I am pleased to welcome you to the School of Art through the medium of our web page.The Ames School of Art has a long history at Illinois Wesleyan. In 1890 Illinois Wesleyan united with the Wilson College of Arts to form a pioneering collegiate art program. Today, the School of Art offers the Bachelor of fine arts degree with concentrations in drawing, ceramics, graphic design, art history, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture and glass. The School of Art has always fostered a strong sense of community and competition. The competition is based on taking our work, both individual and collective, to a higher or deeper level. The great artist/teacher Joseph Albers was asked how he produced so many great artists and why none of them did artwork that resembled his own. Albers responded, "If you want to follow Albers, you have to follow yourself." The faculty here always base their teaching on developing students as individuals not as products of any style or narrow philosophy. We have lots of modern technology here and an abundance of techniques are taught, but central to our School's unique culture is thinking, investigating and pursuing - pursuing many and various forms of artistic excellence. I am privileged to work with a truly outstanding faculty and with an equally talented student body. We have awareness here at Illinois Wesleyan of a rich tradition consisting of generations of outstanding alums as we continually seek to place our current students at the forefront of developments in art and design. Recently the School of Art became the Joyce Eichhorn Ames School of Art in honor of an accomplished former student and a generous benefactor. Several years ago the students formed the Beta Alpha Zeta chapter of Kappa Pi, the international art honorary society. With a distinguished new name, a new organizational affiliation and new programs, we look forward with great enthusiasm to continuing the pursuit of excellence in the study of art history, art, and design. Come visit us! We would love to show you around.

 Miles Bair, Professor of Art, Director of the Ames School of Art