Admission Requirements
Portfolio Submission Guidelines for Art Undergraduates
Applying and getting accepted into the Marywood University Art Department is a two-step process. Both steps must occur prior to enrollment in your first semester courses.
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APPLY Apply to the University using the Marywood application or the Common application . Incoming first time freshmen interested in priority consideration for the Art Department's Art Talent Award should concurrently submit their portfolio materials directly to the Art Department prior to the November 15 deadline. Portfolios received after November 15 and before the cut off date of March 1 are still eligible for consideration depending on remaining awards.
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PORTFOLIO Submit your portfolio to the Art Department. Your submission should include 1) your portfolio, 2) submission checklist , and 3) short art essay (see below).
Art Therapy students must submit a digital portfolio. (Google Slides, PowerPoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, Website URL, PDF, etc)
Note: All digital image files must be in .jpg, .png, .gif, .svg, or .pdf file format. Portfolio submissions must include your name and contact information along with a typed Word Document listing of each piece and include the artwork's title, date, medium, size, and concept. We recommend you use our Portfolio Submission Checklist.Your portfolio should include 12 to 15 original works. You may include personal projects and anything you completed in high school art classes or private lessons.
Your portfolio should demonstrate artistic technique, style, conceptualization, and creativity. If possible, include works that represent your chosen medium or area of interest. If you'd like to major in photography, for example, try to include photographs in your portfolio. Please also include a few images from a recent sketchbook and/or artwork that specifically pertains to your chosen major and program of study at Marywood.
Include a variety of media, if possible:
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Drawings in pencil, ink, or charcoal
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Paintings in oil, acrylic, or watercolor
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3D work in clay, wood, metal, cardboard, fiber, or collage
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Photography
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Printmaking
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Computer graphics
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Digital illustration
Facilities & Technology
Every art student at Marywood has access to superb facilities in our two art buildings, from computer labs and darkrooms to drawing, painting, printmaking, metal, wood, and sculpture studios and weaving looms. Facilities are available to art students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Marywood is also home to four galleries on campus featuring regional and national artists, faculty, and students.
The Insalaco Center for Studio Art features drawing and painting studios showcasing naturally-lit rooms with beautiful views of the campus. There are studios and equipment for woodworking, fiber arts, jewelry-making, ceramics, sculpture, photography, printmaking, a Mac lab, and private and semi-private studios for upper level BFA, MA and MFA students.
The Shields Center for Visual Arts building contains The Maslow Collection, Mahady Gallery, Suraci Gallery, classrooms for art history and art administration, studios for art therapy, two graphic design Mac labs, and a 24-hour drop-in Mac lab. The Maslow Collection and Study Gallery for Contemporary Art housed in the Shields Center features more than 500 works by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close.
The Mahady Gallery is a spacious and dramatic setting for the display of contemporary artwork. Throughout the year, the gallery offers a variety of group and solo shows by visiting artists, juried regional competitions, faculty exhibits, student shows, and curated national exhibitions. The gallery hosts the annual Scholastic Art Awards and the popular Art Faculty Biennial. Featured exhibitions are accompanied by artists’ slide presentations, gallery talks, studio visits, and demonstrations. The Mahady Gallery is located on the first floor of the Shields Center for Visual Arts.
The Maslow Study Gallery is a learning laboratory, providing fieldwork experiences, internships, and opportunities in curatorial and exhibition studies to Marywood students. Works in The Maslow Collection are available for professional research and study, and many are loaned to regional and national exhibitions. The Maslow Study Gallery for Contemporary Art is located on the first floor of the Shields Center for Visual Arts. For more information visit maslow.marywood.edu
Exhibitions in the Suraci Gallery showcase regional and national artists; support art faculty work and scholarship; provide degree research and documentation opportunities for current and alumni art students; and foster community outreach projects and interests. The Suraci Gallery also houses Marywood’s permanent collection of fine and decorative art. The Asian Collection consists of ceramics, furniture, netsukes, inro, ivories, and prints. Bronze and marble sculpture, paintings, ceramics, glass, and French ivories comprise the 19th Century Collection. Religious icons, furniture, and 20th century works round out the Suraci Collection. The Suraci Gallery is located on the second floor of the Shields Center for Visual Arts.
Located in the lobby of the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts, the Kresge Gallery is a versatile exhibition, critique, and lecture space. An alternative venue to the formal art galleries, the Kresge Gallery provides a working and experimental exhibition site for art students and faculty to showcase a variety of work throughout each semester. Recent exhibitions include the Foundation Year student show, Senior Exhibition, Advanced Painting & Sculpture shows, MA shows, the Marywood Print Guild show, Design & Letterpress shows, art auctions, and Art Club shows.
Insalaco Center for Studio Arts
The Michael and Dolores Insalaco Center for Studio Arts is home to the Art Department. The Insalaco Center also houses the Kresge, Mahady and Suraci Galleries and features drawing and painting studios showcasing naturally-lit rooms with beautiful views of the campus. There are studios and equipment for woodworking, jewelry-making, ceramics, sculpture, photography, printmaking, graphic design, illustration, and art therapy, and private and semi-private workspaces for upper-level BFA, MA, and MFA students. Private and semi-private work spaces are available to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. Art students can access the building 24 hours a day.
Built and dedicated in 2001, the facility was made possible through the generous support of Michael Insalaco, Trustee Emeritus and former Board Chair, and his wife, Dolores.
Shields Center for Visual Arts
The Shields Center for Visual Arts building contains The Maslow Collection, Mahady Gallery, Suraci Gallery, classrooms for the art history and arts administration programs, studios for art therapy, two graphic design Mac labs, and a 24-hour drop-in Mac lab. The Maslow Collection and Study Gallery for Contemporary Art housed in the Shields Center features more than 500 works by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close.
Studio Arts Classrooms
The Insalaco Center for Studio Arts features drawing and painting studios showcasing naturally lit rooms with beautiful views of the campus. There are studios and equipment for woodworking, jewelry-making, ceramics, sculpture, photography, printmaking, multipurpose classrooms for graphic design and illustration, and private and semi-private studios for upper level BFA, MA, and MFA students.
The Clay Studio consists of a large common workroom with electric- and kick- wheels, extruders, slab roller, and worktables. Adjoining the workroom is a kiln and glazing room with four electric kilns and two gas kilns. Ceramics majors and minors also have access to personal workspaces that connect to the main workroom and kiln room.
Students in illustration, drawing, painting, and foundations have access to two adjacent studios, each about 800 square feet of uninterrupted space with 10 ft. ceilings. One studio has floor-to-ceiling windows extending 80 ft. along two walls. The other has floor-to-ceiling windows extending 40 ft. along one wall. Both studios are fully equipped with easels and taborets, as well as track lighting, student lockers, storage racks, and ventilation systems.
In addition, students have use of multipurpose classrooms equipped with negative, slide and flatbed scanners, large-format color inkjet printers, color plotters, and digital access to Adobe Creative Cloud software.
The large and airy third floor art studio offers dedicated space for novice through advanced painting students. The room has movable partitions for configuring semiprivate work areas according to class size. Six private art studios 12x15 overlook a stand of mature trees and provide plenty of natural light for each student pursuing a undergraduate degrees in studio art painting.
Graphic design, printmaking, and photography students have access to a group black and white darkrooms, a private darkroom for making large projection prints, and an alternative processes room devoted to working with historic printmaking methods such as palladium, cyanotype and gum bichromate. The department has seven 4x5 view cameras which are available for student use, along with a variety of 35mm and 2-1⁄4 cameras. The spacious lighting studio is equipped with versatile strobe systems, backdrops, and a prop zone. Resources include an adjacent multipurpose classroom equipped with negative, slide, and flatbed scanners, large-format color inkjet printers, color plotters and digital access to Adobe Creative Cloud software.
The second floor printmaking studio provides facilities for working in all the major processes. Currently there are there intaglio/relief presses, a litho press with stones and grinding sink, a letterpress proof press and assorted type, camera room, screen stretching unit and assorted frames, screen washout unit, NU ARC exposure units, and various paper filing and materials cabinets. Adjoining the main studio is a separate letterpress studio and a fully equipped papermaking facility including a Hollander paper beater.
The first floor 3D/sculpture area consists of mold-making facilities for casting metal, resins, plaster, and glass. Fabrication equipment allows students to cut, forge, weld, and cold-finish metal. The hot shop is outfitted with kilns for glass cutting. slumping, and fusing in addition to the foundry for bronze and aluminum. The jewelry studio bays provide opportunities for students to work with "light" metals. The wood studio, shared with Architecture, is designed and equipped for all aspects of woodwork as applied to furniture making and sculpture, including carving, lamination, turning, and finishing.
Mahady Art Gallery
The Robert J. and Elizabeth FitzMartin Mahady Gallery, known more frequently as the Mahady Gallery, is located on the first floor of the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts, providing an open and elegant setting for the display of contemporary artwork. Throughout the year, the gallery offers a variety of group and solo shows by visiting artists, juried regional competitions, faculty exhibits, student shows, and curated national exhibitions. Every art major has an exhibit in the Mahady Gallery before graduation.
Formerly known as the Contemporary Gallery, the venue underwent renovations in 2001. Elizabeth Mahady, a generous benefactor, underwrote the remodeling of the space, which was renamed to honor her and her late husband. In 2025, the gallery was relocated to the lobby of the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts. The refurbished Mahady Gallery has continued to showcase works of talented students, faculty, and visiting artists, providing a source of artistic enrichment for all the people of the region.
Maslow Study Gallery
The Maslow Study Gallery is a learning laboratory, providing fieldwork experiences, internships, and opportunities in curatorial and exhibition studies to Marywood students. Works in The Maslow Collection are available for professional research and study, and many are loaned to regional and national exhibitions.
The Maslow Collection is the largest and most comprehensive collection of Contemporary art in Northeastern Pennsylvania, with over 700 works by more than 150 artists. Collected by Marilyn and Richard Maslow and originally housed at InterMetro Industries, it is now on long-term loan to Marywood University.
The largest part of the Collection is devoted to paintings by newly established or emerging artists working or exhibiting in New York during the late 1970s through the early 1990s, such as David Reed, Terry Winters, Nicholas Africano, Robert Cumming, James Biederman, Jack Goldstein, Melissa Meyer, Gary Lang, Anthony Sorce, Edward Henderson, and Katherine Porter, among many others.
The Collection also includes major prints and works on paper by Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Dine, Robert Longo, Chuck Close, Sherrie Levine, Edward Ruscha, Jane Hammond, Peter Halley, Sol LeWitt, and Andy Warhol, among others; and important photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Barbara Kasten, Lee Friedlander, Sandy Skoglund, and Mark Cohen.
The Maslow Collection has loaned works to major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC; The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, NY; and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; among others.
The Collection is, at its core, a learning laboratory that provides exhibitions, dialogue, fieldwork experience, internships, and other opportunities in curatorial studies. Access begins with all Marywood Art Department students, who interact directly with the Collection as an enhancement of their course content (exhibitions are frequently co-curated by faculty members), and extends to Arts Administration students in a more in-depth way, as well as the larger community as a major resource through loans and events.
Suraci Art Gallery
The Suraci Gallery, located on the first floor of the Insalaco Center for Shields Arts, houses a rotating selection of Marywood's permanent collection of fine and decorative art. Exhibitions in the Suraci Gallery also showcase regional and national artists; support art faculty work and scholarship; provide degree research and documentation opportunities for current and alumni art students; and foster community outreach projects and interests.
The gallery consists of three collections. The gallery's Asian Collection consists of ceramics, furniture, netsukes, inro, ivories, and prints. Bronze and marble sculpture, paintings, ceramics, glass, and French ivories comprise the 19th Century Collection. Religious icons, furniture, and 20th century works round out the Suraci Collection.
Kresge Gallery
Located in the lobby of the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts, the Kresge Gallery is a versatile exhibition, critique, and lecture space. An alternative venue to the formal art galleries, the Kresge Gallery provides a working and experimental exhibition site for art students and faculty to showcase a variety of work throughout each semester.
Scholarships
Art Talent Award
Art Talent Awards are only available to incoming freshman students. Students who have already registered for classes are no longer eligible to apply for the award.
ELIGIBILITY: If you are an incoming Freshman student and you would like primary consideration for an Art Talent Award, your portfolio AND art essay must be submitted together to the Art Department by November 15 . Portfolios received after November 15 and before the cut off date of March 1 are still eligible for consideration depending on remaining awards. Awards are granted a rolling basis each spring beginning March 1 and portfolios meeting the November 15th deadline will get first consideration for available awards. The Art Talent Award is based on artistic merits. As such, Arts Administration students are ineligible for this award. Recipients of an Art Talent Award must plan to major in art at Marywood. Once awarded, they are renewable for up to eight semesters of full-time undergraduate study. If a Talent Award recipient changes his/her major to that of one outside of art, the Art Talent Award will be rescinded.
Note: Any physical or flash-drive digital portfolios must be left with the Art Department 7-14 days for evaluation. Award recipients will be notified by mail sometime after March 1.
Faculty
Stephen Garrison
Associate Professor | Director of the School of Visual & Performing Arts
Patrick L McLane
MFA Director
Aaron B Best
Lecturer
Ky C Betts
Lecturer
Vincent A Bonavoglia
Lecturer
Mark Chuck
Ceramics Technician (9 Mnth)
Stephen J Colley
3D Studio Technician (9 Mnth)
Aimee L Dilger
Lecturer
Rachel M Dolk
Lecturer
Jenna Rose Edmonds
Lecturer
Lindsay Barrett George
Lecturer
Paul J Georgetti
Lecturer
Romina C Godoy
Graduate Assistant | Lecturer
Alicia R Grunder-Laughlin
Lecturer | Art Therapy Practicum/Internship Coordinator
Melanie W Hall
Lecturer | Lecturer
Megan Halsey
Lecturer | Lecturer
Justin Todd Hayden
Lecturer
Susan M Jenkins
Associate Professor
John Kascht
Non-Credit Professional | Lecturer | Lecturer
Courtney Lynn McCreary
Administrative Assistant | Administrative Assistant
Peter Nardone
Lecturer
Cathy J Noto
Lecturer
Kevin O'Neill
Lecturer | Lecturer
Abigail B Oxford
Instructor of Practice
Collier B Parker
Professor
Margaret A Reddan
Lecturer
David Henry Schulte
Lecturer
Irene Scotti Lantz
Lecturer
Lori R Sebastiani
Lecturer
Amanda Nicole Stanek
Lecturer
Alise Tifentale
Lecturer
Heidi Marie Van Leuven
Lecturer
Georisell Vazquez
Lecturer
Mark Freeman Webber
Lecturer | Lecturer
Judith Wilde
Lecturer | Lecturer
Jackalynn Lee Wilson
Program Director for Art Therapy | Instructor of Art Therapy
Stephanie L Wise
Professor Emeritus | Lecturer | Liaison for Art Therapy
Courses & Curriculum (120 Total Credits)
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Course Numbers
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Course Names
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Credit Hours
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Foundational Courses
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19 Credits
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ART 101
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Foundations Seminar
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1
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ART 110
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Basic Drawing
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3
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ART 116
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Drawing I
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3
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ART 118
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Two-Dimensional Design and Color
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3
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ART 212
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Three-Dimensional Design I
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3
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ART 233
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Painting I
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3
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ART 241
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Digital Design
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3
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ART 322
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Portfolio Review
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0
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Additional Common Courses
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12 Credits
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ART 113
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History of Art I
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3
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ART 114
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History of Art II
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3
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ART 218
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Art in the Modern Era
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3
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ART
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Elective
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3
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ART 322A
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Portfolio Review
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0
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ART 322B
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Portfolio Review
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0
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ART 322C
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Portfolio Review
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0
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Program Learning Outcomes
Within the Bachelor of Fine Arts: Studio Art, there are two areas of emphasis: 2-D and 3-D. The Studio Art program equips students to meet an ever-changing and competitive field through a commitment to creative thinking and endeavor. The goal for students is that they become independent, creative thinkers, responsible to a wide audience and assertive in their own kind of expression. All students take foundation courses; intermediate students take intermediate level 2-D or 3-D courses. In sequential upper-level courses, students choose advanced courses in painting, illustration, graphic design, ceramics, or sculpture.
Student Resources
Foundations Year
Your first year as an art student at Marywood University is an important step in your development as an artist. To help make your foundation year a success, we offer a number of resources to guide you.
Online Art Supplies
