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Academic Programs
 The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College lauds Hollins as one of only 15 small universities strong in art and design. The department has one of the most comprehensive programs offered at a small university. The strength of the program lies in the unwavering commitment of its faculty in art history and studio art to teaching and creating opportunities for students who thrive in small classes and present their work in art history symposia and student exhibitions.
Strong Faculty of Recognized Artists, Scholars, Teachers
The art department faculty members are recognized scholars who publish and present research at conferences and artists who exhibit their work regionally and nationally. We emphasize women's history as depicted through images of women in art, women artists, and their patrons.
Our Graduates' Job Record
The program's strength is demonstrated by the number of graduates working in prominent galleries, museums, and auction houses - Knoedler Gallery, Yale University Art Gallery, PaceWildensteinMacGill Photography Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, the Smithsonian, Christie's, Sotheby's, the National Trust for Historic Preservation - and the quality of Hollins graduates who are practicing and exhibiting artists. Many graduates are finding Hollins connections beneficial in getting into good graduate schools -- Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, Williams College, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, Indiana University, Virginia Tech School of Architecture, Pratt Institute of Fine Arts, for example.
Special Programs
Short Term
The Art Department participates fully in the January Short Term by offering special seminars and sponsoring an array of internships. Seminar topics have included: relief sculpture, color theory, book arts, creative drawing materials, women in art, art criticism, monotype printing, building a Gothic cathedral, scanning, and the constructed image in photography. Seminars have also traveled to Italy and Spain.
Internships
Hollins' extensive internship program during the January Short Term gives students a special opportunity to practice what we teach. Art history major Brandy Culp parlayed her internship with the Metropolitan Museum into a job there after graduation. Sallie Wiggins, a studio art major, joined the Knoedler Gallery staff after her internship there. Students intern each year at such sites as museums, auction houses, galleries, video production studios, architectural firms, fashion houses and magazines, advertising agencies, photography studios, interior design firms, printmaking studios, and historical societies including: Sotheby's, National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, High Museum of Art, Art Forum Magazine, The Art Institute of Chicago, Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Maryland Historical Society, Winterthur Museum, Harper's Bazaar, Anne Klein, Hirschl and Adler Gallery, and Robert M. Stern Architects.
 Study Abroad
Exciting travel/study opportunities allow students to explore periods of history through the great collections of the world. Many art majors take challenging courses offered through Hollins' most popular abroad programs in Paris and London. Others choose to study in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, or Spain.
The January Short Term also features a variety of international travel experiences. Students have studied German cinema and have traveled to Greece to study archeological sites and to Italy and Spain doing sketchbook drawing and touring art museums.
Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence
Hollins is one of a handful of colleges that benefits from an endowed semester-long artist-in-residence. Each spring an artist of national reputation resides on campus and produces new work. Students have the opportunity to visit the artist's studio to observe works in progress. The artist teaches a special seminar open to all students (including first-year students) and works with all senior studio majors in preparation for their senior show. The artist also exhibits recent work in the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum and gives a public lecture, so there are plenty of opportunities for interaction with students. This year's artist-in-residence is the California-based photographic artist Binh Danh.
Past artists in residence have included: James McGarrell, 1997; Jack Beal, 1998; Sondra Freckelton, 1998; Marjorie Portnow, 1999; Martha Armstrong, 1999; George Nick, 2000, Nancy Spencer '69 and Eric Renner, 2002, Barbara Grossman, 2003, and Gillian Pederson-Krag, 2004, Ruth Miller, 2005, and Jan Baltzell, 2006, Michael Ananian, 2007, and Holly Roberts, 2008.
Visiting Lecturers
Recent lectures by well-known art historians have included Linda Seidel of the University of Chicago, Madeline Caviness of Tufts University, and Brunilde
Ridgway of Bryn Mawr. Each year, Hollins holds the Classics Symposium and the Virginia Art History Colloquium, which addresses current art history topics such as "Women, Death, and Power." Additional art lecturers have included Barbara Kruger, Debra Rosenthal, Jed Perl, Janet Fish, Sally Mann '74, M.A. '75, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Opened in 2004, the center is one of the best of its kind for both the study of art history and studio practice. With 60,000 square-feet of space, the building offers beautiful, light-filled studios for painting, drawing, and printmaking; spacious areas for sculpture and ceramics; and a complete photography area that supports traditional and digital approaches. Art History seminars and classes are taught in modern spaces supported by state-of-the-art technology and an auditorium hosts special lectures and films. Art majors also benefit from private study areas and seniors enjoy private studio spaces.
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum
Hollins is fortunate to have the Wilson Museum as part of the Wetherill Visual Arts Center. The museum features three interconnected galleries of different sizes that enable Hollins to host historical and contemporary exhibitions that feature acclaimed artists, as well as works from the permanent collection. A new educational resource center within the museum allows classes to view selections from the permanent collection that relate to specific class content. As one official from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts said, "It's remarkable to have a high-quality facility on a college campus that will offer the same attributes as any major museum in the country."
The museum also sponsors a full program of speakers and symposia in conjunction with exhibitions.
Hollins Graduates: Where are they now?
Graduates from Hollins put their creative powers to work landing positions with a variety of impressive museums, galleries, and advertising agencies; pursuing their education at graduate school; or becoming fine artists. Here's what some are doing:
- Curator of decorative arts, Birmingham Museum of Fine Arts
- Architect, Charlottesville, Va.
- Curator of maps and prints, Colonial Williamsburg
- Photography department, Smithsonian
- Vice president and auctioneer, Sotheby's, New York
- Interior designer, Hancock & Hancock, Chicago
- Historic preservation consultant, Winston-Salem
- Assistant in European paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Assistant director, PaceWildensteinMacGill Photography Gallery, New York
- Graduate school in New York at the Bard Graduate Center, in a yearlong historic preservation/urban planning program in NYC and Paris sponsored by Columbia University, and in Sotheby's program in American art; also at American University, Northwestern University, Williams College, University of Texas at Austin, University of New Mexico, and the University of Washington
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