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Student sits in front of an easel wearing a colorful shirt, painting.

Art

Study traditional media, including ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and photography, as well as less traditional forms like installation, video, and performance—and how they can be used to express important ideas.

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Studio Art Major, Minor
Design Minor

You live in a visual culture. Studying art can help you understand it better. 

Sure, the act of making art is a lot of fun. It’s also a way to quickly share ideas, build connections, and interpret the world around you. At Knox, you’ll determine your own path—whether that’s developing expert skills in ceramics, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and design; using art as a lens to better understand history, philosophy, and literature; or understanding the business of running an arts organization or museum. You’ll also be part of a lively community that will introduce you to new ways of looking at the world around you.

Major or Minor in Art

Say what you will about “starving artists”—studying art is a more practical choice than you think. Our alumni have gone on to exciting careers as educators, movie makers, graphic designers, architects, museum curators, and yes, even as accomplished working artists.

Requirements Courses

Course Spotlight

Have you always wanted to learn, say, ceramics or printmaking? Our art classes are open to all students.

  • ART 114 Analog Photography I
  • ART 130 Introduction to Art Museum Studies: History, Theory, Practice
  • ART 211 Experimental Drawing
  • ART 220 Typography: Designing with Type
  • ART 235 Interactive Design
A student works on a laptop in a studio environment. She's surrounded by paintings, paints, and a sculpture.

What Our Art Alumni Are Doing

You’ll find Knox artists in surprising places. Ingrid Wasmer ’21 and James Adamson '25 exhibited an interactive digital piece, fullquieting, on the ground level of a Chicago high-rise. Christopher Murrie-Green ’95, a senior film editor at Laika, worked on Kubo and the Two Strings, which garnered two Oscar nominations. Others have put the design skills they learned at Knox at work in tech, marketing, and software development.

  • Andrea Volpe ’18 | Patient Care Coordinator and Digital Marketer, Midwest Center for Brain Health
  • Spencer McNeil ’10, AIA NCARB | Architect, Spencer McNeill LLC
  • Patrick Steppan ’20 | Senior Developer, Adage Technologies
  • Utsah Pandey ’18 | Senior User Interface/User Experience Designer, My Derma Dream

Open Studio Term

Studio art majors spend an entire 10-week term building and preparing to exhibit their work in the Senior Show. With your own dedicated studio space in Whitcomb Art Center and the guidance of your faculty mentor, it’s an opportunity to focus entirely on your art without distractions.

Learn more

Where We Make Art

Art happens everywhere on campus—watch out for landscape painting students sprawled across the South Lawn. Knox offers a surprising number of art facilities for a campus of our size.

Whitcomb Art Center

Our primary art education space includes 3,500 square feet of dedicated studio space, as well as studios dedicated to metalworking, woodworking, printmaking, darkroom photography, and digital art. Filled with natural light, it’s also an ideal space for exhibiting work in progress.

The Borzello Gallery

Opened in 2018, this secure, technologically sophisticated space is like a working laboratory for curation and exhibition design as well as a space that brings exciting contemporary art directly to campus.

The Box

Bring your art into the larger community in this off-campus gallery space located in downtown Galesburg. It’s where students show off their work in gallery shows, build larger installation projects, and host visiting artists.

X Journal

Published annually, X Journal highlights student art in all mediums, from costume design to animation to video. This student-run publication is a great way to get hands-on experience in design and editing.

  • Professor Thomas Bell regards art hung on a wall in the Whitcomb Art Center. Sunlight streams in through the windows behind him and shines on the art.
  • Two people look at a wall of framed art.
  • A student presses the edges of a piece of art to hang it on a wall, alongside similar pieces of art.
  • Four students stand outside of the Whitcomb Art Center. One holds a small canvas in his hands with a blue design on it.

Inside Whitcomb Art Center

Knox’s newest academic building is 30,000 square feet of space devoted entirely to studying and making art. It’s won numerous awards for its flexible, airy, and sustainable design.

Look inside
Whitcomb Art Center pictured against a twilight blue cloudy sky, lit with warm yellow lights from within. A sculpture is visible in the nearest window.
  • Emma Lister '17 with one of her sculptures.
  • As an art history major, Lilly spends a lot of time in the Whitcomb Art Center.

Meet Our Art Majors

Katy Coseglia '20

Katy balances responsibilities as both teacher and student at Chief Paul Memorial School in Kipnuk, Alaska.

Meet Katy

Emma Lister '17

Emma has won awards as a sculptor and interned alongside world-renowned artists.

Meet Emma

Lilly Winter

Lilly works at the Galesburg Community Art Center while being deeply involved in Knox's art program.

Meet Lilly

A Rendering of Success

Knox alumni work in entertainment, design, arts administration, education, and as exhibiting artists. And no, we don’t mean “sandwich artist.”

40%

Art Alumni Working in a Field Related to Their Degree

You don’t have to be an art major to win an art scholarship.

Contact us for more information about submitting your portfolio or any questions you have about the art program.

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