SCU Visual Arts & Culture
Thought-provoking, imaginative, and insightful gallery and museum exhibitions, poems, stories, and events on campus!
The Visual Arts @ SCU
September 23 - November 8, 2024
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building
Art and Art History Gallery
Gallery Hours: M - F, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Artist Talk and Reception: October 3, 2024, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m., Dowd Lobby
The Visual Arts @ SCU is an exhibition of the art and publications by the faculty and staff of the Art and Art History Department and the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University. This exhibition highlights and celebrates the knowledge, skills, talents and resources available in the visual arts to the University community and greater Bay Area.
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The Department of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University offers degree programs leading to the bachelor of arts in two undergraduate majors, art history and studio art, with courses in both disciplines building a thorough understanding of the history and practice of art. Department faculty encourage interdisciplinary connections with the Santa Clara community through course offerings that fulfill a wide range of college and undergraduate Core Curriculum requirements, as well as offering courses through the University Honors Program.
The interdisciplinary Studio Art major is grounded in studio practice and fine art skills, but also develops students' writing and research abilities. The Art History major develops cultural literacy, taking students beyond aesthetic appreciation; students learn about the lived and living history of art and how it affects the present, preparing you for global citizenship.
Whether students create art or study it, the Department of Art & Art History prepares students to think creatively, communicate effectively, and solve complex problems.
The de Saisset Museum aims to inspire curiosity, provoke dialogue, and encourage reflection. As one of three South Bay museums to hold accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the de Saisset maintains the highest standards in exhibitions, programs, and collections care. The organization was founded in 1955 through a generous bequest from the de Saisset family.
The Museum supports Santa Clara University's goal of educating the whole person through a diverse and accessible range of exhibitions, collections, and educational programs that highlight the art and history of the San Francisco Bay Area and the local Santa Clara Valley. As a center of lifelong learning, the de Saisset Museum facilitates discovery, experience, and inspiration through engaging objects of art and history.
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Gallery Hours: M - F, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (Section 504) if you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation, please direct your request to the de Saisset Museum at 408.554.4528 or deSaissetMuseum@scu.edu, or call TTY-California Relay at 711 at least 72 hours prior to the event.
Material Concerns
December 2 - January 31, 2025
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building
Art and Art History Gallery
Gallery Hours: M - F, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Featuring Artists: Pilar Agüero-Esparza & Hector Dionicio Mendoza
Artist Talk and Reception: January 30, 2025, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m., Dowd Lobby
Migration, social hierarchies, experiences of otherness and invisibility – all inform the practices of Pilar Agüero-Esparza and Hector Dionicio Mendoza. In their mixed media works, the human body serves as a focal point for material exploration in the representation of the body in physical form and as well as conceptually. Both artists work with specific materials chosen for their materiality and signifying potential. Informed by craft and the hand-made object, these artists combine their material concerns with their social concerns to spotlight specific cultural experiences and give voice to marginalized communities.
Agüero-Esparza and Mendoza’s 2010 project “El Shop” was a significant collaboration through which each artist augmented their individual artistic paths. This exhibition, fifteen years forward, brings the artists together to survey their current commonalities particularly within the content of their work and view their distinctly individual forms of expression garnered through specific working processes and materials. As a component of this exhibition, the artists hope to create new collaborative work in which they will explore the potential of combining their respective working strategies and materials with current content concerns.
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January 30, 2025
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building Lobby -
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. except during University closure dates and holidays.In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.
Evolution of Place: San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District
February 18 - April 17, 2025
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building
Art and Art History Gallery
Gallery Hours: M - F, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Featuring Artists: Jessica Dunee
Artist Talk and Reception: April 9, 2025, 5 - 7 p.m., Dowd Lobby
First I lived in a green world. Then I lived in a yellow world. Then I had to put away my Indian yellow paint. Through efforts to conserve energy, San Francisco’s street lights have changed from mercury vapor in the 1950s to high-pressure sodium in the 1990s to, most recently, LED. I’m an insomniac, so I work mostly at night. As the night has changed, my paintings have changed along with it. When we first moved here 35 years ago, I was reluctant, but it was what we could afford. I thought the Great Highway was the gloomiest place. Now I see that when you’re stuck somewhere, you learn to see it. My job as a painter is to look out the window at another foggy night and find what is miraculous in it. I’ve changed too. I work where I live. During the lockdown, I did paintings from the roof. Landscapes are not currently fashionable, but we live in landscapes. Where our feet are is where we are. I want viewers to understand what it feels like to be in this place at this exact moment–and challenge them “to see the world anew.”
– Jessica Dunn
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April 9, 2025
Tuesday, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building Lobby -
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. except during University closure dates and holidays.In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.
19th Annual Art History Symposium
May 16, 2025, 3:30 - 5 p.m.
Art and Art History Gallery
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building
Gallery Hours: M - F, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Art History Student Research Symposium and Paper Prize Competition
The Annual Art History Student Research Paper Prize Competition occurs in April and any student who received an A or A- on a research paper written for an art history course in the previous three quarters is eligible to enter. The faculty announces the winner of the paper prize in June at the annual BBQ and Awards Ceremony.
The Department also holds an annual Art History Student Research Symposium (AHSRS). Since 2004, the AHSRS provides students with an opportunity to present their research in a formal setting and format modeled after a professional conference. The Symposium is held in the Art and Art History gallery and draws a large audience from across the Santa Clara University community. Topics reflect student interests in a range of media from areas across the world, from ancient period to the present.
Class of 2025
Studio Art Senior Show
Department of Art and Art History
May 14 - June 13, 2025
Art and Art History Gallery in Dowd
Opening Reception: May 16, 5 p.m. Dowd Lobby
Graduating seniors in the Studio Art Program exhibit their capstone art projects.
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May 16, 2025
Friday, 5:00 p.m.
Edward M. Dowd Art and Art History Building Lobby -
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. except during University closure dates and holidays.In compliance to ADA/504, please direct your accommodation request to Mitch Grieb at mfgrieb@scu.edu at least 72 hours prior to the event.
Student Art Juried Show
Department of Art and Art History
May 23 - June 6, 2025
Dowd First Floor Hallway
All students of all levels participate in the Annual Student Art Juried Exhibition. Even non-majors are encouraged to submit their artwork and have it judged by a professional jury for awards given out at the end of the year.