Fine Arts is one of the least "practical" liberal arts courses in the College. The department does not intend to teach painting or the graphic arts, as a commercial art school does. Instead, the emphasis is on the historical approach to fine arts. As a result, the department believes that concentration in the field of Fine Arts is "as good a liberal arts education as, for example, English."

Both honors and non-honors concentrators must take six courses in the field, two of which may be related. The department is extremely lenient in granting credit for related courses, and work in Humanities, Music, History, and other fields can count.

Honors students in the department take, in addition, tutorial--the maximum allowed in the College--and must write an honors thesis in their senior year.

The Fine Arts Department does give some courses in the practice of painting and drawing. In these courses the intent is not to develop individual talent in art, but to aid in the understanding of the artist's problems and work. In all other courses the historical approach to art is used.

The department feels that it has something special to offer in the field of history because it can present to the student actual works from a period under study, rather than mere textbook-reading. The work in most courses, nevertheless, calls for the student to describe and analyze works of art and to comment on them as examples of a particular period or trend.