Art department celebrates 100 years

Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008

USU’s Caine School of the Arts’ Department of Art is celebrating their 100-year anniversary, kicking off the celebration with a faculty art exhibit in the newly renovated Twain B. Tippetts Gallery, located in the Chase Fine Arts building.

Carolyn Cardenas, head of the art department, said the art department is “a fabulous program all across the board.”

The art department has eight areas of emphasis for 350 undergraduate students, and a graduate program with 22 current students, who Cardenas said are the “hardest working students” at USU.

“The BFA (bachelor’s of fine arts) and MFA (master’s of fine arts) are professional degrees, so you can’t fool around,” Cardenas said. “We have the best students in the whole university, because they have to put in the kind of hours you would expect from a medical or law student, because what they are making is a labor of love, representing the deepest parts of themselves, so it is very time consuming, sometimes over 100 hours for one project.”

The art department was founded in 1908, Cardenas said, after the first department head, Calvin Fletcher, had gone to New York and studied with Robert Henri, a great famous American school painter.

“It all really started with painting,” Cardenas said. “They had come back from New York and were painting landscapes in the area, and it just sort of bubbled up from there until it became a college.”

Since 1908 the art department has grown from a four-teacher faculty to a broadly trained 19, Cardenas said.

“The faculty come from all over,” she said.

Cardenas said she is from Ohio, and other professors are from Nebraska, Mississippi, Yale, Rhode Island, Ruckers, Oregon and even Korea.

“What makes this department unique at the moment is its history. All of the people who have lived and worked here over the last 20 years, their commitment has been about their craftsmanship, but they are also tied to the land. Many of the people are here because of the land, there is a connection between the land and every single person that is here,” Cardenas said.

Ashley Cottle, junior majoring in graphic design, who attended the faculty gallery opening Monday night said, “This is beautiful work, the faculty are all very talented and passionate about their art. I want to have that same kind of passion.”

Cottle has been a part of the art department for three years and said she has been pleased with her experience.

“I am very impressed and happy with the education I am getting,” she said.

Cardenas said all of the majors are competitive, but the most competitive program is the graphic design program.

“We actually turn away graphic design students because it is such a highly demanded major, and we don’t have enough teachers to teach it,” she said.

Cardenas said during the next few years graphic design will be even more cutting edge, with 3-D motion design.

“We have a great graphic design program, we have alumni that are working for Pixar, we have alumni who worked on a section of ‘Lord of the Rings.’ Our graphic design guys really know what they are doing about motion design, so that’s what we are going to do the next few years with that,” she said.

As for other emphasis areas, Cardenas said the ceramics program is “one of the top in the country.”

“We have students who come from all over the world to study ceramics,” she said.

Cardenas said the photography program is also expanding.

“Our photography program is taking off into digital, but we are also focusing on the past, with 19th century photography,” she said, “because it is also about handing down from master to apprentice, but we are stepping into the next dimension with technology.”

Cardenas said she is excited about the future of the department, and hopes to accommodate many more students who are “propelled by the creative energy.”

“There is something inside all of us that demands that we respond to the creative spirit, and art is the easiest thing because it just takes something in your hand to make a line,” she said.

“This year during admissions, there is a form you can fill out that asks what you would like to take at the university, and 2,000 students bubbled in drawing,” Cardenas said. “If the university would give us more faculty we would take as many students as would come.”

Cardenas said the faculty exhibit for the 100-year anniversary will be on display Oct. 6 – 30, and everyone is invited to come look at the “talented faculty artwork.”


Photo by Cameron Peterson