About the program The Augustana art department offers a major and minor in studio art and an art education major. Studio art majors choose a focus in one of seven areas-ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and sculpture, fibers, and printmaking. Such a variety of courses is rare for a school of Augustana's size. Each year, Studio Art majors' Senior Inquiry work becomes an exhibition at the Augustana Art Museum. See a slideshow from 2009. Classes are small; beginning classes have only 15-20 students, and upper-level courses are generally smaller. While small class sizes are desirable in any discipline, the close faculty-student relationship is especially important in hands on work such as studio art. Students in the department learn to express their ideas and emotions via the formal elements of art, while at the same time gaining an understanding of art's larger social and disciplinary contexts. There are four full-time, two adjunct, and two part-time art faculty, all of whom have the M.F.A. The faculty artists show their work regionally and nationally and take on leadership positions in the Quad Cities art community. Augustana's international terms often include art classes in the curriculum. Students can study art in the context of a different culture, such as the course "Studio art of Africa" in Ghana. As a senior capstone experience, every studio art major completes a cohesive body of work to display in a spring exhibition in the Augustana College Art Museum. Working closely with a faculty member, students integrate learning from throughout their liberal arts education to complete their project, which includes a written essay and final public presentation. At the end of the capstone experience, students have a portfolio of work to use as they prepare for graduate school or employment.

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