Fine Arts courses are designed to introduce students to the languages of music and the visual arts, and the cultures and contexts in which they have arisen and developed. Opportunity is provided to sharpen perceptual skills and delve more deeply into personal, as well as larger, cultural identities. Historical courses explore the variety of musical and visual forms that civilizations have devised as means of self -expression and describe how these forms reflect the culture that gave them birth. The historical forces that have shaped artists, their processes of working, and their interaction with society are reviewed.

Studio courses, through the hands-on study of techniques and modes of artistic expression, allow exploration of potential for creative expression as a facet of personal development or as preparation for professional training after graduation. Students are given opportunity to work under practicing artists in a setting which facilitates discussion of technical problems and critique of artistic performance.

Courses in music and the visual arts provide a valuable and often an indispensable complement to work in other humanistic disciplines. They assist students to prepare for graduate studies and for a variety of career possibilities, including arts administration, museum and gallerywork, arts education, art therapy, graphic design, and work in the mass media. Internships and study abroad programs are available through the department

.  Bayeux Tapestry (detail), 11th century