Brightly-colored textured floor objects and wall art displayed as part of an exhibit in Patterson Gallery located on Penn State University Park campus.

Art, Minor

Art Minor

Broad and concentrated–create art and understanding of art across contexts

The Art minor will prepare you to broadly layer visual arts and design knowledge into your academic and professional experience. You also will select an area of concentration–ceramics, drawing and painting, new media, photography, or sculpture–for a deep dive in theory and practice.

Installation created by Ryan Lawson, showcasing a wolf, rabbit and other animals and colorful flowers on a platform of artificial turf.

Have a major? Make it more, with art!

Art is an individual and social practice that makes an impact. When people create or respond to art, they make connections between themselves and the experiences of others. In some cases, art provides a private encounter whereby individual thoughts and feelings are expressed through art, or recognized in the art of someone else. In other cases, art gives form to ideas and issues that concern entire communities. It is because art extends personal and public awareness that it is highly valued as a cultural activity.

Those who make art and write about art offer imaginative insights that challenge us to see things differently. By creating artworks yourself, and enhancing your capacity to interpret artworks made by other individuals, communities, and cultures, you contribute to one of the most important purposes of art, which is to celebrate this unique human form of social communication that shapes the way we see ourselves.

The Art Minor enables students to advance and integrate visual arts and design knowledge and skills in a range of areas. This minor is especially appropriate if you have a substantial interest in art and design, but intend to pursue careers in other fields.

Does this sound like you?

You are intrigued by not only coming to know different things as you learn, but want to increase your creative capabilities to come to know things differently. Creative thinkers from all areas of knowledge and systems of inquiry have the capacity to explore ideas, seek and solve problems, question answers, and probe issues. Making and understanding visual arts and design helps us to experience difference and appreciate diversity.

If this resonates for you, the Art minor might be your cup of tea!

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