Art & Art History

In this section

OVERVIEW

What is art? What is its purpose? How does art contribute to our culture? How does it provide insight into being human? What role does art play in constructing meaning? How does "thinking with your hands" expand ways of knowing? How does studying the development of art and creative expression through the ages help you understand our world and the human condition?

The Department of Art and Art History offers multifaceted frameworks for the consideration and creation of visual expressions of power, cosmologies, identity, yearning, love, loss, hope, terror, tradition, and resistance. Studio art students take courses in painting, printmaking, digital media, and three-dimensional art, learning a range of techniques and processes in well-equipped studio spaces. Art history students study diverse artistic traditions and develop strong analytical, research, presentation, and writing skills.

Studio Art Art History

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

Communicate in a range of textual and/or visual mediums with impact and sophistication
Examine art and its global history through various approaches and by drawing on the critical analysis of visual and textual information
Recognize how art shapes and reflects culture and society in the past and the present
Develop independent projects that enhance creative and critical thinking and innovative problem solving
Connect creative processes with interdisciplinary themes and questions
Engage with emerging technologies informed by a foundation in traditional craft and artistic practices

WHO YOU COULD BE

Artist/Art historian
Teacher/Professor
Museum curator
Museum educator
Gallery manager
Architect/Landscape artist
Graphic designer
Librarian/Archivist

ALUMNI

Andrew Griebeler ’09

"Studying art history at Puget Sound provided me with the tools required to succeed in my graduate program and in my research: a critical eye and an attention to detail, skills in written and oral communication, and an ability to evaluate and combine different kinds of evidence."

Art & Art History

1500 N. Warner St. #1072
Tacoma, WA 98416-1072

Administrative Coordinator

253.879.2806

art@pugetsound.edu

Chair

Kriszta Kotsis

253-879-3705

kkotsis@pugetsound.edu

Kittredge Gallery Manager

Peter Stanley

253.879.3701

pstanley@pugetsound.edu

Kittredge Gallery Website

Sample Courses

VIEW ALL COURSES

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Many students hold internships and summer research grants:

Cas Almond ’23 traveled to Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto) with the support of the Offield Travel Fellowships to study architecture, pottery, paintings, sculpture, manga, and calligraphy
Ayli Stabinsky ‘23 traveled with the support of the Offield Travel Fellowships to Florence to study Italian renaissance and baroque art
Mali Mathews ‘23, summer research grant, “Finding the Connection Between Form and the Body”
Marion Rogers ‘23, summer research grant, “Snail Watching: Illustrating the Development Process of Helisoma Trivolvis”
Chloe Brew ‘21, summer research grant, “Paradigms of Feminine Power: The Piraeus Athena and Aphrodite of Knidos”
Catherine Croft ‘21, summer research grant, “Animated Neuroscience Pilot for Kids”
Kate Threat ’20 interned at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art in Washington, D.C.

JOBS

Where our graduates work:

Syracuse University (director of digital strategy)
University of Iowa (associate professor of art history)
Mark Morris Dance Group, NYC (institutional giving manager)
Studio MLA, Los Angeles (design associate)
Seattle Art Museum (SAM gallery manager)
Whatcom Intergenerational High School, Bellingham, WA (art teacher)
Independent artist

CONTINUE STUDYING

Where our students continue their studies:

Harvard University, Cambridge (Ph.D., art history)
Hunter College, NYC (M.A., art history)
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts (Ph.D., art history)
University of California, Berkeley (Master of Landscape Architecture; Ph.D., art history)
University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury (M.F.A.)
Washington University, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art, St. Louis (M.F.A.)

Faculty

The Printmaker

Five questions with Janet Marcavage, distinguished professor of art and art history

Students

Message and Meaning

Student artists combine image and text to explore identity.

A person posing in front of an art exhibit

Community

Students

Artscapes

In her junior year, emerging artist Sophia Munic ’19 got a huge boost: Her application for a Spaceworks Tacoma Artscapes grant had been accepted.

Students working in the digital media studio in Professor Mare Hirsch's digital media course.

Students working in the Mac Lab in Professor Mare Hirsch's digital media course.

Art students creating in the print making studio — Students working in the print making studio

Gallery view of the 2023 Senior Exhibition — The 2023 Senior Exhibition included a wide range of media and showcased a body of work from each of our graduating studio art majors.

Gallery view of the 2023 Art Students Annual Exhibition — The 2023 Art Students Annual Exhibition, our juried show, offered an overview of the exciting creative work in our studio art courses.

Gallery view of 2022 Senior Exhibition Opening — 2022 Senior Exhibition Opening

Gallery view of 2022 Senior Exhibition — 2022 Senior Exhibition

Gallery view of 2022 Art Students Annual Exhibition — 2022 Art Students Annual Exhibition

Gallery view of 2021 Senior Exhibition — 2021 Senior Exhibition

Senior Art History seminar field trip to LA, Spring 2019 — Professors Linda Williams and Kriszta Kotsis lead an annual field trip for the art history senior seminar. In spring 2019, the trip to Los Angeles included visits to the Getty Villa, Getty Museum, and LA County Museum of Art. Past trips have included Portland and the Bay Area.

Students painting portraits on canvas — Art students painting in Prof. Elise Richman's class

Students in Connections 370 Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies — In spring 2015 and 2018, Professor Elise Richman's Connections 370 class (Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies) culminated in a three-week study abroad experience centered in Rome, Italy.

Students on CONN 370 in Rome — In spring 2015 and 2018, Professor Elise Richman's Connections 370 class (Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies) culminated in a three-week study abroad experience centered in Rome, Italy.

A display of three colorful chairs with artworks painted on them — 2018 Senior Art Show at Kittredge Gallery

Works in the 2019 Senior Art Show in Kittredge Gallery — The 2019 Senior Art Show in Kittredge Gallery featured a variety of works from our graduating studio art majors. This annual show is a great culmination of the students' artistic progress during their time at Puget Sound.

2018 Senior Trip to Portland — Professor Elise Richman led a senior Studio Art major field trip to Portland, OR in Fall 2018.

Students painting art in a studio workspace — Art students in a painting class with Elise Richman

Art students at a workshop integrating bioluminescence with microcontrollers — In spring 2017, some art students took part in an Art | Sci Salon event including bio-art, such as bioluminescence with microcontrollers.

Colorful 3D sculpture creation on display in a gallery — An exhibit piece from the 2020 Students Arts Annual in the Kittredge Gallery

Mary Thompson '19 presenting her summer research at the fall research symposium — Mary Thompson ’19, an art history major and French studies minor, was awarded a summer research grant in 2018 for her project exploring the ways in which female nudes painted by Amedeo Modigliani confront both racial and gender identities.

Field trip to Tacoma Art Museum — Field trips to local venues, like this visit to the Tacoma Art Museum for Art History 294 circa 2016, are a benefit of being located near so many resources.

Professor and student discussing a painting — Elise Richman with a student in the painting studio

Student working on a sculptural piece in the studio — A student working on a piece in the sculpture studio

Smoke Farm painting retreat north of Seattle — Art 350 Intermediate Painting students sometimes engage in an overnight landscape painting retreat at Smoke Farm.

Student and professor looking at a painting in the studio — Art students painting class with Elise Richman

A 3D cube sculpture outside a university building — Sculpture from the 2015 Annual Student Art Show

People looking at art on display in a gallery setting — People gather at the 2015 Senior Art Show and Reception at Kittredge Gallery

MEET THE FACULTY

VIEW ALL FACULTY

Mare Hirsch

Assistant Professor, Art & Art History

mehirsch@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Hirsch's art, research, and teaching focus on ways technology can foster new forms of creative expression. Her work is often data-driven, such as a recent multimedia installation that visualizes data from Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment.

Read the full bio

Zaixin Hong

Professor, Art and Art History

zhong@pugetsound.edu

Besides being widely published in the research fields of 10th, 14th, and 20th-century Chinese art, Prof. Hong teaches a range of courses from first-year seminars to advanced classes.

Read the full bio

Janet Marcavage

Professor, Art and Art History

jmarcavage@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Marcavage specializes in printmaking and teaches a variety of classes on various print media techniques, including lithography, etching, relief, and more, plus experimental, photo-mechanical and digitally augmented methods.

Read the full bio

Elise Richman

Professor, Art and Art History

erichman@pugetsound.edu

An active working artist, Prof. Richman's current work is inspired by rippling water and focuses on color interaction and context. She teaches 2-D design courses, drawing, and painting.

Read the full bio

Kriszta Kotsis

Professor and Chair, Art and Art History

kkotsis@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Kotsis studies images of Late Antique and Byzantine women, and teaches courses on Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Western Medieval, and Islamic art, and art historical methodology.

Read the full bio

Kelsey Eldridge

Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History

keldridge@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Eldridge '12 is interested in numismatics and sigillography. Her research explores Byzantine material culture in the medieval and early modern Italian peninsula.

Read the full bio

FACILITIES

Painting Studio

Our Painting Studio has a state-of-the-art ventilation system and art lighting, featuring skylights across the space and a variety of artificial options. Students have their own workstations and storage.

Printmaking Lab

The Printmaking Lab hosts a variety of equipment including a lithography press, two etching presses, many screenprinting platens and screens, and light units for photo-based processes.

Students working in the digital media studio

Digital Media Studios

The Digital Media Studios are equipped with high-powered GPU computers, photography/videography equipment, an array of printers and drawing machines, and digital fabrication equipment such as a laser cutter and CNC mill.

THIS COULD BE YOU!

See yourself at Puget Sound. Take the next step to becoming a Logger.

Request Admission Information

PICTURE YOURSELF HERE

SEE THROUGH NEW EYES

LET YOUR CREATIVITY THRIVE

In this section

OVERVIEW

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN