Art Department

Learning Outcomes

Art History

Students who complete the Art major with an Art History thesis will have demonstrated understanding of and critical engagement with the objects and scholarship of Art History, the ability to complete a significant independent research project and to present that work in writing and in discussion. Majors will be able to:

• execute a systematic and sustained research project
• choose and define a complex topic from the major field
• independently investigate that topic with the support of an adviser
• develop and pursue critical methodologies appropriate to the research topic
• perform formal analyses of a variety of objects
• use appropriate secondary sources as part of that analysis and otherwise engage with the relevant field of study and existing scholarship in the field
• respond appropriately to feedback
• contribute new knowledge, whether through innovation or synthesis or exposition
• write a clear, persuasive and coherent document that is substantially longer than a traditional term paper or project
• execute a systematic and sustained creative project
• choose and define a question and articulate a vision and design a project to pursue that question
• execute that project independently with the support of an adviser
• create engaging, engaged artwork
• respond to other work through both writing and the creation of art objects
• articulate their own art practice
• present, discuss and defend their work orally.

The primary assessment tool for learning in the major at Reed and the level of student achievement in the major area is the senior thesis; the junior qualifying examination, which assesses a student's readiness for thesis, provides a second assessment tool. For more information on the senior thesis and the junior qualifying examination, see degree requirements and planners.

Studio Art

Students who complete the Art major with a Studio Art thesis will be able to execute a sustained, interesting and original art project, to locate their work in the appropriate artistic, historical, and theoretical contexts, to critique their own practice, and to present their work in writing and in discussion. Majors will be able to:

• execute a systematic and sustained creative project
• choose and define a question and articulate a vision and design a project to pursue that question
• execute that project independently with the support of an adviser
• create engaging, engaged artwork
• articulate their own art practice
• locate their work within its theoretical and historical art context
• respond to other work through both writing and the creation of art objects
• reflect on and assess the quality of their own work and how it might be carried further
• respond appropriately to feedback
• write a clear, persuasive and coherent document that is substantially longer than a traditional term paper or project;
• execute a systematic and sustained research project
• choose and define a complex topic from the major field
• independently investigate that topic with the support of an adviser
• develop and pursue critical methodologies appropriate to the research topic
• perform formal analyses of a variety of objects
• use appropriate secondary sources as part of that analysis and otherwise engage with the relevant field of study and existing scholarship in the field
• independently investigate that topic with the support of an adviser
• present, discuss and defend their work orally.

The primary assessment tool for learning in the major at Reed and the level of student achievement in the major area is the senior thesis; the junior qualifying examination, which assesses a student's readiness for thesis, provides a second assessment tool. For more information on the senior thesis and the junior qualifying examination,see degree requirements and planners.