Painting, Sculpture, Book Arts
Progress toward completion of the art major depends upon a significant and continuing commitment to studio work, as well as a study of historical and contemporary ideas about art. CCS art students are required to:

a) complete 18 units of studio classes and 9 units of non-studio art classes each year. Studio courses involve the making of art. Non-studio art includes art history, art criticism, or art theory. CCS art courses that are considered to be non-studio will be indicated in the quarterly course descriptions.

b) successfully complete the Mid-Residency Review. This review process occurs annually usually during Spring Quarter. Students entering CCS as freshmen (4 year residency) will be reviewed at the end of their sophomore year. Junior level transfer students (2 year residency) will be reviewed at the end of their junior year. You will be informed of your scheduled review date and time. For the mid-residency review students will make a presentation to the core art faculty demonstrating their progress to date. They may also invite additional faculty who may be familiar with their work. Minimum requirements for this presentation include the showing of 6-12 pieces of art with an oral defense of the work. In addition, students will write a statement of at least 500 words that must be distributed to the art faculty at least three days before the Review (see below). Feedback from this review will be given at the time of the review and by written comments that will be retained in the student's permanent file.

c) exhibit a body of original work in the CCS Gallery during their final quarter of instruction. (Arrangements and scheduling of the gallery must be coordinated with Dan Connally. Make sure you schedule the gallery at least two full quarters before the quarter you intend to graduate. Guidelines on how to use the gallery can be obtained from Dan.) In addition, degree candidates must write a 3-5 page statement to accompany their graduating senior exhibit (see below). The statement must be approved by the student's advisor two weeks prior to the show dates.

Writing statements for Mid-Residency Reviews and Senior Exhibitions...
To earn a degree from CCS each art student is required to write two related statements: a Mid-Residency Review Statement and a Graduating Senior Statement.

Each statement will be no fewer than two double-spaced pages and no more than six, and will be written in clear, declarative prose. You are welcome to include any other kind of text or text-based work in your exhibition, but the statements we are talking about here are to be straightforward essays. Your practice as an artist might have its basis in theory, or process, or narrative or emotion but these statements should present your ideas. This does not mean you must forego anecdote and wit in favor of serious sounding rhetoric, and sometimes a story of how you came to make the work might be absolutely essential, but to make this as productive an exercise as it can be, you need to regard all your thoughts and sentiments critically.

In these statements you are functioning as your own best critic, speaking from inside the work, and as with any criticism, what is at issue is first the what and then the why. For example, you might begin with the things themselves:

• What is the work made of?
• What are your attitudes about the materials?
• What does the work look like?
• What do 'technique' and 'style' mean to you (if you think in these terms)?

Then address meaning:

• What is the work about?
• Does your work extend or critique a tradition? If so, how?

The above will begin to explain to the reader and viewer - and perhaps also to you - the sort of discourse in which you imagine the work to participate. Now consider your work in context:

• What is your work intended to do?
• What don't you want? (The so-called 'necessary negatives.')
• What is missing from contemporary art that you would aspire to supply?
• And, this is very important, what would the ideal viewer get from your work?