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The art department at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts encompasses two divisions: Visual Arts (including drawing/design, architectural design, ceramics, media arts, painting and sculpture) and Photography. Students make separate applications to visual arts and photography.
The Visual Arts department at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts encompasses two divisions: Basic Visual Arts (including drawing/design, architectural design, ceramics, media arts, painting and sculpture) and Photography. Students make separate applications to visual arts and photography.
The art department provides a setting where students may experience and explore new horizons of artistic expression under the guidance of committed artists/teachers. The schedule is free of typical time constraints and the studios are stocked with adequate equipment, tools and materials. The department encourages self identity through artistic expression, artistic commitment, critical thinking and exploration of new techniques and media.
Both visual art majors and photographers take drawing and design classes to establish a habit that is fundamental to expression in the visual arts: the habit of looking, seeing and expression perceptions in graphic, painterly and plastic form. Students study drawing as a recording of what is seen and observed and as a visualization of what is nonexistent (imagined forms). They learn to sharpen their powers of observation and tap into their creativity.
Additionally, the development of critical thinking skills, historical knowledge and aesthetic awareness is stressed in group critiques, discussions, slide and video presentations, field trips and guest artist presentations. A formal session on careers and informal individual mentoring on higher education and career concerns are also included in enrichment activities.
Basic Visual Arts DivisionIn addition to drawing, students enrolled in the visual arts division select one art area to pursue in depth. They are encouraged to select an area with which they may not be familiar, to extend the exploratory processes and increase their creativity in another medium as much as possible during their time at the program. Students rank their preferences for an area to study at the time of being interviewed as semifinalists. Because the goal is to balance out small class size across the areas of study, it is not always possible to grant first preferences.
Architectural Design: Students study the role of design and concept in the construction of an object or building and the ways in which design affects a community. They discuss the interrelated roles of citizen and artisan and learn how to evaluate the world around them.
Ceramics: Students explore the visual and tactile processes of interpreting their world through clay. They explore various techniques such as hand building and wheel work, coloring, texture, surface design, raku and traditional firings. Emphasis is placed on building vessels or other forms, from the wet clay stage to the finished product.
Media Arts: Students will focus on imagery and color through hand-drawn design and the digital environment. Emphasis is placed on forming a union with the different art disciplines and, in turn, placing these ideas, both two- and three-dimensional drawn from drawing, illustration, photography, sculpture, etc., by using the computer as a visual arts tool. Students manipulate text, imagery and form using various applications, scanning devices and digital cameras. Preliminary sketches are considered essential to all assignments.
Painting: Students gain experience in still life painting, figure painting and self portraiture, landscapes, expressive use of color, and social themes and commentary in art. They explore effective composition, how to collect ideas and references, and the scope of materials and techniques available to painters.
Sculpture: Students explore a variety of sculptural materials and processes, with an emphasis on the additive, reductive and constructive methods. Assignments allow for experience in representational and abstract expression. Students use several different media in the studio.
Photography Division
The chief objectives of the PGSA photography class are to clarify and expand how the artist “sees,” to explore the way in which the world is viewed and how a camera can be used to frame and thus transform what is seen into an expressive idea, to provide a technical foundation that will allow a full range of expression, and to develop a student’s individual style and creative sensibility. Students are provided with Kodak Tri-X black and white film and Ilford Variable Contrast R.C. paper. All darkroom chemicals are provided. It is the individual student’s responsibility to bring a 35mm SLR camera with a light meter and manual exposure capability, and extra batteries. Course elements include:
Camera controls
Depth of field and the aperture
Movement and the shutter
Light meters and exposure
Relationship of camera controls to exposure
Black and white film development
Black and white printing with variable contrast filters
Relationship of film development to contrast
Push processing film
Digital images
Intro to PhotoShop software
Dry mounting, presentation and storage
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