Department of Art
Faculty: Associate Professor Valle, Chair; Professors Harris, King; Associate Professors Bacci, Echeverry, Frorup, Scherer; Assistant Professor Sutherland.
The art program at The University of Tampa is a challenging course of study and practice built upon fundamental principles designed to develop your technical skills, advance your visual literacy, infuse your intellectual curiosity, sharpen your aesthetic conceptualization and expand your ability to think critically.
Students will join other like-minded artists enrolled in a demanding foundations program. Regardless of your intended area of concentration, the foundation coursework explores the principles upon which all further coursework is grounded. Next, you will be exposed to the studio core that will introduce you to the major media (drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, photography).
All foundations and studio core courses are taught by professional art faculty, who are also practicing artists engaged in their own creative research, with outstanding exhibition records at the local, national and international levels. They are deeply committed to effectively teaching and mentoring your development and helping you find your unique artistic vision. In addition, your art faculty advisor will help guide you through the selection of courses that will best fit your long-range artistic goals.
At the completion of the foundation and studio core sequence, you will present a professionally developed portfolio of your work, which will be reviewed as assessed by members of the art faculty.
Upon Entry into the Junior Year
Art students must submit a portfolio that includes pieces from each studio course taken at the University, as well as from any college or university from which UT has accepted credits. Members of the art faculty will review and assess the portfolio. Unacceptable portfolios must be resubmitted no later than the end of the following semester.
All portfolios must be documented through high quality digital images, and in the case of electronic media, appropriate high-resolution files, screen shots and digital documentation must be submitted. It is imperative for art students to save and electronically document all work taken at The University of Tampa, and for all coursework for which they have received academic and/or transfer credit.
Students majoring in art with a concentration in art history must submit a writing portfolio consisting of research papers and other written work completed in each art history class taken at The University of Tampa, as well as any from any college or university from which UT has accepted credits. Using specific recommendations made by the faculty reviewer, unacceptable portfolios must be edited and resubmitted no later than the end of the following semester.
ART 498 Senior Seminar and Exhibit
As a part of ART 498 Senior Seminar, students concentrating in studio art must prepare a senior exhibition in the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery. In consultation with their major professor(s) students will produce a cohesive body of professionally oriented work. Final exhibition selections are made in consultation with the studio art faculty. Students conduct all aspects of the show, including professional presentation of work, hanging, lighting, publicity and formal opening. In addition, a signed and dated personal artist’s statement concerning the student’s aesthetic theories must be presented with the exhibition. Final assessment is made by at least two members of the studio art faculty.
Students concentrating in art history must prepare a senior thesis paper based on research completed in a prior class (or classes), and pass comprehensive exam tailored to their individual disciplinary strengths.