Art

David Bithell

Chair, Creative Arts

bithelld@sou.edu
541-552-7033

Professor	Assistant Professor	Emeritus Professor
David Bithell	Michael Parker	Marlene Alt
Miles Inada		Wes Chapman
Erika Leppmann	Senior Instructor 2	Betty LaDuke
	Jennifer Longshore	Greer Markle
		Margaret Sjogren
	Adjunct Professor
	Scott Malbaurn, Director of the Schneider Museum of Art

The Art program is committed to professional art training within the context of a liberal arts education. The program is an essential part of SOU’s mission to prepare students for an active life as perceptive, creative, and conscientious citizens and professionals. Art students are interested in investigating, developing, and refining their understanding of artistic production, theory, and history within the dynamic intellectual atmosphere of The Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.

Majors

The studio-intensive program centered on faculty mentorship and student collaboration , the Art major is designed for students wanting to become creative arts professionals. The curriculum puts students in the studio from their first day on campus and centers on five areas:

Creative processes
Techniques
Professional practices
Theory and history of visual culture
Daily studio practice

Committed to a rigorous and interdisciplinary approach, the Art program challenges students to be innovative and responsible leaders in the field.

Faculty/pedagogy

Headed by a faculty of professional artists and scholars that exhibit and present work nationally and internationally, we integrate a strong grounding in contemporary art with historical and interdisciplinary approaches to visual media and culture. We share a commitment to preparing new generations of arts professionals through hands-on instruction, encouraging risk-taking, intellectual curiosity, and imaginative problem solving. We work in close collaboration with SOU’s pioneering Emerging Media & Digital Arts program, encouraging the interplay of ideas at the intersection of the fine arts, digital technology, and a variety of emerging new media.

Facilities

The Center for the Visual Arts invites participation in a variety of innovative programs, projects, and exhibitions throughout the year. Students actively investigate artistic concepts and techniques with the support of spacious, well-equipped facilities. Classroom studios support a diverse range of media and student-run galleries provide the opportunity to develop practical skills involving arts exhibition, preparation, curating, and marketing.