The Balanced Curriculum
The Balanced Curriculum at Whittier College is a hybrid Studio Art + Art History & Visual Culture Track that is primarily for future K-12 art teachers.
The track provides coursework in Studio Art and Art History & Visual Culture, and it aligns with the California requirements for the single-subject art credential. Students take 21 units in studio art and 15 units in Art History & Visual Culture. They can choose to do their senior presentation in either Studio Art or Art History & Visual Culture.
What You'll Learn, See, and Do as Balanced Curriculum Major
- learn the foundational principles of drawing, painting and sculpture
- learn to analyze and interpret works of art, both historical and contemporary
Sample Courses in the Balanced Curriculum
Drawing I
In this class, students learn the fundamentals of observational drawing. From line drawings to gesture drawings, perspective drawings to figure drawings, students learn to transcribe the world around them onto a flat picture plane.
Intro to Visual Culture & Media
Topics include public visual spaces; Visibility, Political Power, and Activism; Art & Feminism; Sports & Visual Culture; Family Pictures; Computer Vision & Networked images; and Surveillance, Mapping, Visibility & Ethics.
The information provided here is meant to provide an overview of the required courses.
Refer to the College Catalog for detailed information about course prerequisites, course frequency, and additional course requirements.
Five Art History Courses
ART 102 Image/Text in Visual Media
ART 205 Western Art: Cave Paintings to the Gothic Cathedral
ART 206 Western Art: 15th through 20th Centuries
ART 207 Women Artists from the Renaissance to the Present
ART 208 Introduction to Visual Culture/Media
ART 209 History of Photography
ART 366 From Watteau to Goya: European Art of the Eighteenth Century
ART 368 Age of Impressionism
ART 369 Picasso to Dali: Avant-garde art, 1900-1935
ART 370 Contemporary Art
ART 371 Modern and Contemporary Latinx Visual Culture
ART 372 Media Theory
ART 381 Art of Mexico
ART 382 Art of Colonial Spanish America
Four Foundation Courses
ART 100 Introduction to Art 2-D
ART 101 Introduction to Art 3-D
ART 210 Drawing I
ART 288 Seminar in Visual Thinking
Two Intermediate Courses
ART 200 Digital Photography I
ART 222 Painting I
ART 252 Sculpture I
One Advanced Course
ART 388 Advanced Art Seminar