WELCOME TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ART HISTORY
WHO WE ARE
The Department of Art and Art History within the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa embraces our position as a Carnegie Research I University and a Native Hawaiian place of learning. Our kuleana (responsibility) to Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and Asia extends throughout the United States to the World. Goals advancing academic and artistic freedom create a place that guarantees faculty and students the broadest possible latitude to create, speak, write, publish, teach, learn, and engage in critical dialogue across campus and community. Entwined engagement is expected. The people of this place and its culture embrace their history and traditions; we weave these elements into national and international artistic and academic communities through our faculty. We cultivate creative makers and thinkers who engage Indigenous perspectives alongside global reach. Sometimes these goals exist within a single individual; other times they inhabit a group. Inspiring transformative art practices with complexity of experience spanning individual consciousness, media, method, and culture is a goal our department embodies. We aspire to be a premier center for contemporary and historical art education, research, and practice—one that reflects the unique cultural, environmental, and political landscapes of Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and beyond. As artists, scholars, and educators, we affirm that art and design is a powerful language providing both means of understanding and tools to shape the world.
How can I learn?
RESOURCES FOR FACULTY AND STUDENTS
MORE ABOUT US: DEGREES AND FACILITIES
Centrally located on the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa campus since 1976, the Department of Art and Art History is housed in its own purpose-built three-story building with art studios equipped for a range of media productions along with two galleries. The John Young Museum of Art at Krauss Hall is also under the auspice of the department. EXPLORE
We are one of the largest departments at UH Mānoa and the only master’s degree granting program in the visual arts in the State of Hawai’i. Aside from serving our majors who are from Hawai’i, the continental U.S., and around world, each semester hundreds of students from other disciplines enroll in our art studio and art history classes to fulfill their university requirements, for the pleasure of exploring a creative medium, and/or learning the richness of global artistic traditions.
The department offers degree programs in the disciplines of studio art and art history. We award a BA in both; BFA and MFA in studio art; and MA in art history. The BFA and MFA include concentrations in ceramics, drawing/painting, electronic art, glass, graphic design, print media (digital imaging, photography, printmaking), and sculpture + expanded practices. The MA in Art History includes the concentrations in the art of China, Japan, the Pacific, South/Southeast Asia, or Modern/Contemporary art. MORE INFO