When considering the quality of art facilities, I recommend Kenyon and Hamilton. Both offer beautifully spacious, well designed spaces for art students.
http://www.gundpartnership.com/Horvitz-Hall-Studio-Arts-Building-Kenyon-College
As for those on the list who are handling COVID well, would tag:
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Williams
Reading the posts concerning art today, I thought I should mention Colorado College, which has an amazing art program and facilities. Colorado College is one of the few schools that follow a block program, where students take only one course at a time. Each course lasts three weeks and then there is a one week break before the next “semester” begins. It’s not for everyone - my son hated the idea, my daughter loved it - but it’s a very interesting school on a beautiful campus in the middle of the mountains near Pikes Peak. Lots to do outdoors. They do offer merit scholarships.
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Hasn’t Bowdoin closed its campus to nearly three quarters of its students?
At most schools with liberal arts curriculums, students don’t declare majors until sometime toward the end of their sophomore years. It therefore seems that experimenting with entry level studio arts is doable, even if the ultimate intention is to major in a different direction.
This from Williams: “The courses are suited to those students wishing to major in art, as well as those who wish to include studio art as part of their liberal arts education.” I suspect you’ll find other LACs equally accommodating but you’ll need to reach out to the individual schools for confirmation.
I would expect that there is some variation from school to school in the level of expertise and talent among students enrolled in foundation art classes. I remember that my son’s classmates in his first year introductory drawing course, were already demonstrably talented artists. So you have to research in the context of your daughter’s prior exposure to fine art and her familiarity with process.
Most schools with liberal arts curriculums have fine arts departments. Studio courses require a lot of space and in some cases specialized equipment, so small LACs by definition have to limit the scope of the courses that they fund. As @merc81 notes schools have foundation courses and auxiliary courses. I would consider drawing, painting, sculpture and photography the foundation. Offerings in digital and new media (including video and computer aided design), complex printmaking like lithography, architecture, ceramics, jewelry and textile arts being variable from school to school.
Thus in judging the strength of an individual program I would first research the availability of the media your daughter is interested in pursuing, then look at the depth and breadth of the faculty and course offerings. This year, however, may not be a good example as studio art is not particularly adapted to distance learning.
As I mentioned my son was looking for strength in both art studio and art history, which both schools offer. Skidmore’s Tang art museum is a terrific resource and Conn College has reasonable access to museums in both New York and Boston. Skidmore has a lovely, spacious campus and Saratoga Springs is a lively, sophisticated small town. We visited 15 campuses and Conn College was the only one that actually included their studio facilities on their tour.
As an additional resource, you can use IPEDS to research studio art programs (as well as other majors) by popularity (e.g., https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Bowdoin&s=all&id=161004#programs ).
Thanks @merc81 - that’s an interesting resource I didn’t know about!
“Proximity to/engagement with a city is also attractive”
This is typically one way to trim your list and maybe replace some of the reach colleges with matches and safeties. I grew up a few years in Poughkeepsie, about 10 minutes from Vassar and visited my cousin a few times at Dartmouth, and they’re very different campuses wrt location and feel. Vassar is about a hour and half from NYC and not that far from Connecticut, if there’s anything exciting there!
I would add Hamilton. All students invited back, singles and doubles for housing, many classes in person, and dining open. (Bowdoin mainly has just freshmen on campus.) They started 3 weeks ago and have had zero positive cases out of 9,591 tests.
Different people have different definitions of “handling COVID well”, based on relative importance of avoiding virus spread versus getting as close to normal a college experience as possible (the latter seems important to those at or considering LACs, although not necessarily to the exclusion of the former).
Eckerd College has a new Visual Arts Center, renowned for their mentor program, honors college, Phi Beta Kappa Chapter and a very welcoming community. https://www.eckerd.edu/visualarts/center/
https://www.eckerd.edu/visualarts/ceramics/
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Thoughts on with respect to the original criteria?
Lewis & Clark College
The College of Wooster
Lawrence University
?
My kid visited Lawrence and Wooster, as both athletic recruit and prospective artist/musician, so we dug pretty deeply into both schools. There is a lot of overlap between the two schools, though Lawrence’s fantastic music conservatory shapes the campus distinctively. Just one family’s perspective, but Wooster seemed slightly more middle-of-the-road than Lawrence – though both schools are welcoming to artistic, quirky etc. kids. While neither school would be described as a jock school, athletics at Wooster seems a bit less marginalized, with the athletic center right in the middle of campus, next to the student union/dining hall, and some strong programs, including I think, Men’s BBall. Lawrence’s varsity facilities are across the river from campus so either a car or shuttle ride away, our sense was that student athletic competitions was not a big focus of campus life, but then again, my kid wasn’t there to watch any matches.