Department of Art History and Visual Arts
Chair: Louise Yuhas
October 3, 2000

1. The mission of the Department of Art History and Visual Arts is to educate students in the richness and complexity of the visual arts through a curriculum designed to explore the relationships between theory and practice, tradition and innovation, creativity and critical distance. Encompassing the sub-disciplines of film/new media theory and production, studio art, and art history, AHVA seeks to cultivate understanding and appreciation of the visual arts in all forms throughout the community as well as in the exhibition spaces and classrooms.

2. Goals:
a. Goals for CORE and non-majors:
i. To gain an appreciation and understanding of the visual arts and/or film through either studying their history or engaging in their production.
ii. To gain the skills necessary to analyze the formal properties of visual expression.
iii. In art and film history courses, to encounter the artistic traditions of other times and places and thereby gain historical and cultural perspectives.
iv. In studio art and film production courses, to engage in at least one medium of artistic production, learning the techniques and discipline of that medium to express their own ideas.
b. Goals for majors:
i. To gain familiarity with the history of world art and the major film and studio media.
ii. To learn the verbal and visual languages of art through the study of its history and the mastery of its techniques.
iii. To become proficient in the area of concentration (art history, studio art, film production, or film critical studies), and to acquire some knowledge and experience in all areas.
iv. To qualify for admission in first-quality institutions of graduate study in art history, studio art, film and critical studies, arts management, etc.

3. Assessment Procedures:
a. For majors:
i. Much of our assessment procedure is based within the Art Department curriculum: all majors must concentrate in one area (studio, art history, film production, or film critical studies) but take at least one course in two other areas. Art history majors must take surveys of Early Western, Later Western, and Asian art history and pass a senior comprehensive exam that includes identification of major monuments of world art; in addition they must take at least one studio art and one film course. Studio majors must take courses in painting, sculpture, and printmaking as well as three art history courses and one film course. Film production and critical studies majors take courses in both areas of film as well as art history and studio art. We assess their mastery of art-historical methods and concepts through their written papers, and their mastery of art production methods through the art they produce in film and studio courses. Moreover, senior art history and film critical studies majors must write a 25-page research paper in the senior seminar, and (beginning this spring) will give 20-minute public presentations on their papers; film production and studio art comprehensives require public exhibition or screening of their work. Each senior must form a comprehensive committee of at least three faculty, including two from their area of concentration and one from an outside area, guaranteeing some continuity across the departmental programs. Assessment of the curriculum is thus ongoing and occurs in some form in every department meeting, and the main points of discussion are summarized in the minutes.
ii. We keep copies of senior research papers in art history and critical studies, and a file of slide of studio majors' comprehensive exhibitions is kept in the slide library. Clips from student films are compiled in the film program. In the final department meeting of each year we will discuss these works and use them to assess students' success at achieving our goals.
iii. This spring we will begin an exit survey of majors to assess the students' own perceptions of their educational experience. These will be collected and kept in the department office, and they will be reviewed each fall in the opening department meeting.
iv. This spring we will begin a departmental newsletter with which we will communicate with current and former students. We will post it on our website and send it out by email. The secretary, with the help of the alumni office, will compile an email list of alumni; we will use this to gather information about current professional and arts-related activities as well as disseminate news of the department. The chair will oversee this process, but the secretary will manage the list and track the responses.
b. For non-majors: in one introductory course in each division (art history, studio art, and film) each year, faculty will select several students who are taking the course for distribution credit and keep copies of their written work through the semester. They will assess the students' progress toward attaining the goals and report to the department in the first fall meeting.
4. Collection and Dissemination of Results:
a. Each spring the chair will review the minutes of the years' department meetings and create a summary assessment of accomplishments and continuing issues. All sectors of the department contribute to the department's annual report, and assessment will become a feature of that report.
b. We will prepare a comprehensive assessment when the department comes up for formal review.