester system and units are equal to Oxy units (3 units at the Art Center equals 3 units at Oxy).
The completed application is returned to the Oxy Registrar by the appropriate add deadline at Oxy or, if classes start after Oxy’s deadline, during the first week of classes at Cal Tech/Art Center .
Tuition is payable to Oxy, but fees, i.e. materials fees, are due to the other institution.
In addition to submitting the application to the Registrar’s Office, the student needs to go to the Registrar’s Office at Cal Tech/Art Center to register for the desired course at that institution. The Art Center requires a letter from the oxy Registrar indicating the student is full-time to bring to the Registrar at the Art Center.
There is no guaranty that the course desired will be available at that institution.
Once the course is completed, a transcript will be sent to the Oxy Registrar automatically by Cal Tech/Art Center.
Courses: Studio Art | Art History | Film and Media Studies