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19 August 1997
Degrees Offered
Master of Arts (in art education)
Master of Arts (in art history)
Master of Fine Arts (in studio art)
Doctor of Philosophy (in art history)
Art education. Art education majors find research opportunities in Austin's public and private schools, retirement centers, hospitals, parks, and museums, as well as in the University's classrooms, libraries, and collections.
Art history. Facilities for study and research include an open-shelf library containing more than 85,000 volumes and periodicals and with carrels and seminar rooms; a collection of 450,000 slides; a highly specialized photographic study collection containing many unique photographs; and the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, which has an active exhibition program and can provide training in the various aspects of museum work.
The Fine Arts Library is supplemented by the Perry-Castaneda Library, with holdings of more than two million volumes; by the rare books and manuscripts of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center; and by the specialized libraries of the School of Architecture, the Department of Classics, and the Institute of Latin American Studies.
Visual resources on campus include the Mari and James A. Michener Collection of American Painting; the Duncan Collection of Latin American Art; and, in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the Gernsheim History of Photography Collection, the Iconography Collection, and the Battle Collection of casts after ancient sculpture, as well as additional drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures, silver, and furniture.
Studio art. Graduate studios are available in most areas of concentration, and studio art majors have access to the specialized equipment and tools required for each area.
The sculpture laboratory has foundry and fabrication facilities, welding equipment, saws, sanders, drill presses, and an array of other hand and power tools. Students of ceramics have access to twenty-six powered potter's wheels, eighteen high- and low-fire kilns, clay-making equipment, and a complete glaze laboratory. The resources of the metals department include enameling kilns and equipment for fabrication, smithing, blacksmithing, and vacuum and centrifugal casting. There is also a large inventory of specialized hand tools. Transmedia students have access to computer image processors, video cameras, video mixers with chroma key functions, 16-mm film equipment, and audio equipment.
In photography, students have access to complete darkrooms for black and white and color development, copy rooms, and five film processing rooms. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center houses one of the world's outstanding collections of historical photography. Students in design have access to a computer laboratory, a photographic studio, darkrooms, a Photostat room, a vertical stat camera, and related equipment. The printmaking department offers students the opportunity to work with four large lithographic presses, 130 stones of various sizes, and equipment for aluminum plate lithography, including photolithography. The intaglio area is equipped with four large printing presses, a large vented acid room, and flat file storage. Serigraphers are provided with a well-ventilated work area, vacuum screen tables for works as large as 3' x 5', and a fully equipped photomechanical reproduction facility for works up to 20" x 24". Most other stencil methods are also available. Students of painting have access twenty-four hours a day to ten individual studios.
All students have access to a fully furnished wood shop for frame construction and other projects. The shop is open in the evening and on weekends.
Art education. Graduate study in art education involves advanced coursework designed to develop the student's ability to teach art. The program emphasizes theory, practice, and research in the teaching of art in kindergarten through the twelfth grade, in museums, and in adult learning environments. The degree also requires advanced work in studio art or art history. Graduates may seek teaching positions or continue their studies in a doctoral degree program. Those who plan to teach in Texas public schools should fulfill teacher certification requirements before entering the graduate program.
Art history. Graduate study in art history is offered in all areas of Western art and in pre-Columbian and Asian art. The student may pursue the degree of Master of Arts or that of Doctor of Philosophy.
Studio art. The studio art program comprises the following areas of concentration: painting, sculpture, printmaking (intaglio, lithography, and serigraphy), photography, transmedia (performance art, nontraditional video, and installations), ceramics, metals, and design. The program focuses on the student's mastery of visual and verbal forms of expression through a course of study that stimulates originality, intellectual accomplishment, and critical thinking. With emphases on studio practice and the development of individuality and self-discipline, the program offers students a foundation for a successful professional life in the visual arts.
Admission and Degree Requirements
Master of Arts
Art education. The master's degree program comprises three specializations, plans A, B, and C. Plan A is designed for students who wish to investigate art learning and concepts appropriate for elementary and secondary school students. It emphasizes interdisciplinary instruction in art. A bachelor's degree and elementary or secondary school teacher certification is required for admission; students without teacher certification must take appropriate undergraduate coursework before admission. Plan B emphasizes art museum education, and plan C emphasizes the teaching of art to special populations. A bachelor's degree in art education, studio art, or art history is suggested for admission to either plan B or plan C; however, special consideration may be given to the applicant with a related bachelor's degree and experience in art teaching, museum education, or work with nontraditional populations.
All plans require thirty-six semester hours of coursework, consisting of twelve hours of studio art and/or art history; fifteen hours of art education; including three hours of internship or classroom research; three hours in a supporting area such as research design; and six hours in the thesis course. The student must pass a written and an oral examination upon completion of twenty-one semester hours and before beginning the thesis.
Art history. Students seeking admission to the Master of Arts degree program are expected to have an undergraduate degree in art history or at least twenty-four semester hours of art history. The student must also show evidence of the ability to read French or German, as well as the capacity for advanced academic work.
The program requires thirty semester hours of coursework, including six hours in the thesis course and six hours in supporting work. (Supporting work consists of upper-division or graduate courses in such related areas as history, literature, anthropology, archaeology, classical civilization, philosophy, architecture, music, museum education, and area studies.) In addition to Art History 395 (Research Methods in the History of Art), the student must complete four seminars, one in each of four areas of art history selected from the following categories: ancient, medieval, Renaissance/baroque, modern, non-Western (Asian, pre-Columbian, African, Islamic). The student takes an additional three semester hours of art history, preferably as a seminar but, in certain cases, as a reading tutorial (Art History 396) or a lecture tutorial (Art History 396K).
Master of Fine Arts
To be admitted to the MFA degree program in studio art, the applicant must have a bachelor's degree with either a major in studio art or a sufficient amount of coursework in studio art. Students are admitted only to the following concentrations: painting and drawing, sculpture, ceramics, metals, photography, printmaking (intaglio, lithography, and serigraphy), design, and transmedia (performance art, nontraditional video, and installations). The student must submit a slide portfolio as part of the admission application; information about this requirement is available from the Department of Art and Art History.
The program requires the completion of sixty semester hours of coursework, consisting of the following:
- Thirty-nine hours of studio coursework, including at least thirty hours in
the
area of concentration and nine hours in a related area.
- At least twelve hours of elective work and work in a minor, including at
least
six hours in a single nonstudio area and three hours in modern or contemporary
art history.
- Three semester hours in a studio seminar course.
- Three hours devoted to the master's report and three devoted to the master's exhibition.
The student must take a diagnostic oral examination in the semester in which he or she is registered for the thirtieth semester hour of the program and must pass a final oral examination upon completion of the coursework. The candidate must exhibit studio work in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements. The report consists of a text and documentation of major works completed in the studio art graduate program. These works, as well as finished classwork, may be exhibited by the Department of Art and Art History and retained by it for instructional use.
Doctor of Philosophy
For admission to the Doctor of Philosophy degree program in art history, the student must have a master's degree in art history or at least forty-eight semester hours of art history on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students with special backgrounds in other disciplines are judged on an individual basis. Reading competence in French and German is also required. A student may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to substitute Spanish or Italian for French when one of these is appropriate to his or her specialization.
Degree requirements are
- completion of five seminar courses, including coursework in at least three
of the following five areas of art history: ancient, medieval,
Renaissance/baroque, modern, non-Western (Asian, pre-Columbian, African,
Islamic);
- reading competence in additional foreign languages if the student's area of
study requires it;
- successful participation in the dissertation colloquium;
- a written and/or oral qualifying examination that admits the student to
candidacy;
- the dissertation; and
- the oral defense of the dissertation.
Campus address: Studio art and art education: Art Building (ART)
3.344, Phone
(512) 471-3377; Art history: Fine Arts Building (FAB) 2.124, Phone (512)
471-7757
Mailing address: Graduate Program, Department of Art and Art History, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1104
URL: http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/a&ah/
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies
Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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