Art, BA, emphasis in Art Education
Department of Art and Art History
Department Chair: Jesse Sugarmann
Office: Visual Arts Building, 101 A
Phone: (661) 654-3031
Email: shaynes2@csub.edu
Program Description
The mission of the CSUB Department of Art and Art History is to advance creative research and critical thinking while fostering an encouraging environment for cultural inquiry and artistic experimentation. Located at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, the Art and Gallery Programs complement the University’s larger mission by offering CSUB students an opportunity to engage in advanced critical discourse both local and international in scope. The Art Program has a strong local presence but is also designed, in part, to expose the campus and community to the visual culture and sociopolitical currents present in the Los Angeles region and the larger San Joaquin Valley. The Zaninovich Visiting Artist Lecture Series welcomes four prominent speakers each semester to address a wide range of contemporary creative, social, and cultural issues. Each academic year the Todd Madigan Visiting Artist Program invites an established contemporary artist to work directly with students in building a gallery exhibition, while the Sculptors on Campus Program invites an established public artist to work directly with students in building a public art installation on the CSUB campus. Our distinguished Art and Art History faculty is comprised of nine full-time practicing artists, art historians, and art educators, complemented by an accomplished roster of lecturers and three full-time staff, serving over 125 Art majors as well as the university and community as a whole. The department maintains state-of-the-art facilities for Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Photography and Digital Media, as well as senior studio spaces.
The department offers a:
- BA in Art with emphases in Studio Art, Art History, or Art Education
- Minor in Art
- Minor in Studio Art
- Minor in Art History
Program Goals and Objectives
Communications: To develop within students the technical skills, conceptual engagement, and critical courage necessary to explore the problems, processes, and potential impact of visual art, art history, and art education.
Critical Thinking: To provide students with visual literacy and critical thinking ability to understand human experience and the ways in which the arts are uniquely equipped to impact it.
Flexibility of engagement: To allow students multiple points of entry into the arts as art educators, art historians, and studio artists, and to be aware of the career options available to them both inside and outside of the art world.
Personal development: To instill within student’s self-understanding, theoretical openness, social awareness, historical consciousness, creative confidence, and an enduring sense of curiosity.
Career Opportunities
A Bachelor of Arts degree from the Department of Art and Art History serves as a lens for understanding the larger world, offering students life-enriching critical thinking and problem-solving skills that will serve them well in any future pursuit. Our program provides an excellent preparation for continued graduate study in the fine arts and also offers a gateway into careers such as being an artist, art historian, researcher, art educator, curator, gallerist or museum professional.
The Todd Madigan Gallery
As the university’s main art gallery, the Todd Madigan brings art of national and international importance to the CSUB campus and community. The gallery’s exhibition program showcases established historical and contemporary artists, and features work designed to ignite an exchange of ideas and advanced creative discourse.
Vising Artists Programs and Courses
The Zaninovich Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Each year, the Department of Art and Art History invites eight professional artists, curators, and critics to campus to give public lectures to the community and private studio visits to our senior studio majors.
Todd Madigan Visiting Artist Program: Each fall semester; the Department of Art and Art History invites a guest artist to spend a month on campus building an exhibition for the Todd Madigan Gallery with the help of our students.
Sculptors on Campus Program: Each spring semester, the Department of Art and Art History invites a guest sculptor to stage and build a public artwork on the CSUB campus with the help of our students.
The White Box Gallery
The White Box Gallery is an informal exhibition space for art students to mount solo or group shows and/or host events or performances. It is also for faculty to showcase students work in critiques and student exhibitions.
The Children's Art Institute
An element of our Art Education program, The Children’s Art Institute offers student-assisted art classes and art camps for children in grades 1-6 from the Kern County region.
Students Art Society
The Student Arts Society is a student-run art association that creates events and opportunities for all students interested in developing and sustaining creative projects both on and off campus.