Mission Statement
From the Undergraduate Program Director.
Julie Schneider - Undergraduate Program Director.
The University's commitment to our principles of art education was emphasized in 1995 when Jane Alexander, Director of the National Endowment for the Arts, celebrated Penn's 239th commencement with an address in which she made an impassioned argument for the value of art to our nation. The innovative atmosphere of this University provides an exciting context for our Program. Among many extraordinary achievements, two significant contributions affecting the nature of contemporary imagemaking have their roots here. Presaging Modernism's concern with time and motion, Penn facilitated Eadweard Muybridge's sequential photographic work on locomotion. In our own era, the creation at Penn of the first computer has led to astounding new ways of creating images. An encounter with this legacy, along with interdisciplinary interaction among Penn's world-renowned Institute of Contemporary Art, Annenberg Center of Communication, Wharton Business School, and the many distinguished Departments of PennDesign, enriches the BA experience. Majors have 24-hour access to private studios and shared support facilities, governed by a pedagogical emphasis on production in the studio. The artificial precision of a grade system is augmented by more subjective but meaningful evaluations generated through contact with a select group of senior critics. The body of knowledge in art has always been in flux, a circumstance that has been accelerated in our century. To ensure exposure to contemporary issues, visual languages and conceptualizations, the Program enlists the service of numerous practicing visiting artists, and engages upperclassmen in senior seminars on critical issues.
Julie Schneider
saecker@design.upenn.edu
PH: 215-898-6757
FAX: 215-573-8127
114 Charles Addams Hall
The University of Pennsylvania
200 South 36th Streeet
Philadelphia PA 19104