<p>Which liberal arts schools have the best art programs?</p>
<p>KSandstart
You might want to look at Wash U. in St. Louis, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, U.C. San Diego, Columbia in New York</p>
<p>ksandstart,</p>
<p>If you do a search through this forum, maybe use the term "liberal arts", you will come upon numerous fantastic suggestions of schools. Taxguy and other parents have some great reports on many of those that they have visited with their kids. </p>
<p>artteach, I was curious about your suggestion of Columbia in NYC. From the limited knowledge I have, I thought the studio arts program was strong for graduate students. Is it good for undergrads, too? Our family went to NYC last summer and s was all a ga ga about the school (and NYC of course!). When we came home and looked at their website, we read a lot about "the core" curriculum. We didn't spend much time looking into it thoroughly. Do you know how much studio time the kids get in their areas given the core is stressed?</p>
<p>ksandstart,
Columbia is in the process of building a multi million dollar art facility. I had been told by an art prof. at Wash U., last spring, that Columbia is looking to expand their art program. I haven't had that confirmed by anyone at Columbia. They have some outstanding art faculty. A former student of mine, who is in her freshman year at Columbia, was extremely impressed with the art program for the undergraduate students. Columbia has a tremendous reputation for its graduate art program.</p>
<p>ksandstart, some liberal arts schools with good studio art departments are:
Williams, Wesleyan, Kenyon, Skidmore, Hamilton, Conn College, Vassar and for females, Smith.</p>
<p>Among the ivy league, Brown and Yale.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the responses! I have already applied to colleges, so I posted my question primarily to narrow down my schools within the next couple of weeks (assuming I am accepted!). I plan to major in art, but I chose to apply to schools based more on their academic reputations and atmospheres than on the quality of their art departments. I realize now that I probably should have focused more on the schools' art opportunities. I did apply to Williams and Brown, and hopefully I will be accepted to one of those schools. Other schools I am seriously considering are Dartmouth, Carleton, and Oberlin. Does anyone know much about the art departments at these schools? I know that Oberlin and Dartmouth have really good art museums, and I assume that their art departments are rather good as well.</p>
<p>You would get an excellent education at Dartmouth, Carlton or Oberlin. They are all top schools. The only one that is well known for art studio and history is Oberlin; however, Im sure as you say that the overriding academic excellence would compensate for individual departmental weakness. </p>
<p>At this point you may as well see how your acceptances come in before weighing your options. It sounds like youll have some good choices (though very different in ambience!).</p>
<p>ksandstart, You have great schools to choose from. My kid also wanted a good LAC with a strong art program. List included Oberlin, CMU, Hampshire and Bard.Considered Brown for the RISD connection but learned the number of courses Brown students can actually take at RISD is very limited due to policy and differences in their calendars.Williams has an excellent rep for art as well as academics. Good luck!</p>
<p>Any LAC's with good "design" programs? (ie. more applied arts, such as in graphic communications, interior or industrial design). Preferable Midwest or East Coast. For the most part, we have only found that the larger universities offer these. CMU has an excellent program, but I would not consider them a LAC. Wash U. comes closest, but may be too selective (and expensive) for d's. stats.</p>
<p>I have been accepted to Dartmouth, Williams, Oberlin, Carleton, Macalester, St. Olaf, and Bowdoin. Among these schools, which are well-known for their art or art history dpts? Are any of them especially poor in art? Thanks!</p>
<p>Ksand, Congratulations on a strong and coherent group of acceptances! As you may know my son is an art major at Williams so thats the program that I know the most about. </p>
<p>Williams has one of the best art history departments in the country. So many Williams alums are directors of top museums (e.g. MoMA, Guggenheim, National Gallery, LA County) that they are known as the Williams Mafia. There are three worldclass museums on or near campus the Clark, the Williams College Museum and MassMoCA which offer firsthand involvement in curating and exposure to real works of art.</p>
<p>The studio art department is small but very well funded and it is completely integrated with the art history department. The facilities are relatively new, spacious and well equipped to handle a wide range of media. The instructors are practicing artists themselves and are equally focused on theory and practice. </p>
<p>I think youve been accepted some excellent schools. You will get a wonderful education at any of them. They all have strengths, but for art studio and art history Williams is the stand-out. I'd put Oberlin at #2.</p>
<p>Thanks, momrath! At this point Williams is near the top of my list (along with Carleton and Dartmouth, but for other reasons).</p>