To all incoming Art & Art History students:
Welcome to the Art & Art History Program! You are the fortieth incoming class, and this will be a special year with a number of anniversary activities and celebrations planned. 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 at two convocation ceremonies 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 Mississauga.
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. In 1979, the name of the program was changed from "Art Education" to "Art & Art History." Initially, the program focused on preparing secondary-school art teachers, and we offered a three-year Major, with a somewhat restricted range of studio and art history offerings. In 1982, the program expanded to create a professional fine art program and offered a four-year Specialist, in addition to the Major. Our honours degree is now four years in length, whether you choose the Major or Specialist programs.
Art & Art History graduates are now even better prepared to go into teaching art — and do so at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels. Many of our graduates go on to further education in post-graduate and other college programs as well as at the Masters and Ph.D. levels. With, and sometimes without, the support of higher degrees, our graduates work as professional artists and art historians, architects, commercial photographers, illustrators, gallery directors, curators of contemporary and historical art, graphic designers, and in a host of other related professions. In a few years, you will join a large and auspicious group of Art & Art History alumni.
We are very proud of our diverse and accomplished faculty and staff, all of whom are active in their field as exhibiting artists, art historians and curators. I encourage you to try to work with and get to know as many of our faculty as your timetable will allow. Please visit the Staff and Faculty link on this website for information on each studio faculty member and technologist’s professional activities and teaching philosophy; information on our art history faculty is available on the UTM Department of Visual Studies website.
Next academic year, we will offer our year one and two studio courses for six hours a week in one term over 12 weeks. Previously, our year-one and -two studio courses were scheduled for three hours each week over two terms for 24 weeks. Our rationale for making this change is that with our current schedule, our year one and two students take up to seven courses each term; with the new schedule, our year one and two students will take up to five courses each term and still have accomplished the same number of credits at the end of the year. This will provide for a better balance between our students’ studio and academic work.
Our first-year studio offerings now include the following: four sections of Sculpture 1, Design 1, and Print Media 1; five sections in Drawing 1 and Painting 1; six sections of Photo 1.
The art history offerings are semestered, half-credit courses, which gives students flexibility in choosing which periods, media, and cultures to study. Additionally, we have an ever-expanding range of courses that explore the history, production and reception of a range of visual and aural texts, including (but not limited to) photography, new media, popular culture, and advertising; painting, sculpture, architecture, and the built environment; contemporary art and museum culture — and time-based media, including radio, television and film.
We have three 400-level "practice" courses at Sheridan: Art Education Practice, Teaching Art in the School and the Community, and Professional Practices. These courses will complement our 400-level Curatorial Practices course at UTM. All of the practices courses introduce you to career directions that you may wish to consider after graduation.
We have an active visiting artist program at lunch hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Sheridan. Our speakers include Canadian and international artists, art historians, curators, and educators. We hope you will make these presentations part of your routine at Sheridan — we encourage you to bring your lunch.
The award-winning Blackwood Gallery at UTM offers a schedule of changing exhibitions of national and international contemporary art. The gallery offers work/study positions for program students who are OSAP eligible. Additionally, our annual graduating class exhibitions are held at the Blackwood each spring.
Please plan to join program students, Blackwood staff, and Sheridan/UTM faculty and staff for our annual Art and Art History Sandwich Q to be held at the Blackwood Gallery, UTM, on Wednesday 14 September at 5:30 PM. This event will be followed by the opening at the Blackwood Gallery of the Art and Art History Program 40th Anniversary exhibition with work of program alumni. We all look forward to seeing you then.
In short, we will challenge you and keep you very busy over the next eight months. My colleagues join me in wishing you a successful year.
Sincerely,
John Armstrong, Professor and Coordinator
Art & Art History