Fine Arts
Can I Study Fine Arts at Bryn Mawr College?
As a Bryn Mawr College student, you have the opportunity to major or minor in fine arts at Haverford College through the Bi-College Consortium. The fine arts program focuses on you as an individual. Whether it's your first time working in a medium, or you're majoring in an art form you've been perfecting your whole life, you will get to work directly with instructors to improve your skills.
Fine Arts Degrees in the Bi-Co
You can major or minor in fine arts at Haverford through the Bi-Co.
Artistic Mediums
Fine arts majors and minors in the Bi-Co learn each of these artistic mediums. Once you have taken introductory courses for all five disciplines, you can choose to specialize and develop advanced skills in your chosen medium.
Drawing
Drawing in the past was considered prep work for a more “finished” piece of art. With the influx of street art and illustration, sketches, lists, and doodles are taken both seriously and as final art forms. The drawing program in the Bi-Co introduces and expands the traditional drawing practice using multiple different mediums: ink, pencil, charcoal, pen, pastel, markers, mixed media, etc.
Painting
Painting with oil, acrylic, ink, and mixed media allows you to experiment with different styles and compositions, using different media and techniques to convey ideas.
Painting in the Bi-Co aims to guide you through the practicing the basics and encourage you to explore. The painting program is rigorous with intensive work and weekly student critiques. You have the opportunity to paint from still-life, live models, and out in nature. With distinguished guest artists and lecturers, you will be exposed to many views and interpretations of art making, inspiration, and the painting process.
Printmaking
Printmaking is an interdisciplinary art form that has its own unique style. The Bi-Co teaches digital printmaking in lithography, intaglio, and silkscreen along with traditional methods. You are encouraged to combine printmaking with other mediums and extend their ideas from 2D to 3D including installation. We recommend taking a multimedia approach as you advance in printmaking.
Printmaking is an intensive discipline. You will need to have patience, focus, and attention to detail. It is an art form based on chemistry and math. It has a long history that you will learn in order to create your own works. Regardless of your level, you are and individual artist. We respect your ability to create your own work
Photography
Photography in the Bi-Co lets you develop a personal body of photographic work. Even if you’ve never seriously studied photography before, you can start with beginner classes and move on through advanced ones. In advanced classes, you may produce books and exhibitions. You will master the use of materials through technical critiques of your work in negative, digital and print formats. You will learn the intellectual and traditional art of photography by reading and studying history, theory, and criticism, and analyzing exceptional pieces of photo art.
The facilities for the study of photography include up-to-date and well-equipped darkrooms for chemical and digital photography. Our photography book collection is one of the finest in the country. Our photographic print collection contains over 5,000 original photographs. It contains works from Hill and Adamson at the very beginning of photography to contemporary works by Andres Serrano and Laurie Simmons. These resources support small classes that allow for personal attention and instruction from the professor and staff.
Sculpture
The sculpture program in the Bi-Co offers you the chance to explore 3-D media with a broad range of materials and processes. These classes teach you how to communicate visually. You’ll look closely at examples and try things out in a structured setting. You will get to practice a wide range of 3D techniques, so you become skilled and confident working in sculpture. At the beginner level you will be introduced to basic 3-D techniques and through ongoing classes learn and use advanced sculptural concepts and fabrication methods.
The sculpture facilities include a wood shop, metalworking equipment, and a large-scale foundry for bronze casting. You will be introduced to wood and metal working, modeling and casting, and digital fabrication. In the sculpture program we focus on exploring ideas while growing technical skills.
Fine Arts Course Highlights
ARTS H202 Reframed: Enactment and Reenactment in Popular Culture, Digital Media, and Contemporary Art
This course examines how culture, social media and art engage with themes of reenactment. Through re-creation – Civil War reenactments, Comedy Central’s Drunk History, “re”-performance art, avatars, and working together on a scavenger hunt art project—we explore identity and history.
ARTS H224 Computer and Printmaking
Computer-generated images and printmaking techniques. Students will create photographic, computer processed, and directly drawn images on lithographic polyester plates and zinc etching plates. Classwork will be divided between the computer lab and the printmaking studio to create images using both image processing software and traditional printmaking methods, including lithography, etching, and silk-screen. Broad experimental approaches to printmaking and computer techniques will be encouraged. Individual and group critiques will be employed.
Fine Arts Stories
Lighting a Path in the Visual Arts
Don't let anyone tell you there's no future in art. Check out the work Bryn Mawr alumnae/i are doing in fine arts.
Fine Arts FAQ
Here are some thing you may want to know about studying fine arts in the Bi-Co.
The fine arts program at Haverford centers around five disciplines: drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture.
You must take foundational courses in every discipline, but once the introductory courses are complete, you may select one discipline for advanced study.
Yes, lots of students take just one or two art courses. Preference will be given to fine arts majors and minors, especially in upper level courses.
Yes! You may take one fine arts course and one related course like art history for credit during study abroad.
Art as a Way of Life
"I'm currently pursuing a medical degree, hopefully ultimately becoming a psychiatrist. Instead of abandoning art, I'm really trying to meld art and medicine so I'm a better doctor. What is art but another form of human communication?" — Angela Wang '11
Fine Arts at Bryn Mawr: Living in an Art Gallery
Art in the Bi-Co isn't confined to academics, or even to a club space. For more than half a century, the residents of Rockefeller Hall have been painting the windows of their dorm room doors. From impressionist to abstract to anime, walking through corridors of Rockefeller gives you the impression of living in an art gallery.
Arts News
The Fine Arts program is part of a rich creative life in the Bi-Co. See what's happening in the arts:
Contact Information
Fine Arts in the Bi-Co
Jane Lutnick Fine Arts Center
Mailing Address
370 Lancaster Ave
Haverford, PA 19041
Phone
(610) 896-1267