Studio Art

The Honors Tutorial College offers a rigorous program in studio art that encourages disciplinary focus within a meaningful interdisciplinary context, cultivating both rigor and breadth for highly motivated and self-disciplined students. Individual curriculums reflect intensive practical training, scholarly research in art history, critical theory and relevant research fields, opportunities for collaboration, and professional experience. The program’s mission is to train highly skilled artists with a broad understanding of contemporary art. The program also emphasizes critical skill development and a strong intellectual framework for student work. The program prepares students for entry into MFA courses of study and other related professions in the field.

Program Overview

Students are required to take one tutorial per semester that addresses a topic of relevance to the student’s concentration. Tutorials encompass a diverse range of subjects including: practical training; scholarly research, whether in the School of Art + Design, Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts, or the university; and professional experience.

The tutorials in the first year are designed to complement and intensify introductory level coursework, providing a more in-depth studio experience. Second year tutorials may focus on studio areas, honing a medium of concentration while exposing students to a diversity of contemporary art practice, or relevant areas of scholarly research.

In the third year, students begin research on a studio topic that will culminate in the fourth year as the thesis exhibition and paper. In the spring semester of the third year, students submit a written proposal for the written thesis/exhibition in an interdisciplinary arts context. In the fourth year, students pursue their specialization in depth, developing a body of work for exhibition and producing a written thesis based on original research that relates to their artistic interests.

Coursework

Coursework is developed in conjunction with and the approval of the Director of Studies. Programs of study typically include introductory and advanced studio, introductory and advanced art history, internships, professional practice, and collateral studies with the School of Art + Design, Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts, and the university.

Required courses include:
HTC Freshman Seminar
Studio Foundations: Description, Function, Image, and Structure
Freshman and Junior Composition
Tutorials: 8 tutorials, including 2 senior thesis tutorials

Eligibility

Applicants are selected on the basis of superior academic ability and the potential for self-motivated study and research. Portfolios are evaluated on their technical facility, conceptual and aesthetic integrity, and evidence of experimentation.

Applicants may submit their portfolio to Slideroom. Doing so will offer the student eligibility not only for admission consideration to HTC Studio Art but for talent-based scholarships offered by the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts. Portfolios should include 10 images that document the student's best original works of art in any media. Video/audio clips are also acceptable.

Director of Studies

Melissa Haviland
Director of Studies
Studio Art Program of Study
Seigfred Hall 528
Athens, OH 45701
haviland@ohio.edu 

About

Melissa Haviland’s print installations are inspired by the economics of the objects and materials that build our everyday lives, evaluating them as totems and commodities. Haviland uses domestic objects as a cultural lens to explore relationships: personal and socio-political, evaluating Western culture’s colonial history and its effects on class divisions and struggles. Haviland’s artwork twines together screen print, handmade paper, pattern, and the multiple. She received a BFA from Illinois State University in 1998 and an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002. Currently, Haviland is a professor at Ohio University where she teaches printmaking and papermaking and is the chair of the print area and the director of study of the Honors Tutorial College Studio Art program. www.melisshaviland.com

Educational Background:

2002 M.F.A., University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1998 B.F.A., Illinois State University