Art courses at Emory & Henry relate the basic concepts involved in art-making and the visual historical record to your life and experiences. Understanding visual language is necessary to comprehend fully the development of our culture.

Visual artists typically examine personal and societal issues. The resulting works convey these concerns and offer you an opportunity to reflect on these issues and also examine your own positions and values.

The necessary foundation for this process begins with perception and awareness. You must then develop an understanding of visual form. Finally, you must be able to manipulate the elements of form through media processes. It is when you have reached these levels of awareness and technical achievement that you acquire the tools to articulate your own ideas in visual form.

The Student Art Association is responsible for coordinating numerous arts activities, trips, and the Student Works Gallery.

An exchange program with educational institutions offers travel abroad, which includes the opportunity to travel to Italy, China, and England every other year.

Byars Fine Art Center houses studios for design, painting, drawing and printmaking. The center's graphic design studio features state of the art G4 Macintosh computers Also in Byars Fine Art Center are the visual resources library, an art history classroom, departmental offices and the student works gallery.

The photography lab in Martin Brock Hall includes black and white enlargers and sophisticated lighting equipment. The 1912 Gallery and the T.R. Phelps Collection of Photography are housed at the Emory Train Depot.

Our newest facility is a large three-dimensional studio located in the Art Shed, serving courses in three-dimensional design, ceramics, and sculpture. The Art Shed also includes a senior scholarship award studio. Each year, two art students are awarded the honor of sharing this private studio.