JMU HONORS PROGRAM

251 Warren Service Drive
MSC 1501
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

Hillcrest House

540.568.6953
540.568.7728 
540.568.8079 (fax)

E-mail:  honors@jmu.edu

Office hours:
Mon.-Fri., 8:00am-5:00pm

 


Art Design & Art History

 

GUIDELINES FOR SENIOR HONORS THESES AND PROJECTS

 

Art History

 

Art Education

Guidelines for Art Education are not yet available. Until they are posted, please review the information on this website and contact Dr. Kathy Schwartz to obtain more specific information. 

 

Studio Art

 
1. Track III applicants must have a 3.5 cumulative GPA.  Current Track I and II students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.25.

 

2. Honors Thesis Exhibition

 

Students proposing an Honors Thesis in the Studio Arts are expected to create a significant, original body of work appropriate to their discipline and in consultation with their Honors Thesis Advisor and committee. This body of work culminates in an Honors Thesis Exhibition in a public venue.

 

It expected that the exhibition will be scheduled at least a month before the Thesis submission deadline set by the Honors Program (see the Honors website for specific deadlines). This will provide ample opportunity to include documentation of the exhibition for the Honors Thesis and insure that the project is eligible for Honors related awards and notice both within the Honors program and through the School of Art and Art History. Students should note that the exhibition venue must be scheduled well in advance of the expected exhibition dates as most venues establish their calendars months before.

 

NOTE: The research done in studio art is inherently different from other branches of the academy whose main research outcome is the authoring of papers. Typically, our research is a complex process of the creation of original works of art—an activity akin to musical composition, creative writing, choreography, and not dissimilar to disciplines in the sciences where pure and applied research is valued. Writing is neither better than, nor less than doing/creating, and often the two come in a range of importance, affecting greatly differing levels of communities, and of varying levels of benefit to departments, institutions, and individuals. In addition, the “art world” is not homogenous or monolithic, each medium has respective cultural values and opportunities. Because of this, it is inappropriate to attempt to reduce the evaluation of honors thesis projects, based on simplistic concepts of academic value.

 

3. Honors Thesis Paper

 

The Studio Honors Thesis Paper is a written document which supports the creative research presented in the Honors Thesis Exhibition. This should include visual documentation of the Honors Thesis Exhibition. 

 

For formatting instructions see the Senior Honors Project Handbook and the Senior Honors Project Final Checklist, refer to the Honors Program link:

http://www.jmu.edu/honorsprog/shp.shtml