Experiential Learning
Art students are encouraged to take their learning outside the classroom. Internships, study abroad, volunteer art teaching, and painting public murals are just a few of the opportunities available. Popular experiences are on-campus independent studies, or being a teacher’s assistant in a Guilford art class, assisting student learning along with the professor, or an internship at a nearby gallery. Work study, such as for the art department or Guilford College Art Gallery, for which students are paid, is also an option.
Past opportunities have include painting murals at the Edible Schoolyard; assisting teachers in private schools like the Canterbury School; volunteering at CAT Kids, an after school tutoring program designed to give students needing extra help and guidance in their studies extra attention and also to supplement their arts experience in school; or volunteering at Glenwood, where students run photo camps to teach immigrant refugee children photography.
Art students present their research in the form of presentations and exhibitions at the Guilford Undergraduate Symposium, where outstanding students present their art or art projects to the college. The Bowl-a-thon is a student pottery sale whose proceeds send ceramics students to a clay symposium. The annual Student Art Exhibition is open to all Guilford students as a way to exhibit work made within the last year. Independent study allows a student to design his or her own course of study, for example, one art major designed digital images for the College's library and student center. Others have gained valuable experience by interning at Elsewhere Collaborative, the Center for Visual Artists, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, and other area art galleries. There are also experiential classes like Photography and a Sense of Place, a team taught course exploring students’ personal and shared sense of space through the medium of photography.
Students are also encouraged to take advantage of the wide variety of study abroad opportunities that are offered in many different countries. Studying art in another culture enriches your knowledge of art and expands one’s experience. There are Guilford programs in London, Munich, Italy, Mexico and Ghana. Guilford students can also attend many other study abroad programs and easily transfer credits back towards their art degrees.