Open Studio

The studio art major culminates in Open Studio and the Senior Show, immersing students in building and exhibiting a personal body of work.

The course is an independent study with a faculty mentor. Open Studio requires 40 hours each week of studio work and is taken the term before the Senior Show, where work is exhibited in the gallery of the Ford Center for the Fine Arts. This course is required of all studio art majors.

Open Studio gives students the opportunity to pursue their work without distraction in a challenging creative community that rewards intellectual and creative risks. During the winter term of their senior year, with no other courses, students immerse themselves in the studio while spending six hours each week in intensive critical exchanges with a team of faculty members in addition to weekly meetings with a faculty mentor. Studio exercises lead students to discover new creative directions, and to reassess assumptions that may hinder their development. For many, Open Studio is the pivotal experience in their transformation from student to artist.