The Department of Fine Arts and Art History provides Presidential Scholars in the Arts with extensive facilities, dedicated guidance, and ample exhibit space for the students to channel their artistic passions. Fine Arts PSA students are required to pursue a major in Fine Arts or a combined major in Fine Arts and Art History and while doing so take advantage of the many resources offered through both the Department and other venues in Washington, DC.

Smith Hall of Art houses most of the Fine Arts and Art History courses.  Smith Hall contains general studios for New Media, Painting/Drawing, Photography, and Sculpture/Ceramics.  The building also includes two Mac labs (12 to 14 computer stations per lab), a dark room (12 to 14 enlargers), a wood shop, a kiln room and glaze kitchen, critique rooms, project spaces, storage facilities, four to five student exhibition spaces, two Art History lecture halls, a student lounge, and a visual resource/slide library. On Mount Vernon Campus, Interior Design studio resources include several classrooms with modern drafting tables, a computer lab with AutoCAD, and a library of interior design sample materials and tools for student use. 

In addition to the extensive resources offered at GW our downtown location provides easy access to the many important art centers in the area, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Renwick Gallery, the Philips Collection, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Sackler Gallery, the National Museum of African Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Art, the National Building Museum, the Textile Museum, and Dumbarton Oaks. 

Additional Fine Arts and Art History facts include:

Enrollment:

• 35 Fine Arts Majors
• 50 Interior Design Majors

Full-time Faculty:

• 6 in Fine Arts
• 2 in Interior Design
• 6 in Art History

Class Size:

• Fine Arts: 10-18 Students
• Art History: 25-80 Students, with lower level class sizes being the largest. Art History classes number from 10 to 12 students
• Art History class sizes vary in size from 25 to 80 students, with the lower level Art History class sizes being the largest.  Art History seminar classes number in size range from 10 to 12 students. 

Internship Options:

• Robert Brown Gallery
• Frasier Contemporary
• Connor Contemporary

Opportunities:

• Juniors and seniors may take classes conducted by members of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s curatorial and education staff.  Students have also been afforded the invaluable opportunity to work directly with artists exhibiting at the Hirshhorn on site specific or performance pieces.
• Seniors have an opportunity to enter the department’s Annual Student Awards Show, which is juried by artists and curators outside the University community. A number of prizes are awarded, ranging in value from $100 to $1,000.
• Each semester, the Department of Fine Arts and Art History invites a number of visiting artists, curators, and scholars to campus.  Recent visitors to campus include: Beral Madra (Curator, Istanbul), Renee Stout (Artist, Washington, DC), Matthew Jackson (Scholar, Chicago), and Oliver Herring (Artist, New York)
• FA PSA students are required to organize and install at least two solo exhibitions of their own work on the first floor of Smith Hall of Art by the time of graduation.

For more information on the Department of Fine Arts and Art History, please visit our web site at www.gwu.edu/~art.