Welcome

The Art Department is one of four departments comprising the School of the Arts (SOTA) in the College of Arts and Letters. Through our courses, exhibitions, lectures, and other public programs, we introduce students and members of the local community to the expressive world of the fine arts. At the undergraduate level, we offer a BA degree in Art with a choice of two concentrations: Art History and Art Studio (including a version of that concentration which prepares students to pursue a single-subject teaching credential in art). We offer three minors in Art Education, Art History, and Art Studio. We also share a major in Photography with the Department of Design. (For more information, please visit the Photo website.) At the graduate level, we offer the MA degree in Art Studio. We are an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

The Art Department offers a wide range of courses in Art Education, Art History (American, Latin American, Native American, Asian, and European), and Studio Art (ceramics, collage, drawing, electronic art, jewelry, metalsmithing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture). These courses serve to engage students in the study of fine arts within a liberal arts context and to promote appreciation of the fine arts in the general student population.

Scholarship assistance is available in the form of annual art awards. Undergraduate students may compete for the Raymond W. Witt Scholarship and Frederick M. Peyser, Sr., Prize; while graduate students in Studio Art may compete for the Increase Robinson Memorial Fellowship and the JAM, Inc. Studio Arts Award.

The Art Department maintains two separate studio and lecture facilities and three galleries. Sculpture, three-dimensional composition, and painting are taught in the Art Sculpture Lab at the south end of campus. Art education, art history, drawing, two-dimensional composition, ceramics, jewelry, metalsmithing, photography, and printmaking are taught at Kadema Hall, where the departmental offices also are located. Electronic art (formerly called computer art) is taught in Mariposa Hall, adjacent to Kadema Hall. The Robert Else Gallery and the Raymond Witt Gallery, used primarily for exhibitions of work by CSUS students, are located in Kadema Hall. In Spring of 2002, a new art gallery was opened on the first floor of the University Library. The Library Gallery has been the setting of several major exhibitions, including the “Society of Six” (Spring and Summer 2002), "The Transformation of Nature in the Art of Joseph Raffael and Frank Owen” (Fall 2002), “Postflesh: Visualizing the Techno-Self” (Winter 2002-03), and “Wayne Thiebaud: Works from 1955 to 2003” (Spring and Summer 2003). Each exhibition has been accompanied by a series of public events, including receptions and guest lectures. In addition, artists and art historians are invited to give lectures on campus throughout the academic year. Please call 278-6166 (Kadema Hall galleries) or 278-4189 (University Library Gallery) for current schedule information.