Art Department To Add Photography Major

Truman State’s art department has recently talked about adding photography as an option within the studio art major.

Currently, photography is offered only as a minor, but these changes would allow students to major in the art form.

Art department chair Aaron Fine says the idea is still in the early brainstorming stages and little progress has been made at this time. Fine says the idea to make photography available as a major has been around for a while. He says the photography minor has drawn a lot of interest and been generally successful. Fine says photography professor Priya Kambli is on sabbatical for the 2016-17 academic year and will spend some time working on the proposed major.

Fine says photography will not be a new major, but an additional specialization within the studio art major. Fine says currently, concentrations in studio art are ceramics, fibers, painting, printmaking, sculpture, three-dimensional studio and design.

Fine says after Kambli works on a proposal, studio art faculty will then work together on the proposal. He says the proposal will then go through the entire art faculty before moving to Undergraduate Council and Faculty Senate for approval.

Fine says the earliest the specialization might be available is fall 2018.

“[Photography is] a really exciting area in contemporary art,” Fine says. “It’s really a pretty exciting option we hope to be able to offer.”