The Art program guides students through transformative creative development, fostering self-discovery and artistic identity during a pivotal stage of life. We provide a supportive environment where students explore how their creative practice connects personal growth to broader cultural meaning-making.
At Sewanee you will develop as a skilled, critically engaged artist through comprehensive study in drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and video. Study in our progressive curriculum that integrates technical mastery with deep knowledge of materials, visual culture, and contemporary theory, empowering you to create a cohesive body of work that unites form with content and engages meaningfully with the world around you.
We cultivate thoughtful artist-citizens who communicate effectively, think critically, and contribute to society through creative stewardship. Our graduates emerge prepared to sustain meaningful artistic practices, participate in cultural dialogue, and enrich communities through visual art.
Sewanee graduates secure positions in a variety of fields. Some you would expect, others are a bit of a surprise. Sewanee prepares you for your profession and your passion. Below is a sampling of recent graduates' first jobs.
Our Alumni have attended nationally recognized graduate programs including:
Students with exceptional promise in performing or studio arts can apply for a Fellowship in the Arts. These fellowships range in value and are renewable for four years.
An introduction to processes dependent on the lens as an imaging device, including wet-lab photography, digital photography, video editing and installation-based sequencing. The course incorporates the fundamental theoretical, technical and aesthetic principles of working with photography as an expressive medium. Assignments include darkroom laboratory work, studio projects, discussions, written analyses, and class presentations.
This course explores use of observational drawing techniques as a means for translating three-dimensional realities into two-dimensional drawn images. By observing still lives, structures, landscapes, and live models, students gain heightened sensitivity to the world around them through attentiveness to the visual. In the process, they also become acquainted with various drawing materials. Through studio assignments, exercises, readings, discussions, and critiques, students learn to draw from both life and the imagination, all while honing their observational skills and their facility with drawing media.
This investigation of the creative process requires advanced studio skills and is based on discussion of works-in-progress. Selected readings, participation in critiques, and a semester-long studio project help establish a disciplined and systematic approach to creative practice.
Pradip Malde teaches classes in photography, documentary photography, and electronic media. Since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in 1980, he has lived and worked as a photographic artist and teacher in Scotland and Tennessee. Malde has exhibited in Europe and the United States, and has works in numerous collections around the world. He is currently working with students and alumni on ways of using photography for community development in Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, and Grundy County, Tennessee.
Jessica Wohl is an associate professor of art, teaching drawing, painting, and seminar courses. She received a B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute, and an M.F.A. from the University of Georgia. Her work has been exhibited around the world and is collected by the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sprint-Nextel Corporation, H&R Block World Headquarters, and by numerous private collectors.
Greg Pond teaches upper division courses in sculpture, intermedia, and film production. He is an artist, teacher, and researcher working at the intersection of art and digital technologies to make sculpture, video, images, sound, and software. Pond has screened, presented, and exhibited his work at venues in Nashville, Memphis, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Austin, Cairo, Basel, Kingston, and Galway.
jewohl@sewanee.edu
Studio Art Building 109, Ext. 1256
I Dreamed You Were Here features the work of Sewanee, Tennessee-based artist Jessica Wohl. Using the language of quilting, Wohl will transform the mansion stairwell with layered textile banners sourced from found garments, linens, and discarded household items. This process of disassembling and reusing textiles is a tactile exchange with the item’s former owner, and the new forms that emerge are a collaboration with history.
The Art, Art History, and Visual Studies Program has announced the winners of the Peter V. Guarisco Merit Scholarship for the 2025-26 academic year. Savannah Brister, C’26, was awarded the Guarisco Scholarship in Art for excellence in coursework, creative production, and engagement with the visual arts. Isabelle Sniatecki, C’26, was awarded the Guarisco Scholarship in Art History in recognition of excellence in coursework, writing, and engagement with questions of art history. The scholarships provide both recipients with tuition for their senior year and funding for a postgraduate career preparation experience.
Professor Pradip Malde's new book From Where Loss Comes explores the practice and customs of female genital mutilation in Tanzania.
Sewanee Class of 2004 Alumnus and Art Major Mary Stuart Hall recently debuted her year long installation at the Atlanta, Georgia International Airport. City as Site is an exhibition of six exhibiting artists at concourse E in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Atlanta Airport. Hall's installation, near gate E15, is called As the Crow Flies.
The Peter V. Guarico Merit Scholarship in Art provides support to senior Art majors for a year of tuition and summer research and internship travel. Candidates are eligible to apply for the scholarship during their junior year with the announcement of the scholarship recipient made at the end of March.
The University Art Gallery and the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies of the University of the South are pleased to Present online exhibitions by the graduating Art majors of 2020.
Along with performance venues, Sewanee also has several art and exhibition galleries on campus. The University Art Gallery, the Museum Gallery of Archives, and the Carlos Gallery house everything from contemporary art shows to archived work, featuring current students, accomplished alumni, and internationally acclaimed artists.
European Studies is a full semester of study abroad and offers the unique experience of studying in a variety of locations in Europe. Students choose between three academic options: ancient Greece & Rome, Western Europe in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, or Contemporary Europe.
The Tennessee Williams Center provides unique, state-of-the-art facilities for the students and faculty. Created with funds from the estate of Tennessee Williams himself, the center houses a fully equipped 175-seat theatre, a 60-seat studio theatre, a drafting and design studio, a dance studio, costume and scenery studios, and dressing rooms.
