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Undergraduate Academics
The creative and performing arts are highly valued at Sarah Lawrence. Writing and visual arts courses bring students together in workshop seminars, and individual conferences allow for in-depth analysis of craft and artistic direction. Music, dance, and theatre courses combine components to provide a balance of theory, performance, history, and specialized work.
The Sarah Lawrence College dance program presents undergraduate students with an inclusive curriculum that exposes them to vital aspects of dance through physical, creative, and analytical practices. Students are encouraged to study broadly, widen their definitions of dance and performance, and engage in explorations of form and function.
Sarah Lawrence College’s undergraduate filmmaking and moving image arts program (FMIA) offers a vibrant, dynamic, creative incubator to ignite the imagination of the next generation of media makers. The program seeks to help students navigate the intersection of art and technology, as they acquire the tools and skills of the discipline and develop their critical and creative voices.
The music program is structured to integrate theory and practice. Students select a combination of component courses that together constitute one full course (called a Music Third). The student, in consultation with the faculty, plans the music program best suited to individual needs and interests. Advanced students may, with faculty consent, elect to take two-thirds of their course of study in music.
The Sarah Lawrence College theatre program is a community of generous and engaged artists who value diverse, intentional, and rigorous research, process, and creation. We hold each other and ourselves accountable to responsibly challenge ourselves and each other to foster our growth as both individuals and collaborative artists. We support innovation, not only in the art that we produce but also in the systems that we make to learn, share, and create. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum that prioritizes equality, care, and experimentation, we aim to create an artistic environment steeped in joy in order to envision and build a better future. This is an open and inclusive community where everyone is welcome.
The visual and studio arts program is dedicated to interdisciplinary study, practice, experimentation, and collaboration among young artists. Students focus on traditional studio methods but are encouraged to bridge those ideas across disciplines, including experimental media and new techniques. The program offers courses in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, video art, installation, creative programming, interactive art, interventionist art, games, and simulation. Students pursue a multidisciplinary course of study while gaining proficiency in a wide range of methods and materials. Working within a liberal-arts context, students are also encouraged to form collaborations across fields of practice and often work with musicians, actors, and scenic designers, as well as biologists, mathematicians, architects, philosophers, or journalists. Conference work, senior show, and senior thesis allow the integration of any combination of fields of study, along with the opportunity for serious research across all areas of knowledge.
Sarah Lawrence College offers a vibrant community of writers and probably the largest writing faculty available to undergraduates anywhere in the country. We offer courses in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—encouraging students to explore an array of perspectives and techniques that will extend their writing ability whatever their preferred genre. In workshops, students share their writing in a supportive atmosphere. In conferences, teachers provide students with close, continual mentoring and guidance. Visits from guest writers, who give public readings and lectures throughout the year, are an important component of the curriculum.