Art

Academic Department Introduction

The Art Department is an umbrella for five programs: Art History, Studio Art, Architecture, Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), and Media Arts and Sciences (MAS). Students can major or double major in any of these fields, and they have the option to minor in art history, studio art, or CAMS. We believe the rigorous study of art and visual culture is critical to a liberal arts education and to a person’s power to interpret, shape, and master their environment.

Programs of study

Studio art

Investigate a range of artistic media to acquire technical proficiency and develop a personal material language.
Art history

Gain a critical awareness of visual culture and knowledge of art in its historical and global contexts.
Architecture

Apply interdisciplinary methodologies, critical theories, and professional ethical codes to interpreting architecture and urban form.
Cinema & media studies

Develop agency in the fight against censorship, misinformation, and surveillance that affect media production and consumption.
Media arts & sciences

Examine, analyze, interpret, and critique digital media applications to achieve a well-rounded understanding of both art and computer science.

Course highlights

Photography II: The Digital/Analog Rift

ARTS208

Photo II focuses on digital photography, photographic color theory, studio and location lighting, digital retouching, inkjet printing, and Adobe software. Assignments address contemporary and historic theories of photography as contemporary art and the aesthetic and cultural implications of the ubiquity of digital photography. Studio assignments, readings, discussions, lectures, gallery visits, and critiques will help students prepare for project-based work.

(ARTS 208 and CAMS 238 are cross-listed courses.)

African American Art

ARTH262

This course will study art made by African Americans from early colonial America to the present. We will also examine images of African Americans by artists of diverse cultural backgrounds. Throughout the course we will analyze construction(s) of subjectivity of African-American identity (black, Negro, colored) as it relates to visual worlds. Although the course is outlined chronologically, the readings and class discussions will revolve around specific themes each week. The course is interdisciplinary, incorporating a variety of social and historical issues, media, and disciplines, including music, film, and literary sources. (AFR 262 and ARTH 262 are cross-listed courses.)
Architecture of the Global Eighteenth Century

ARTH216

This course considers architecture, urbanism, and landscapes in a global context throughout the long eighteenth century. We will consider European architecture’s relation to enlightenment thought, developments in the natural sciences, and political transformations. We will also consider these claims upon enlightenment relationally to the infrastructures of European colonialism. We will examine the plantations of the West Indies and the Southern United states; French and English estates and gardens of a rising colonial bourgeoisie; and the slave factories of western Africa. Taken together these works map the global circulation of people, capital, commodities, and revolutionary ideas. We thus consider eighteenth century architecture as a transnational culture of global modernity.

Explore all courses

Exhibitions

Our galleries

We exhibit work by visiting professional artists and our own student artists in galleries throughout the Jewett Arts Center and in Pendleton West. At the end of each academic year, all of the spaces are turned over to the Senior and Thesis Exhibition, as our graduating seniors showcase their work.

Recent exhibitions

Places and spaces

Art Library. Our art and architecture library collections cover the history, theory, criticism, and practice of the visual arts. They include books, exhibition catalogs, periodicals, and access to the major databases for the visual arts
Book Arts Lab. Students learn typography, letterpress printing, hand bookbinding, and decorated papers techniques in the Book Arts Lab, home to the Annis Press imprint.
Collins Cinema. Featuring two 35 mm projectors and cinema seating with a capacity of 175, Collins Cinema hosts CAMS courses, special programs, and student Film Society screenings.
Davis Museum. Home to distinguished permanent collections from around the globe, the Davis Museum holds a rich, wide-ranging collection of global art from ancient Egyptian sculptures to contemporary photography. We make extensive use of the collections to teach in the direct presence of art.
Digital fabrication studios. A number of digital fabrication processes, including 3D printing, laser cutting, vacuforming, and soldering, are available in the digital fabrication studios. Art students create prototypes, props, and works of art that combine digital rendering and preparatory processes with physical materials, exploring new ways of working in both 2D and 3D.
Equipment cage. The cage is a one-stop shop for art students who need equipment rentals or art paper. Students can buy exclusive art paper for painting, drawing, and printmaking classes, or borrow media equipment for photo, video, and new media classes.
Digital output and flex media room. In this room, art students can work on a variety of projects in both physical and digital media, using scanners, photo printers, projectors, and computers with color-calibrated monitors.
Jewett Art Gallery. The Art Department’s marquee exhibition space, the Jewett Art Gallery is an extended teaching facility for the Studio Art Program.
Jewett Sculpture Court. This light-filled, multilevel room serves as an exhibition space, a meeting place for art-related student clubs, and a spot for students, faculty, and staff to hang out or work between classes.
Lighting studio. In this dedicated studio space, students create flexible and customizable lighting setups for a variety of photography, video, and installation-based projects. The attached audio recording suite has a soundproofed room and a mixing and editing space.
Media Arts Lab. The Media Arts Lab contains Alienware computers with dual monitors and Wacom tablets, as well as high-quality printers, flatbed scanners, an HD projector, a 3D printer, and a vinyl cutter. A variety of software packages are installed on the machines, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Final Cut Pro X, and Autodesk Maya.
Photography darkroom. With enlargers, developing baths, and other equipment, the darkroom is home to analog photography classes and projects.
Printmaking studios. Dactyl Press, the Art Department’s printmaking studio, has a variety of presses and other equipment necessary to make lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and many other kinds of prints. A separate studio is dedicated to papermaking and screenprinting
Video editing suites. These soundproofed rooms have permanently installed equipment to facilitate the editing of digital video, animation, and audio-based work.
Wood, metal, and plaster shops. The wood shop spans several rooms and includes a hand tools work area, sculpture area with a plaster room, and spaces with more complex machinery. The shop has a circular saw, band saw, drill press, and CNC machine.

Opportunities

Access to local museums

Wellesley students, faculty, and staff enjoy free admission to the Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Fine Arts (with ID), and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (with code).
Funding for students

Available to Art Department majors and minors, the Alice T. Friedman Endowed Fund supports research, travel, internships, or special projects intended to help students prepare for careers in the arts.
Davis Museum collaboration

Students can apply to work at the Davis Museum as student workers/docents, summer interns, and members of the Davis Museum Student Advisory Committee
Early career support

The Alice C. Cole ’42 Studio Project Grant provides project-based funding to recent Wellesley College graduates for the development, production, and exhibition of new work in painting and sculpture. The Alice C. Cole ’42 Fellowship is awarded to an emerging painter or sculptor, funding one year of unimpeded time and space to experiment, develop a body of work, and focus on future artistic goals.

Beyond Wellesley

Most of our graduates work in creative fields, such as fine arts, architecture, film and television, advertising, and design. Some pursue careers in software development and online industries. A considerable number of graduates earn advanced degrees, with some working in higher education.