Studio Art courses at Dartmouth offer students a serious and sustained exploration of the creative processes in visual art. Technical, perceptual and aesthetic issues are addressed in a historical and contemporary context. Classes are structured so that students experience the creative process through a direct and dynamic engagement with visual media.
What makes your school’s design, architecture, art, and planning program different & unique from other schools’ programs?
Dartmouth is one of the nation’s top undergraduate institutions, with a particular distinction for undergraduate teaching.
Student faculty ratio — Dartmouth has a 7:1 student faculty ratio. Classes are taught by Dartmouth’s stellar faculty. Dartmouth was ranked No. 2 for “Strong Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching” in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges 2016.”
What are the top 3 program features that make your program stand out?
1. Rigorous curriculum with sequential structure.
2. Faculty of practicing professionals
3. Highly committed and focused students
What is the most distinguished feature at your school?
Dartmouth has the Hood Museum of Art, which is first and foremost a teaching museum, and its extensive collection.
1. Dartmouth has been collecting objects since 1772, just three years after its founding, and there are presently about 65,000 objects in the Hood Museum of Art’s care. These collections are among the oldest and largest of any college or university in the country. The Hood makes all of its collections available for use by Dartmouth students and faculty in a special classroom setting.
2. The Hood offers over 10 special exhibitions and more than one hundred lectures, gallery talks, tours, workshops, family programs, programs for regional schools, and special programs forDartmouth students each year.
3. The Hood also features A Space for Dialogue—an exhibition space curated exclusively by undergraduates participating in the museum’s competitive senior internship program. Since 2001, more than 80 interns have created exhibitions using objects from the College’s collections, determining a theme, choosing objects, designing the installation, and giving a public gallery talk.
In addition, Dartmouth’s campus also features the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which features over 100 live performances of music, theater and dance, and other events each year, as well as over 200 film screenings each year.
Can students take courses in other schools?
Dartmouth is a liberal arts college, which provides students with the opportunity to take courses in other majors (with over 57 to choose from and 1,000 independent studies). Students may also take courses at the Tuck School of Business and Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth.
A very popular course of study for today’s Dartmouth students involves a double major or major/minor with Studio Art and Engineering.
What steps do you take to evaluate a student’s candidacy, apart from reviewing their creative portfolio?
The Dartmouth Admissions Office employs a holistic admissions selection process, taking into consideration the full range of each individual applicant’s academic history, demonstrated potential, personal attributes, accomplishments, and background and/or life circumstances which may have afforded or limited educational and personal opportunity. The highest priority for the selection process is the tangible academic accomplishment and evident intellectual engagement and potential of each candidate. Excellence in extracurricular and personal pursuits also receive attention in the review process. Application reviewers are also attuned to the intangible human qualities and diversity of experience and perspective that enrich the Dartmouth student community.
What does your program look for most in the creative portfolio during admissions? What do you think makes an A+ portfolio?
Applicants to the College are welcome to submit a creative portfolio although it is not a requirement for admission and is not a requirement for taking arts courses at Dartmouth.
How are new technologies affecting students’ curriculums and/or ways of learning/collaborating at your school?
Below is some info that addresses the question more broadly to the overall college:
The Computer Science Department houses a minor in Digital Arts in collaboration with Film Studies, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Studio Art, Music and Theater. The Digital Arts Minor is designed to allow students from multiple departments an opportunity to bring their talents and skills into the digital arts realm.
How does your program help graduating students with internships or jobs? Can students expect job placement more at your program than in others? If so, how or why? What kinds of job opportunities have you seen students take once they completed their degrees?
Dartmouth’s Center for Professional Development provides students with resources to identify opportunities for internships, jobs and more. The Studio Art program also provides students with recommendation and referrals to various jobs, residencies, programs, and internship. The department also has a program called the Studio Art Department Intership, where recent graduates apply to work as the teaching assistants, lab monitors, and mentors for the students in the department. There are two Studio Art interns during the Summer, and five Studio Art interns during Fall, Winter and Spring terms.
Are there any exciting developments for your programs that students should know about?
Our newest Studio Art faculty members are Zenovia Toloudi, who is both an architect and artist, and Christina Seely, whose work stretches into the fields of science, design and architecture.
Toloudi’s research builds on a cultural approach of technology, craftsmanship, and activism in architecture with installations that interplay with the physical qualities of space (air, light, sound) and their sensual perception (smell, vision, hearing) to enhance awareness and participation.
Seely is interested in humans’ contemporary relationship to nature and time. Her expedition based work finds its home in the conversation between the photographic image and our contemporary relationship with the natural world.
What is the best advice you have for students entering the art, design & architecture field? What role does the artist play today?
As you explore the art, design &/or architecture field, think about how your work can make a meaningful impact in our world, by providing design solutions to challenges facing our society today.
Interviewed by Maria Laskaris,
Special Assistant to the provost for Arts and Innovation,
former Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
and Amy D. Olson Sr. Media Relations Officer Office of Communications
FACT!
Average student debt for all four years combined = $16,339
DEGREES
BA in Studio Art:
Architecture
Drawing
Painting
Photography
Printmaking
Sculpture
* Check website for more degrees & majors
APPLICATION MATERIALS
Online or through application forms
PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS
Slideroom
WRITING SAMPLE
Common App Essay
Dartmouth Writing Supplement
TRANSCRIPTS
Required
RECOMMENDATION LETTERS
REQUIRED
1 Counselor
2 Teacher
STRONGLY ENCOUARGED
1 Peer
1 from Arts Instructor
INTERVIEW
Not required
APPLICATIONS DEADLINES
Early Decision: Nov 1
Regular Decision: Jan 1
Transfer: Mar 1
FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
TOEFL: N/A
ALUMNI
Michael Bierut, Designer
Jim Dine, Artist
Mike Gasaway, Animator
Michael Graves, Architect
Sean Gresens, Art Director
Stan Herman, Designer
Cathy Davenport Lee, Creative Director
Joseph Marioni, Painter
David Opdyke, Artist
Michael Reynolds, Architect
Kevin Roche, Interior Designer
Joe Stitzlein, Creative Director
Shane Wolf, Artist
Luke Woods, Product Designer
DID YOU KNOW?
Every year, five graduating seniors are chosen to remain at Dartmouth for a post-graduate year as Studio Art interns. Each is provided with a studio and small annual stipend. In return they assist in classes, monitor shops, and also serving as role models and mentors for undergraduates.
See more at: http://studioart.dartmouth.edu/internships#sthash.TZVvxois.dpuf
ADMISSIONS OFFICE
6016 McNutt Hall
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
+1 (603) 646-1110