Art Education Student Experience

Baker art students have a multitude of opportunities for involvement in and out of the classroom. Small class sizes allow you to get maximum interaction with classmates and professors. Art students participate in a variety of activities beyond the classroom. As a student of education, you will also be engaged in many activities to prepare you for a career as an educator.

Classroom Experience

In preparation for your career as a teacher, you will work closely with advisers from the art and education departments to engage in classroom activities. Education students work with students in area classrooms from the time they begin their education courses through their final semester of student teaching.

Hands-On Experience

As a student of art at Baker, you will have ample opportunity to create. With studio art courses and studio space available to students, you will have a space to work in several media. With the opportunity to practice various media and techniques in and out of the classroom, you will grow not only academically but also artistically.

Baker Art Club

The Art Club provides art majors with the opportunity to meet fellow students interested in the arts and participate in a wide range of activities. The Art Club schedules regular trips to local museums and galleries, participates in Baldwin City's Maple Leaf Festival, invites speakers to campus, hosts movie nights and holds biweekly meetings that typically incorporate artistically themed activities.

Area Galleries & Museums

As an art student, it is important to see art whenever possible. Baker students have access to a number of art venues in the area. Whether it is a five-minute walk to local art fairs and galleries in Baldwin City, a short drive to nearby metropolitan centers including Lawrence, Kansas City and Topeka, or even a regional flight to Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Denver or Oklahoma City, you can devote a few hours, an evening or a full weekend to seeing the art of the world in person.

Travel Opportunities

Baker art students frequently engage in organized travel opportunities to observe art locally, nationally and internationally. During Interterm, Baker’s three-week session held each January, travel courses are arranged to national and international destinations. Students on the 2010 Interterm trip spent more than 10 days in Italy.

Study Abroad

The evolution of art and many modern art movements can be seen in the museums, churches and architecture of other countries. To observe art that is unseen in the United States, students have the opportunity to spend a semester or a summer in another country to soak up not only a foreign culture but also a new aesthetic. Many study abroad programs specialize in a specific field of study. The director of study abroad at Baker would be more than happy to help you find a program in which you can study art in your region of interest. Art majors have recently spent semesters abroad in England, Italy and the Netherlands. Find out more about study abroad.

Senior Exhibition

As part of your art curriculum, you will have the opportunity to plan and prepare your own show. This capstone course is an excellent way to demonstrate the knowledge and skill you’ve acquired through years of artistic development.

Permanent Collections

Through years of generous contributions and University acquisitions, Baker University has acquired a considerable collection of artwork, including unique and historically significant pieces from different media. This collection is displayed throughout campus and in the Holt-Russell Gallery and will soon be available for classes in a new art viewing room. The availability of art objects on campus allows students the opportunity to study, observe and work with influential art of various historical periods.

Holt-Russell Gallery

Housed in historic Parmenter Hall, Holt-Russell Gallery is a campus gallery that features art by students and faculty as well as local, national and international artists. Students can exhibit their work in the gallery in the annual juried student art show, and all studio art majors exhibit their work in their senior year.