Our Program
The three majors within the art program are designed
to stimulate your gifts and give you new skills. You will study the best
art of the past and the present in both art history and studio art courses.
You will learn to make connections between what you are studying in your
major and in your liberal arts courses and you will develop the ideas and
the skills necessary for mature work as an artist, educator, or historian.
You will be given ways to develop and express your faith vocationally. In
studio art there are eight areas of concentration: ceramics, drawing, graphic
design, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and textiles. In
the senior year of the studio major, you will produce and exhibit a body
of work in your area(s) of concentration and prepare a portfolio and resumé
for further study or entry-level career positions.
The studio art, art education, and art history majors are designed to challenge
you, and to begin relating your Christian belief to your areas of study.
You will study the best art of the past and the present in both art history
and studio art courses. You will learn to make connections between what
you are studying in your major and in your liberal arts courses and you
will develop the ideas and the skills necessary for mature work as an artist,
educator, or historian. In studio art there are eight areas to concentrate
in: ceramics, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, printmaking,
sculpture, and textiles. In the senior year of the studio major, you will
produce and exhibit a body of work in your area(s) of concentration and
prepare a portfolio and resumé for further study or entry level career positions.
Creativity takes a terrible toll. It makes us egocentric, selfish, competitive,
anxious, desperate, and terrified. Creativity does not respect time or place
or schedules. It demands that we focus on ourselves, often to the neglect
of other responsibilities, sometimes to the exclusion of those who love
us. We are never satisfied: we constantly examine our work and ourselves
for flaws-and we always find them. The world acclaims us when we succeed,
pities us when we fail, ignores us much of the time, and never really understands.who
would willingly take up such a double-edged sword? But who can put it down?
God who created us makes us creators, gives the gifts that we give back
each time we use our creativity. At Messiah, as a community of artists,
students, and faculty, we work together to be faithful stewards of our gifts,
encouraging and supportive of one another, honest and affirming to all.
And most of all, we strive to strengthen our faith in the God who is always
with us-in the classroom, on the stage, in the studio-even when we think
we are most alone. A young playwright once accepted an award with words
that moved me deeply: "I thank my mother for treating me like an artist
until I became one." As God nurtures us, let us nurture one another.
Susanna Bede Caroselli Associate Professor of Art History
Our Facilities
Messiah has well-equipped studio facilities dedicated
to specific discipline areas. Frey Hall (1992) houses approximately half
of the art spaces:a sculpture studio equipped for wood and stone carving,
wood construction, welding, and mixed media work; a ceramics studio with
20 throwing wheels and electric and gas-fired kilns; a textiles studio equipped
for dyeing, printing, sewing, weaving, and mixed processes; a graphics computer
lab and drafting lab outfitted with MAC and PC stations, scanners, and color
printers; and specially equipped art history classrooms and a slide library.
The Climenhaga Fine Arts Center offers striking, well-lit drawing and painting
studios, a printmaking studio with intaglio and lithography presses, and
a darkroom for photography. Climenhaga Fine Arts Center also houses the
M. Louise Aughinbaugh Gallery, which exhibits the work of internationally
recognized artists as well as faculty and students.
