Suggested Academic Plans (SAPs)

Suggested Academic Plans (SAPs) are eight-semester guides you can use to meet degree requirements. All SAPs are maintained for each major. 

Entrance to Major Requirements

All Penn State majors have entrance requirements. Minimum entrance requirements for the Art Major:

University Bulletin

Refer to the University Bulletin when seeking the latest information about the Penn State's academic programs and courses.

All students intending to major in Art are placed into the ABHSS pre-major program. These students begin work on the Art Major’s Prescribed Courses, comprised of the following:

Foundation Art Studios

These studios represent a core of studio knowledge shared across all visual disciplines and all media concentrations:

  • ART 110S - Ideas as Visual Images (3 cr)
  • ART 111 - Ideas as Objects (3 cr)

ART 110S, Ideas as Visual Images, introduces students to ideational relationships among form and content in a two-dimensional context. In projects designed to explore meaning and metaphor, basic elements and principles of visual design are explored: line and shape, figure and ground, light, color and texture. This exploration is continued in ART 111, Ideas as Objects. Basic elements and principles are extended to include mass and space, time and motion, properties of three-dimensional form and transformation.

History & Critical Studies

The Academic Plan strongly encourages enrollment in Art History and Critical Studies courses early in the course of study:

  • ART 122Y - Commentary on Art (3 cr)
  • ARTH 111 - Ancient to Medieval Art (3 cr)
  • ARTH 112 - Renaissance to Modern Art (3 cr)

ART H 111, Ancient to Medieval Art, explores a survey of art from ancient times through the European Gothic period. ART H 112, Renaissance to Modern Art, covers the past six centuries of artmaking, from the perspective revolution to the digital revolution. ART 122Y, Commentary on Art, introduces the beginning artist to oral and written verbal critical discourse.