Keystone College Fine Arts Blog

I have been asked the question: Why would a prospective student want to go to a Liberal Arts college like Keystone to obtain a degree in art or, more specifically, design?

From my perspective as a graphic design instructor and as an experienced publication designer, I have to say that it is essential to have a liberal arts education, at least at the undergraduate level to succeed as a graphic designer. Artistic skills, whether they be traditional or contemporary as in painting or digital painting are necessary, but what sets applied artists apart from each other is how they show what they think, sense, feel, and perceive. It is the developed personality of a designer that impresses most prospective employers or clients. A good designer can engage in many subject areas and apply their visual creativity to many topics. Therein lies the necessity for the liberal arts education. A good designer faces many challenges when serving clients. The more subject areas that a new designer is familiar with, the better the chance that he or she will be able to develop an effective visual solution to any design problem.

The Liberal Arts degree with an emphasis in art and a concentration in design can be the best education for many students wishing to get started in the field of graphic design.

Wow! We had a great time on the annual fall bus trip to New York City. Thank you to the Keystone Art Society and their work to organize the trip. Thank you to the faculty organizers. Hopefully, everyone got a good look at some “REAL” art and not this digital stuff we tend to look at too much of the time. I particularly enjoyed our visit to the Center for Book Arts guided by Sally Tosti, our visit to the 50 Books / 50 Book Cover exhibit at the American Institute for the Graphic Arts, and my trip to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). Don’t miss the annual Spring Bus Trip. We might plan the Gallery Slam in Chelsea. What do you think Ward?

Often students struggle to feel secure in one area of study. The solution to that is to explore as many disciplines as possible while completing your baccalaureate degree. While many general education requirements are built into your baccalaureate studies at Keystone College, you also have opportunities to study at least two disciplines quite fully in the fine art programs. Two areas of interdisciplinary study exist in the art programs at Keystone that are specifically designed to be interdisciplinary studies.

Bachelors degree in Art Education:
One is the BS in Teaching: Art Education K-12 program. The interdisciplinary studies in this program are art and education. The terms art education or art educator form the synthesis of these two major areas of study into one, that actually becomes a third discipline that is not just education and not just art but fully art education.

Specialize in Art Therapy:
Another area that is not fully designed but that we offer to our students as an area of specialization is art therapy. Again art is a dominant component and must be fully understood. Psychology becomes the other area of study to be infused with art to create another interdisciplinary area of study. In both cases you have a third program that is developed out of the combination of the other two. These are interdisciplinary studies programs.

Interdisciplinary Art:
Interdisciplinary art on the other hand strikes a balance between more than one art concentration. A printmaker might also study photography and so develop an interdisciplinary form of art that fuses the two. You see more and more artists branching out into art forms that for some reason resonate for them. You now see many sculptors who also paint their sculptures therefore suggesting a deep study of sculpture and painting concurrently. This is available in our BA in Visual Arts program.

Graphic Design as Interdisciplinary Study:
As a graphic design instructor, I have developed coursework that emphasizes the necessity for interdisciplinary knowledge in most everything that students design. All design is a visual representation in an effort to communicate what people in other disciplines need to communicate to their audiences. It is wonderful to see a student, that is comfortable with: language, math, science, music, anthropology, psychology, education, literature, and other disciplines, focus their design work on these compatible areas of study while working to become a graphic designer. This interest and even expertise in other disciplines helps focus them on topics that will make the work they do as a designer more personal and more effective.

If you are a high school junior or senior, you should now be preparing for entry into a secondary educational program. If your plans are to attend an art school such as is available at Keystone College, then you will need to be developing a portfolio as one of the requirements for admission.

• Your portfolio should include 12 to 15 works of art in a variety of media.
• One of your works must be a self-portrait.
• Work with your high school art teacher to develop this portfolio for you will need his/her recommendation letter as another requirement for acceptance.

We at Keystone provide a very strong foundation program. We offer many studio concentration options, and we make sure you are taught and learn in the liberal arts tradition which means you are required to explore other areas of study such as science, math, English and language, history, anthropology, political science, computer technology, business, pschology, and more.

I wish you good fortune in your efforts to obtain a placement at a technical school, a two-or four-year college or university like Keystone College, or simply for some employment you might want or need after you graduate from high school.

Dave

David W. Porter, Associate Professor of Fine Art at Keystone College

Allison Dowling is now concluding her education at Keystone College to teach art. By navigating our program she will be certified to teach art in the state of Pennsylvania and in many other states who share similar qualifications for teaching art. She looks forward to her final semester of student teaching. Alli is, first, a very positive, energetic, and fine artist. With art as her foundation and with the combination of many other academic courses, particulary Education and art education courses, she will go out into the education field with a strong interdisciplinary degree in art education to her credit. Allison is a leader at the college level as Chairperson of the Keystone College Student Chapter of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association. She is also a leader in attitude and spirit, encouraging all who come in contact with her to succeed. I honor her, her work as an artist, and her future work as an art educator. Please view an example of one of her prints from this past year.

At our April 15th Student Senate meeting I was asked to renew my commitment as a Faculty Advisor to the Student Senate. Hey, I love this stuff, and this is one thing to which I just won’t say no, at least for another year. The Student Senate has been a small but scrappy group during the 2007-2008 academic year at Keystone College and I have had fun advising them at their weekly meetings, in a variety of campus wide activities and I have had fun with them in a variety of playful campus activities. I am still healing from the Paint-ball Skirmish trip to Jim Thorpe. It is these Student Senators that manage much of the student activities budget and their creativity in providing opportunities for all their student peers is awesome. I look forward to more fun and student-powered decision making next year with the returning members and with the new members that will be joining over the summer and into the Fall of 2008.

Ward Roe presented photographs of homeless people who are clients of the Community Intervention Center as an exhibit to provide the homeless with an opportunity to give back to the CIC through the sale of the photographs to other community members. I bought one myself, with the idea being that I would have a reminder each day of how lucky I am to be employed and to have a roof over my head. We don’t all have such luxuries. What do you think of this process of photographing the homeless and providing the opportunity for community members to come together to view these images?

Of course I am partial to the Keystone College arts programs since I work here and have been instrumental in developing the two baccalaureate programs we now offer in Visual Art and Art Education, but I also see and hear many reactions to the program by alumni, students who have transferred away and come back, students who have transferred into our programs, and current students. In most cases the take on Keystone College’s arts programs is that you just don’t get the same professional and individualized attention at larger schools in the area, and this seems to be a crucial ingredient in managing quick growth as an artist. I can’t say that we offer apprenticeships, but we do work hard to partner with each student and to help each student find their “voice” as an artist.

What are you looking for in an art program?

I am always looking for ways to engage people in dialogues through design and art. As a designer and art therapist, I have learned the importance of the relationship of art and language, most often represented in graphic design and used for visual communication. Today I would like to offer this opportunity for such a dialogue. I have attached a recent work of art of my own. I encourage you to respond in words and images to this image. Once I see your response, I can respond in the same manner and perhaps our visual dialogue will continue.