Kristin Caskey
Associate professor and chair
Sculpture and extended media is a place that legitimizes and fosters restless becoming, where intellectual, emotional and physical emancipation is as crucial for the individual as it is for the community. Our mission is to continually develop a rigorous yet supportive environment that leads to the expansive growth of individual artists.
The Department of Sculpture and Extended Media’s eight full-time faculty members and various part-time and technical faculty represent a spectrum of directions and philosophical attitudes. Faculty interests range from formal to conceptual and from the concrete to the evanescent. This breadth of interests is presented to students and contributes to the comprehensive nature of the department. Students are not only exposed to traditional sculpture media, but encouraged to explore technology’s parameters and to pursue interdisciplinary activity.
The department encourages sculpture students to broaden their experience in other areas. By promoting a curriculum that encourages students to take a wide range of courses throughout the university, faculty stress links between art, science, the humanities and the world. As a consequence, sculpture students have rich, productive associations with professors in many fields.
Sculpture students are challenged to exploit their full potential by questioning notions of contemporary art. The goal is to provide students with the vocabulary, the seeds of discernment and the skills of both analysis and synthesis in order to become participants in the dialogue of our time. All of this takes place in an environment of high expectation regarding self-motivation, intellectual capacity and responsibility.
The sculpture program is housed in a state-of-the-art facility. Sculpture majors are provided with semi-private, locked studio spaces and are given time, support and encouragement to pursue their independently determined goals.