Macalester College Art and Art History Department provides an opportunity for students to create and study art.

Art making involves examining, transforming, and communicating individual and collective human experiences into visual form. Art history studies the tangible documentation of culture and provides a window into the history and philosophy of many societies, past and present.

The Art and Art History Department offers majors with emphases in art history and studio art. All our students learn through both observation and hands-on practice.

The department serves the campus and the community through our gallery exhibition program.

A Macalester art degree prepares students for graduate study in art or art history and forms the foundation for professional practice in the arts. The non-major is offered the basis for a lifetime appreciation of the arts. Macalester art students find and create roles for themselves in which they serve their communities through the practice of art, its presentation, documentation, interpretation, appreciation, and conservation.


Visiting Artists

Visiting artists have included Barbara Kruger, Coco Fusco, Nicholas Galanin (Yéil Ya-Tseen), Postcommodity (Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist), Douglas Ewart, Francis Yellow, Hanneline Rogeberg, Michael Mazur, Mark Dion, Catherine Opie, Parastou Forouhar, Camille Billops, Kara Walker, John Hitchcock, June Wayne, Duane Hanson, Mike Konopacki, Nezaket Ekici, Wing Young Huie, Endi Poskovic, Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Peter Happel Christian, Marnix Everaert, Chris Larson, Sharon Louden, Wang Dong Ling, Tattfoo Tan, Edith Chávez, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Cara Romero, Yvette Mayorga, Dameun Strange and Liu Zhenxiong.


Visiting Scholars

Visiting scholars have included Elizabeth Armstrong, MIA; Stuart Gibson, UNESCO; Maxwell K. Hearn, Metropolitan Museum; Matthew Welch, MIA; Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame; Gennifer Weisenfeld, Duke University; Pawel Leszkowicz, USC Libraries; Richard Bodman, St. Olaf College; Stephanie Cunningham, Museum Hue; Dr. Wang Chunchen, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Jillian Hernandez, University of Florida, Sinem Arcak Casale, University of Minnesota; and Julia Andrews, Ohio State University.


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