The CCS Art Major is a program for self-motivated students who are committed to careers in the visual arts.  They are admitted to the program on the strength of their portfolios, application essays, letters of recommendation and academic performance.  CCS art majors typically experiment across a range of media and take classes in CCS as well as in the Department of Studio Art and in the Department of History of Art. They also have access to courses in the graduate program in Media Arts and Technology. To complete the CCS art program students must continually produce significant studio  work, as well as successfully complete course work devoted to historical and  contemporary concepts, methods and movements in art.

CCS Art is not an "Honors" program (though CCS art majors often make up half the number of participants in the College of Letters and Science Honors Program). Rather it is a context and course of study for carefully selected students, many of whom fit the profile of overall high-achievers. Others are particularly focused students who possess intense creative preoccupations and goals and who want to study and work in a locus of intimate support and challenge. Students choose CCS for two apparently contradictory reasons. They want the maximum of freedom and they want the maximum of guidance. They get both because they are treated from the beginning as uniquely motivated adults.  They are artists among artists.

The Course of Study at CCS

Art majors at CCS follow no set curriculum but instead work very closely with a faculty advisor to determine the course of study most productive and challenging for them.  There are no prerequisites for CCS art classes, no set order of progress.  Students are expected to work independently at a high level and are subject to a formal mid-career review as well as quarterly discussions to insure that they remain on track. Students work in drawing, painting, book arts, hard and soft sculpture and other media. CCS students provide a variety of exhibits to the campus community, as well as occasional “performance art”.

A typical quarter sees an art major taking two studio courses, an art history or theory course as well as the joint CCS/L&S Art Symposium and one or two non-art  courses. CCS students are intellectually ambitious and pursue their interests in the wider campus community taking classes in almost every department including Religious Studies, Philosophy, Psychology and Music. Because they take part in UC’s Education Abroad Program at a rate twice that of the campus average, many take advanced language classes.  Double-majors or unofficial  ‘minors’ are common, and in recent years students in the program have earned additional degrees in Literature, Art History, Computer Science and Anthropology, in each case doing so in four  years. CCS graduates gain entry to the best graduate programs in the US at an extraordinary rate.

Some Practical Aspects of Studying at CCS

CCS art classes are much smaller than ordinary university classes, generally with seven to twelve students. There are approximately twenty-five art majors in the program in any given year.

All CCS students are issued keys to the CCS building, the studios and the computer lab, allowing twenty-four hour, seven-day access.  Juniors and Seniors are assigned personal studio space.  First and second year students may work in the teaching studios anytime there is no class in progress. CCS students have access to well equipped, expertly supervised, wood and metal shops in the Department of Art in the College of Letters and Science.

Within CCS, past and present courses in art include Figure Painting, Experimental Drawing, The Narrative Portrait, Flowers (botanical illustration), Religion and Contemporary Art, Drawing, Painting and the Photograph, Writing About Art, Artists? Books: Print and Text-based Art Forms, Strictly Formal (a sculpture course), Materials and Practices of Painting, Landscape Painting, Plein Aire landscape painting,  Light and Space, The Art of Invention, Words in the hand: An Introduction to Letterpress Printing, Mobile Works (a sculpture course), Redesign of the CCS Building, Figure Drawing,  The Psychedelic Landscape,  Photoshop for Painters, Themed Journals, Diaries and Artists Sketchbooks, and Independent Projects. Courses within the Art Department of the College of Letters and Science include Digital Media, Photography, Printmaking, Painting, Video, and Spoken Word.  In addition the History of Art and Architecture Department offers over 150 courses of interest to CCS art majors.

Students wishing to become professional artists are encouraged to consider CCS. For further information, please contact Prof. Dan Connally at