Undergraduate – Beyond the Classroom
Your education in the arts is enhanced greatly by what you do both inside the classroom and studio courses but also by your involvement with the department, your peers, and the wider art community.National surveys also tell us that employers believe the #1 experience they want for college graduates is an internship. Here are some of the possibilities for our students to create a well-rounded arts education.
Student Organizations
Student clubs are an integral part of student learning in art history and the studio arts. We encourage students to travel with their clubs and professors to museums and galleries across the region, visit with design agencies, or visit working artist studios. Through the clubs, students are able to enter work in festivals, sell their work, and invite visiting artists to campus. They enable students to experience and learn about art beyond the studio and classroom. Check out their social media accounts to see examples of their activities.
Painting Studio does not have
a formal student organization,
but they organize activities.
Instagram: uofmpainting
Art Talks Visiting Artist Series
In addition to the many artists who visit campus through the student organizations above, the department has visiting artist program called Art Talks. This program creates access to artists in person and via webcam, and helps students and faculty to keep pace with critical thought, contemporary artistic practice, and emerging technology used in cultural production today. Examples of visiting artists are found on each studio area webpage as well as art history.
Art in the Community
Oxford, north Mississippi, and Memphis have active arts communities that provide an environment to inspire you and encourage you to take risks and experiment. We have pulled together some of those opportunities to interact with artists and art in our region on the Art in the Community page.
Internships & Residencies
Students and faculty work together to identify relevant internships/residencies to provide valuable work experience, professional networks, further application of skills learned at the university, and a stronger resume.
For those planning different career paths, the UM Office of Outreach’s formal Internship Experience program also assists students with internship placements in any career area of interest in Atlanta, New York City, and Washington D.C.
Read about these news stories of student internship experiences:
Student to Work with Smithsonian on Expat Women Artists
UM Art Student Lands Dream Internship with Discovery Channel
Graphic Arts Students Snag Big Internships
Study Abroad
Art majors have exciting opportunities to experience the art and architecture abroad. They can arrange their own study abroad experience through the Office of Study Abroad. Or, they can travel with UM faculty.
One possibility is the course Art on Location, where UM faculty can take a course of students to different locations around the US and abroad. For example, in the 2-week Winter Intersession in the first two weeks of January 2019, art historian Dr. Louise Arrizoli teamed up with a French professor to offer a study of art in Paris, France.
In another example, Kris Belden-Adams and Joshua Brinlee led an August intersession course that focused on exposure to art history in southern France through museums such as the National Picasso Museum and modern art museums in Cannes and Marseilles.
“Most art history classes take place in a dark classroom, viewing slides on a screen,” Belden-Adams said. “But it’s so much better to see art in real-life. You can gain an appreciation for the environment that inspired it.”