Numerous programs within the University’s other colleges provide a balanced emphasis between quality liberal arts studies and professional studio training to develop the whole student. Academic minors and double majors between schools and colleges on campus offer students the opportunity of combining varied interests.
The Hartford Art School provides a professional studio-based education within the context of a university that encourages a liberal arts experience. Our goal is to prepare students to be capable, knowledgeable, and prepared to enter the professional artistic domain with an understanding of the visual arts in relation to other human endeavors, and to become creative, contributing members of society.
The Hartford Art School adheres to no single philosophy or style of art. Through curriculum, exhibitions, visiting artist programs, and particularly through its resident faculty, the School fosters a diversity of influences and experiences. The breadth of artistic and educational philosophies, combined with our facilities, creates a close community of active art students, and an environment that is challenging and supportive.
At the University of Hartford, the study of art-related fields does not end at the doors of the Hartford Art School. A program in art history, in the College of Arts and Sciences, teaches students to look at the world through different eyes. Art history prepares students to investigate history with a detective’s precision or to philosophize about art with the broad scope of a cultural critic.
The Hartford Art School was founded in 1877 by five of Hartford’s most prominent women: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Olivia Clemens, Mary Bushnell Cheney, Elizabeth Colt and Susan Warner. The school was housed for a time in downtown Hartford at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the nation’s oldest public art museum.
Since 1957, we have been an exceptional school within the University of Hartford.