Arts programs at Dartmouth never force you to choose between building technical skills or academic skills; we embrace the "and". Our faculty are deeply invested in developing creative, imaginative artists as well as critical thinkers. You can explore the cultural underpinnings and economic impacts of great works of the past while collaborating with your classmates to create your own masterpiece, all with the guidance and support of world-class faculty and masters of their crafts.
"As a sculptor teaching in various genres of visual art, my primary goal is to guide students with active, creative, and engaging assignments, to provide inspiring visual resources and reading materials, and, in a broader sense, to facilitate the skill development needed to articulate ideas visually in each chosen discipline."
Learn more about Soo Sunny Park, the Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities Professor of Studio Art
Mary Coffey specializes in the history of modern Mexican visual culture, with an emphasis on Mexican muralism and the politics of exhibition. At Dartmouth, take her course on Constructing and Dismantling Mexican National Identity, and tour Orozco’s most famous murals. "My thinking about the mural has been utterly transformed by this place, by my students, by the questions they ask, and by the things they do with the mural."
Learn more about Mary Coffey, Associate Professor of Art History
Asked about the evolution of his painting, Riley says, “The act of painting doesn’t exist isolated from time; it responds to the artist’s development as a human being, and as you move through life and have different experiences, how you paint changes, subtly or drastically.”
Learn more about Enrico Riley, Associate Professor of Studio Art
“The focus of my research is to encourage people to question abstraction’s role in society themselves, think about constantly obsolescing technology, the role of products made for disposal, and the role of experimental animation.”
Learn more about Jodie Mack, Associate Professor of Film and Media StudiesDartmouth creates a rich academic culture imbued with critical thinking and creativity, one that promotes experimentation, reflection, learning, and leadership. But don't take our word for it. We asked our students to tell us about some of their favorite arts and performing arts courses.
Academics at DartmouthDartmouth Arts NewsStudying the Arts at Dartmouth
A Department of Art History Course
This class completely changed the way I understood the physical and social landscape around me. From Dartmouth campus to cities across America, Professor Heck captivated me with architectural and social themes of American history. She seamlessly wove the transformation of America's social landscape with the building of our physical landscape, showing their symbiotic development. I will take this class with me through life as I travel and continue to learn about the space and places around me!
A Department of Theater Course
Theater 40 was one of my favorite classes. We got to work in Dartmouth's Scene Shop and learn about all the different aspects of technical theater. It was kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure class, where you could work on different projects depending on your interests. I learned a lot about sound and lighting design that I probably never would have learned otherwise.
A Department of Film and Media Studies Course
I thought this would be a pretty individualistic class. Write your proposal, write your story, write your script. But it turns out starting from a place of support when embarking on a creative journey is crucial. Professor Phillips lets you know he’s there every step of the way and builds a support network. I received feedback from every classmate at every stage, not just my final product. It helped me take a step back and get fresh perspective. Come in with a story, come out with a better one.
A Department of Film and Media Studies Course
How often do you analyze an emoji keyboard on your midterm exam? Professor Williams does an amazing job of bringing everyday concepts into the classroom and having us examine seemingly exclusively aesthetic or ‘shallow’ topics academically. After a day of class researching a performance artist who posted and posed as a variety of Instagram “It Girl” tropes and her commentary on ways we construct femininity in the digital age, I realized that my selfies too can be art.
Nobel laureates, government leaders, judges, scientists, writers, scholars, journalists, entertainers—Dartmouth alumni have distinguished themselves in all fields. Here are some notable alumni in the arts and performing arts making a difference in the world.
Learn More About Our Alumni
Major: Studio Art & English
A dual degree in Studio Art and English led Tom Beale to a career as an acclaimed sculptor—shortly after graduating from Dartmouth he became the youngest winner of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Japan–United States Friendship Commission Creative Artists Fellowship. He also created Honey Space, a Chelsea gallery that received media acclaim for its unorthodox approach to curation.
Major: Drama
While a pre-med student at Dartmouth, Marsha took an acting class on a whim, and quickly fell in love with the craft. Her recent roles on Orange is the New Black, Girls, Getting On, and several other TV shows and films have brought her new fame outside of the world of theater, where she has long been acclaimed for roles on and off Broadway.
Major: Visual Studies
An essayist and educator, Meg majored in visual studies at Dartmouth and returned for a MALS degree in creative writing. She now travels globally for research, publishing her insights in consumer and trade media and in Terroir Review, her own award-winning journal of nature, culture, food, and place.
Major: Visual Studies
As resident cartoonist at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Rhode Island, Steve Brosnihan brings joy to patients during hard times. He drew cartoons for The Daily Dartmouth and has contributed to state and national publications. Currently he teaches his "Cartoonagrams" method in hospital and school settings and "conducts" Good Night Lights, a community project that involves blinking lights in support of hospitalized children.
Art History
For the last three decades, James Nachtwey has documented war, famine, and disaster as a photojournalist for Time and for several agencies. His work has received numerous awards and has been displayed in solo exhibitions across the globe. James honed his adventuresome spirit at Dartmouth, where he skied and played rugby, and he recently donated his photographic archive to the College's Hood Museum of Art.
At Dartmouth, we have taken the traditional study abroad model, erased its boundaries, and expanded its parameters. Study abroad here is not an isolated semester in another country. Arranged through Dartmouth's Frank J. Guarini Institute for International Education, these powerful learning experiences are enhanced through faculty mentorship. The curriculum and structure of the school year allow students to follow their research around the world.
Dartmouth's Global Impact
I have written about being a student worker plenty of times in the past, but I have yet to talk about one of my favorite jobs ever: ticket selling at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
This week, I went with my Foreign Study Program (FSP) to Bath, England, for a fun day trip!
The beginning of my music Foreign Study Program experience!
Read along to learn about class visits to Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art.
Ever wanted to use an old-fashioned printing press? Decorate your room with hand-printed art? That's what the Book Arts Center is for.
Dartmouth College is no stranger to the classic college activity of a capella!
Keep reading to find out why I cannot stop writing and talking about Spare Rib, the intersectional feminist zine at Dartmouth.
The Student Wellness Center and all that they offer to help students navigate Dartmouth!
In this post, I talk about an ongoing project to host a student arts showcase in Hanover this February!
Art History explores the visual cultures of diverse peoples, places, and times. Emphasizing critical, historical, and linguistic skills—as well as creativity and innovation—Art History offers a bridge between traditional, language-based fields in the humanities and the creative worlds of art, architecture, and performance. The study of Art History will change the way you see everything from paintings and statues to advertisements and other visual phenomena; it's a way of looking at the world.
At Dartmouth, students studying Art History gain analytical skills that encourage an inquiring approach to visual experience. In addition to training students for further study and employment in the discipline, the faculty equip all students with visual analysis, logical reasoning, critical reading, writing, and public speaking skills that serve them well in many academic disciplines or professions.
Film and Media Studies blends coursework in the theory, history, and criticism of film, television, and new media with instruction in both screenwriting and production in film, video, animation, and gaming. That combination of analysis and creativity prepares students to apply diverse modes of thought as they seek deeper inquiry in a medium of their choice.
The department of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth empowers students to advance their understanding of the discipline by taking at least one course with a production component. Students are encouraged to both shape their emphasis of study and increase their breadth of understanding by taking at least one additional course relevant to their emphasis outside the department. Students may modify Film and Media Studies with another related discipline, and Film and Media Studies can be either the major or the minor in a modified major.
There are as many different ways to study music as there are kinds of music to study. The study of music combines a range of classroom courses with opportunities for performance, concerts, festivals, colloquia, and masterclasses. Each mode of instruction brings together students, faculty, and artists-in-residence in a variety of roles.
The Dartmouth Music department is at the cutting edge of music scholarship, thanks to an internationally acclaimed faculty of composers, performers, conductors, music theorists, historians, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists. Arts and artists flourish, musical journeys are launched and take unexpected turns, and exceptional resources—both human and institutional—support creative work. Students do not have to be music majors or minors to participate in the Hopkins Center ensembles or take the Music Department's Individual Instruction Program lessons.
The study of Studio Art offers students a serious and sustained exploration of the creative processes in visual art. Technical, perceptual and aesthetic issues are addressed in a historical and contemporary context.
The Studio Art major at Dartmouth consists of architecture, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Each discipline's dedicated page further details the classes taught in each area, introduces the faculty who teach them, and shares student work in each area. Classes in the department are structured so that students experience the creative process through a direct and dynamic engagement with visual media. Pedagogy is broad, with equal emphasis on representation and abstraction. Interdisciplinary investigations between studio areas and other departments are also encouraged. A required senior seminar serves as the culminating experience in the major.
Theater is a multidisciplinary form in which all of the arts and humanities intersect. Thus, the study of theater cultivates skills in collaborative, creative, and critical thinking. The theory and practice of theater are inseparable—and mutually beneficial—in this endeavor.
The Dartmouth Theater Department provides students with a distinguished, challenging and integrated course of study in the history, literature, theory and practice of theater—both in the classroom and in production. The department's curriculum prepares the serious theater student for graduate study, a professional career in theater, or both. Faculty members draw on both a depth of experience that spans both the academic and professional theatrical worlds, and they are committed to providing every student with close mentorship and individual attention to foster a deep and lifelong appreciation for theater.
