Teaching 

Studio art and art history are so intrinsically linked yet teaching styles within the two disciplines remain quite different. In studio art courses, students learn by doing. Even students with a great deal of experience begin their coursework at the early stages of the curriculum with elementary classes in drawing, painting, sculpture and design. This is a purposeful decision on the part of the faculty. To become artists, students must “unlearn” some of their artistic preconceptions to develop and grow.

It’s not unusual for a beginning drawing class to focus on something as simple as a single line or circle, allowing students to perfect their technique before moving on to more complicated projects. Even the most abstract artists should be masters of form and composition. As students progress through the major, professors allow for more freedom of expression since students have demonstrated a mastery of basic artistic principles.

The art history curriculum focuses on artists, art movements and the history of human artistic expression. Since many students have never taken an art history course prior to entering the University of Richmond, it’s fairly typical for students to discover the subject for the first time in an introductory course that spans pre-Western or Western civilization. Introductory courses are typically broad in nature and primarily lecture based, heavily reliant on imagery both on digital slides during lectures and in texts. The Internet and online databases continue to revolutionize the way art history students study art. Intermediate courses focus on narrower time periods, perhaps emphasizing a particular century or artistic period, such as 19th century American art or the French Rococo period. Advanced classes are often presented in seminar format, and adopt very specific focuses with the professor and students spending the entire semester discussing a particular artist or movement, such as Michelangelo or Surrealism, leaving students poised to undertake undergraduate research successfully in a similarly in-depth topic.