We’re delighted that you’re checking out the Millsaps Art Department and hope you’ll consider a campus visit, if you haven’t already! When you’re here we’d love to show you around the department, so feel free to email the Chair of the Department, Dr. Elise Smith, at smithel@millsaps.edu, and she’ll set something up.
If you’re a high school senior or transfer student you’re also eligible to apply for one of our Art Scholarships, available in Studio Art and/or Art History, as well as Music, Theatre, and Creative Writing.
Portfolio reviews and interviews for these scholarships take place on Art Scholars Day, which is usually early in the spring semester, giving us a chance for us to meet with you in person, see your work, and talk with you about your interests.
We offer majors and minors in Studio Art, Digital Arts, Art History, and Museum Studies, and we also offer two concentrations: a Digital Arts concentration within the Studio major, and a Museum Studies concentration within the Art History major. If you’re curious about what sorts of career choices you’d have with one of these Art majors, take a look at the Current Students tab.
We’re eager for our students to learn about art not only in our campus studios and classrooms but also off-campus. The capital city of Jackson offers a wide range of opportunities for internships, community-engaged learning, and field trips, and the Art faculty have also taken students to conferences in various cities, including New York, Washington, Richmond, and San Antonio; on informal trips to New Orleans, Memphis, Houston, and New York; and on study-abroad programs in Paris and upcoming in Mexico City!
STUDIO ART FACILITIES
-Drawing Studio: equipped with flat files for storage and individual easels for each student. All students currently enrolled in an art class (and current majors) also have access to live drawing classes run by community members every Saturday 1pm-4pm, free of charge.
–Painting Studio: equipped with individual painting stations with table, easel, and glass palette for so each student. A miter saw is included in the space as students learn to build and stretch their own canvases throughout the beginning painting course. Students in the beginning painting class primarily learn to work with oil paints and are introduced to some mixed media processes.
-Printmaking Studio: equipped for monotypes, relief (linoleum and wood carving), etching, screenprint, and lithography. We use oil based inks and maintain a mostly non toxic practice/clean up. Students in beginning printmaking often learn the basics in relief and intaglio processes. This studio is also often used for special topics courses in book arts.
-Sculpture Studio: fully equipped for fine woodworking and carving, mixed media, fiber, paper making, and non-metal casting. We have invested in a SawStop table saw and students are trained in how to safely used each piece of equipment before independent access is granted. The future Visual Arts Center (VAC) Sculpture Studio will have expanded three-dimensional studios giving us the opportunity to expand into metal fabrication and foundry art making.
-Papermaking Studio: equipped with a Lee McDonald beater and multiple sizes of western style mold and deckles. Also includes a small scale hydraulic press and a weighted drying system. Students engage with this process in beginning sculpture as well as in special topics courses. Once trained, upper level students and art majors may request independent access to this space to create work. The papermaking facilities are currently housed within a converted bathroom in a dorm building on campus. The future VAC will bring this studio under the same roof as all the other studio art spaces.
-Letterpress Studio: equipped with a sign press, a platen press, and both metal and wood type. The presses can also print type high wood and linoleum blocks. Currently this studio is shared with the English Department and housed within their department building. The future VAC will bring this equipment into the printmaking studio so that students may engage with this process in tandem with other print processes.
*Junior and Senior studio art majors receive private/shared studio spaces within the department. The future VAC will have a large common space for upper level students to share, with movable walls.
The Art History classrooms are equipped with professional digital projection equipment. Art history students also have access to Artstor, a huge national database of digital images with contributions from outstanding museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists, and artists’ estates.
Architect plans for the new Windgate Visual Arts Center
Sculpture garden
Here are photos from the Groundbreaking, Fall 2017.
Millsaps Art Department 