Art & Art History

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Art & Art History

Kittredge Hall
1500 N. Warner St. #1072
Tacoma, WA 98416-1072

253.879.2806

art@pugetsound.edu

Chair

Kriszta Kotsis

253-879-3705

kkotsis@pugetsound.edu

Administrative Support

KC Bitterman

kbitterman@pugetsound.edu

Studio Lab Technician

Dale Compton

dcompton@pugetsound.edu

Curator of Collections and Exhibitions

Peter Stanley

253.879.3701

pstanley@pugetsound.edu

Program Description

What is art? What is its purpose? How does art contribute to our culture? How does it provide insight into being human? What role does art play in constructing meaning? How does "thinking with your hands" expand ways of knowing? How does studying the development of art and creative expression through the ages help you understand our world and the human condition?

The Department of Art and Art History offers multifaceted frameworks for the consideration and creation of visual expressions of power, cosmologies, identity, yearning, love, loss, hope, terror, tradition, and resistance. Studio art students take courses in painting, printmaking, digital media, and three-dimensional art, learning a range of techniques and processes in well-equipped studio spaces. Art history students study diverse artistic traditions and develop strong analytical, research, presentation, and writing skills.

Studio Art Art History

Who You Could Be

Artist/Art historian
Teacher/Professor
Museum curator
Museum educator
Gallery manager
Architect/Landscape artist
Graphic designer
Librarian/Archivist

What You'll Learn

Communicate in a range of textual and/or visual mediums with impact and sophistication
Examine art and its global history through various approaches and by drawing on the critical analysis of visual and textual information
Recognize how art shapes and reflects culture and society in the past and the present
Develop independent projects that enhance creative and critical thinking and innovative problem solving
Connect creative processes with interdisciplinary themes and questions
Engage with emerging technologies informed by a foundation in traditional craft and artistic practices

ALUMNI

Andrew Griebeler ’09

"Studying art history at Puget Sound provided me with the tools required to succeed in my graduate program and in my research: a critical eye and an attention to detail, skills in written and oral communication, and an ability to evaluate and combine different kinds of evidence."

Sample Courses

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ARTS 201 Drawing into Painting: A Contemporary Approach to the Figure

This course explores drawing and painting as a means of seeing more acutely, examining cultural narratives, and experimenting with a range of materials. Technical skills are fused with conceptual inquiries and critical analysis. This course emphasizes the interplay between intellectual, expressive, and material aspects of the creative process as they relate to recording and relating visual relationships, expressing spatial and temporal phenomena, and critically engaging with art historical, contemporary, and personal issues and narratives relating to the figure and/or body. The course will begin with explorations of different drawing media and approaches and then shift to painting processes. Additionally, an examination of contemporary trends in art informs the themes and approaches explored in this course.

Code

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

Prerequisites

ARTS 101 or 103.

ARTS 282 Beginning Printmaking: Lithography and Screen Print

This beginning printmaking course introduces students to technical aspects and creative possibilities of lithography and screen printing. Planographic processes that are introduced include stone lithography and plate lithography. Students learn several non-toxic screen print procedures, including paper and fluid stencils, reduction printing and crayon resists. There is an overview of historical and contemporary works in each area.

Code

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

Prerequisites

For Studio Art majors and minors: ARTS 101 or 103 (no prerequisites for other students).

ARTS 288 Art from Code

This course explores the use of computer code as a form of creative practice and artmaking. Students discuss the history, practice, and current trends in computational art through a blend of theoretical and project-based learning. Through weekly examples and projects, students learn core concepts of computer science and apply them to the creation of digital artworks. Creative coding, the practice of writing computer programs for creative purposes, is practiced in many different domains of art and design. These include graphic design, generative art, interaction design, digital fabrication, data visualization, and installation art. To explore these different applications of creative coding, this course is oriented around four core topics: generative design, interaction design, data-driven art, and virtual environments. Prior experience with computer programming is not required.

Code

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

ARTH 362 Art, Religion, and Power in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

This course explores the artistic traditions of the Late Antique and Byzantine periods from the earliest surviving monuments of Christian art of the mid-3rd century to the monuments of the Late Byzantine Empire up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The course examines how the interactions between the Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian traditions produced the art of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, and accentuates the visual, social, and religious continuities and ruptures between these traditions. Works of art are examined with particular attention to their original function, context, and intended audience, and are presented from a range of methodological perspectives. Topics of special interest include: the formation of Christian art; images of power and authority; representations of gender; the function and decoration of liturgical spaces; icons, image theory, and the Iconoclastic Controversy; depictions of the secular world; Byzantine art beyond the borders of the empire.

Code

Artistic and Humanistic Perspectives

Prerequisites

Second year standing or above.

ARTH 371 East Asian Calligraphy

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the history and techniques of East Asian calligraphy as one of the supreme artistic accomplishments in China, Japan, and Korea. It combines the historical study of this art form with its hand-on practice as an art performance. Emphasis is put on the understanding of the multi-function of calligraphy in East Asian society.

Code

Artistic and Humanistic PerspectivesLanguage

Students working in the digital media studio in Professor Mare Hirsch's digital media course.

Students working in the Mac Lab in Professor Mare Hirsch's digital media course.

Art students creating in the print making studio — Students working in the print making studio

Gallery view of the 2023 Senior Exhibition — The 2023 Senior Exhibition included a wide range of media and showcased a body of work from each of our graduating studio art majors.

Gallery view of the 2023 Art Students Annual Exhibition — The 2023 Art Students Annual Exhibition, our juried show, offered an overview of the exciting creative work in our studio art courses.

Gallery view of 2022 Senior Exhibition Opening — 2022 Senior Exhibition Opening

Gallery view of 2022 Senior Exhibition — 2022 Senior Exhibition

Gallery view of 2022 Art Students Annual Exhibition — 2022 Art Students Annual Exhibition

Gallery view of 2021 Senior Exhibition — 2021 Senior Exhibition

Senior Art History seminar field trip to LA, Spring 2019 — Professors Linda Williams and Kriszta Kotsis lead an annual field trip for the art history senior seminar. In spring 2019, the trip to Los Angeles included visits to the Getty Villa, Getty Museum, and LA County Museum of Art. Past trips have included Portland and the Bay Area.

Students painting portraits on canvas — Art students painting in Prof. Elise Richman's class

Students in Connections 370 Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies — In spring 2015 and 2018, Professor Elise Richman's Connections 370 class (Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies) culminated in a three-week study abroad experience centered in Rome, Italy.

Students on CONN 370 in Rome — In spring 2015 and 2018, Professor Elise Richman's Connections 370 class (Rome Sketchbooks and Space Studies) culminated in a three-week study abroad experience centered in Rome, Italy.

A display of three colorful chairs with artworks painted on them — 2018 Senior Art Show at Kittredge Gallery

Works in the 2019 Senior Art Show in Kittredge Gallery — The 2019 Senior Art Show in Kittredge Gallery featured a variety of works from our graduating studio art majors. This annual show is a great culmination of the students' artistic progress during their time at Puget Sound.

2018 Senior Trip to Portland — Professor Elise Richman led a senior Studio Art major field trip to Portland, OR in Fall 2018.

Students painting art in a studio workspace — Art students in a painting class with Elise Richman

Art students at a workshop integrating bioluminescence with microcontrollers — In spring 2017, some art students took part in an Art | Sci Salon event including bio-art, such as bioluminescence with microcontrollers.

Colorful 3D sculpture creation on display in a gallery — An exhibit piece from the 2020 Students Arts Annual in the Kittredge Gallery

Mary Thompson '19 presenting her summer research at the fall research symposium — Mary Thompson ’19, an art history major and French studies minor, was awarded a summer research grant in 2018 for her project exploring the ways in which female nudes painted by Amedeo Modigliani confront both racial and gender identities.

Field trip to Tacoma Art Museum — Field trips to local venues, like this visit to the Tacoma Art Museum for Art History 294 circa 2016, are a benefit of being located near so many resources.

Professor and student discussing a painting — Elise Richman with a student in the painting studio

Student working on a sculptural piece in the studio — A student working on a piece in the sculpture studio

Smoke Farm painting retreat north of Seattle — Art 350 Intermediate Painting students sometimes engage in an overnight landscape painting retreat at Smoke Farm.

Student and professor looking at a painting in the studio — Art students painting class with Elise Richman

A 3D cube sculpture outside a university building — Sculpture from the 2015 Annual Student Art Show

People looking at art on display in a gallery setting — People gather at the 2015 Senior Art Show and Reception at Kittredge Gallery

Experiential Learning

There are various experiential learning opportunities for our majors:

Many Art History and Studio Art majors have received competitive summer research grants.
Students have held professional internships, e.g., Libby Regan ’25 at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2023; Kate Threat ’20 at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art in Washington, D.C. in 2018.
Students have traveled around the globe (Mexico, Japan, Italy, Spain, England, Java, and more) to see art and architecture with the support of the Offield Travel Fellowships available to Studio Art and Art History majors.
Students have participated in the curation of exhibitions in Kittredge Gallery and Collins Library.

Learn more about Experiential Learning

Stories

The Printmaker

Janet Marcavage is excited to be back working with students in Kittredge Hall after teaching remotely from her garage for the past year. The distinguished professor of art and art history is currently working on a series of…

Message and Meaning

Last fall, students in Professor Elise Richman’s Intermediate Drawing course presented compelling self-portraits that provided a window into their hearts and minds. Displayed for three weeks in Kittredge Gallery, the charcoal…

Students

Prisms of Feminine Power

When some people look at an ancient marble statue, they see the product of a single artist’s work. When Chlöe Brew ’21 looks at it, she sees a complex web of cultural influences and clues about how concepts like beauty, gender…

Where Graduates Work

Where our graduates work:

Syracuse University (director of digital strategy)
University of Iowa (associate professor of art history)
Mark Morris Dance Group, NYC (institutional giving manager)
Studio MLA, Los Angeles (design associate)
Seattle Art Museum (SAM gallery manager)
Whatcom Intergenerational High School, Bellingham, WA (art teacher)
Independent artist

Learn more about what graduates do After Puget Sound

Where Graduates Continue Studying

Where our students continue their studies:

Harvard University, Cambridge (Ph.D., art history)
Hunter College, NYC (M.A., art history)
New York University, Institute of Fine Arts (Ph.D., art history)
University of California, Berkeley (Master of Landscape Architecture; Ph.D., art history)
University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury (M.F.A.)
Washington University, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art, St. Louis (M.F.A.)

Meet the Faculty

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Kriszta Kotsis

Professor and Chair, Art and Art History

kkotsis@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Kotsis studies images of Late Antique and Byzantine women, and teaches courses on Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Western Medieval, and Islamic art, and art historical methodology.

Read the full bio

Elise Richman

Professor, Art and Art History

erichman@pugetsound.edu

An active working artist, Prof. Richman's current work is inspired by rippling water and focuses on color interaction and context. She teaches 2-D design courses, drawing, and painting.

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Zaixin Hong

Professor, Art and Art History

zhong@pugetsound.edu

Besides being widely published in the research fields of 10th, 14th, and 20th-century Chinese art, Prof. Hong teaches a range of courses from first-year seminars to advanced classes.

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Kelsey Eldridge

Visiting Assistant Professor, Art and Art History

keldridge@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Eldridge '12 is interested in numismatics and sigillography. Her research explores Byzantine material culture in the medieval and early modern Italian peninsula.

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Janet Marcavage

Professor, Art and Art History

jmarcavage@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Marcavage specializes in printmaking and teaches a variety of classes on various print media techniques, including lithography, etching, relief, and more, plus experimental, photo-mechanical and digitally augmented methods.

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Mare Hirsch

Assistant Professor, Art & Art History

mehirsch@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Hirsch's art, research, and teaching focus on ways technology can foster new forms of creative expression. Her work is often data-driven, such as a recent multimedia installation that visualizes data from Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment.

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Sophie Loubere

Adjunct Professor, Art & Art History

sloubere@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Loubere is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, focusing on printmaking, handmade paper, and alternative photography. An award-winning artist, she has exhibited widely and taught at various institutions in the US.

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Ronda Peck

Adjunct Professor, Art & Art History

rpeck@pugetsound.edu

Prof. Peck, a ceramic artist with a vibrant studio practice, teaches courses on wheel throwing and handbuilding. Prof. Peck also offers non-credit Community Ceramics courses at Puget Sound.

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FACILITIES

Painting Studio

Our Painting Studio has a state-of-the-art ventilation system and art lighting, featuring skylights across the space and a variety of artificial options. Students have their own workstations and storage.

Printmaking Lab

The Printmaking Lab hosts a variety of equipment including a lithography press, two etching presses, many screenprinting platens and screens, and light units for photo-based processes.

Students working in the digital media studio

Digital Media Studios

The Digital Media Studios are equipped with high-powered GPU computers, photography/videography equipment, an array of printers and drawing machines, and digital fabrication equipment such as a laser cutter and CNC mill.

Kittredge Gallery

Through gallery exhibitions and artist lectures focused on expanding students exposure to core issues in contemporary art, Kittredge Gallery serves as a teaching tool for the Puget Sound Art & Art History Department and supports the liberal arts curriculum of the university as a whole. With its history of strong exhibitions by regional and nationally recognized artists, Kittredge Gallery also contributes to the broader cultural community of the Pacific Northwest.

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