welcome to the art & art history program

Fine Art History

Visual Culture and Communication

Blackwood Gallery

Sheridan College

painting studio

The Art and Art History Program at Sheridan in Oakville and the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) has offered an unusual and exciting approach to studying art since 1971, emphasizing both studio art and art history. Students in the program attend courses concurrently at both institutions.

Graduate with two prestigious and practical credentials that reflect the program's dual focus:

an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto
(H.B.A. Art and Art History, University of Toronto Mississauga),
and a Diploma in Art & Art History from Sheridan
(Dip. Art & Art History, Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning).

Sheridan offers six core studios that students complete in their initial two years of study: drawing, painting, sculpture/installation, print media, design, and photography. In these studios, students are introduced to contemporary art practices through problem-based learning, which encourages a range of personal approaches and solutions to visual expression. In the upper-level studios, students go on to further expertise in two of the core-studio streams, developing a body of self-directed artwork in a class environment of discussion and exchange.

UTM’s unique and varied programs in art history and visual culture teach multiple approaches to understanding art; traditional methods of analysis and interpretation are balanced with newer approaches rooted in critical theory. Works of architecture, sculpture, painting and other arts eloquently testify to the values and priorities of the societies that created them. Art history provides a key to understanding human cultures in general.

Sheridan Student Card and Access Card/Orientation

At the start of term or just before, we will provide you with your Sheridan username and password. You will need this info to get a Sheridan Student Card and a Sheridan Access Card, which will allow you access to computer labs and to sign out equipment.

Also at the start of term, there will be four Student Registration Stations around the College or you may go to Information Technology Support Centre (C128). All of these locations will be set up to take an ID photograph and provide you with student cards and access cards. You will need to provide your Sheridan username and password. If you are enrolled in AAH courses in Design, Photo or Fourth-Year Print, you will also need to pay your Adobe License Fee of $100 BEFORE you are eligible to get these cards. Pay your Adobe License fee in D 100 / Reg Office.

Student and access cards will also be available on September 2, the date of the UTM student orientation at Sheridan. A morning orientation session will be held first at UTM, and a bus will bring students to Sheridan for the afternoon, starting with lunch at 1 p.m. Lunch is followed by a Sheridan orientation, then break out for programs. Our program talk will occur on the mezzanine level of the Annie Smith Centre. The bus will return to UTM around 4 p.m.

To All Incoming Art And Art History Students from Program Coordinator John Armstrong:

Welcome to the Art & Art History Program! You are the thirty-eighth incoming class, and you have chosen a program of fine arts that we feel is very special: we offer concurrent academic experiences at two outstanding post-secondary institutions through studio training at Sheridan and art history studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). You will graduate with two prestigious and practical credentials, reflecting the program's dual focus: a diploma in Art & Art History from Sheridan, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto.

To respond to evolving student demands, Art & Art History has consistently grown and diversified. And we continue to do so. This program began in 1971 with 4 students; it grew to 25 students in 1972, 191 in 1991, and our current enrolment is approximately 400. ...
See all of John Armstrong's letter