Art, Studio

Studio Art Major, Minor
Design Minor

How We Work

1. We take art seriously. At Knox, we learn how to use tools and materials—ink and paint, clay and metal—but we also learn about the history and ideas of art. Because we believe in the unique opportunities of studying art in a liberal arts setting, we make full use of what we learn to create art that draws on ideas from other disciplines—from the sciences to history, from philosophy to literature.
2. We are a community. Day or night, you can find faculty members meeting with groups of students, talking about the ideas that their works suggest and how those ideas can be shaped further or expanded. Our Studio Workshop is unlike other undergraduate courses, with long evening sessions devoted to intensive critiques and discussions to encourage exploration of new ideas, forms, and materials. Courses like this nurture a supportive and stimulating creative community built on our common passion.
3. We invite the world in (and we go out). We work with many visiting artists who exhibit and discuss their own work, but also participate in critiques of student work. One example is our annual artist-in-residency program, bringing a working artist from New York or Chicago to teach a special course and produce a body of work, often in collaboration with students or the community. In 2016, our resident artist produced the Galesburg Portrait Project, consisting of 300 hand-painted portraits of local residents that has become a permanent public artwork. Each spring, a distinguished guest artist juries our annual student exhibit that gives every student an opportunity to exhibit work. We're always up to something—exhibits, lectures, events—all of which are open to the college and Galesburg communities.
4. We develop as artists. We explore and focus our interests through courses in ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, design—or less traditional media, like installation, video, or performance. To start, assignments provide the goals and structure most of us need to begin. But, little by little, we become artists who make our own creative choices and determine our own artistic paths. One way we make this happen is to give all advanced students their own studio space (in fact, our new Whitcomb Art Building has 3500 sq ft dedicated to this). Another way we promote creative independence is with courses like Studio Workshop and Open Studio—an opportunity for seniors to concentrate solely and intensively on their work during winter term, in preparation for senior shows in the spring. Art history courses are also an essential part of the studio art major, providing students with an understanding of how art relates to social and cultural change. Through art history and other courses, students sharpen their ability to write and speak about art with clarity.
5. We become the future of art. Knox studio art majors are regularly accepted into prestigious graduate programs. Since 2010, graduates have attended Master of Fine Arts programs at Boston University, Brandeis University, The University of Chicago, Tyler School of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, The University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, The New York Studio School, and the The University of Illinois at Chicago.