Visual Arts Program

Dialoguing with a visiting artist at their exhibition in the RC Art Gallery

What is the RC Visual Arts Program?

Here you build the fundamentals of each medium, from visual principles to hands-on craft, and just as importantly, learn to think through and across them. We want you to leave with real technical skill and a sharper sense of what art means and why it matters in the world today.

Making Art Is Part of Life Here

Every RC student takes a studio art course. It is a degree requirement, and it is one of the things that makes the place unusual. You make things: throw and fire pots, pull woodblock and screen prints, shoot and develop photographs, carve and build sculpture, work in fibers and design.

Beginning courses have no prerequisites, and they are meant for people who have never made art before. Students majoring in everything from sociology to chemistry come back and say the studio changed how they see the rest of their work. You leave knowing a medium and knowing how to think about what art is for. Listen to RC alumna Nancy Blum '85 say what the RC Visual Arts Program did for her.

Once you enroll, the studios are open to you around the clock, accessible 24 hours a day to enrolled students.

The RC Photography Studio offers students the opportunity to shoot, process and develop black and white, color, and holographic images using traditional and digital processes.
RC Ceramics Studio offers students the opportunity to create wheel-thrown as well as hand built ceramic forms. Students glaze and fire their work on site. For more information about the RC Ceramics studio please contact Susan Crowell by calling 734-647-4592.
The RC Art Gallery is located in the University of Michigan’s East Quadrangle Residence Hall (701 E. University, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1245.) [See map.] The approximately 500 square-foot exhibit space hosts two professional and one RC student exhibit in both the fall and winter semesters. The Gallery opened in 1997 in conjunction with the RC’s 30th Anniversary celebration with a photo exhibit of the acclaimed international photojournalist (and 1977 RC alumnus), David Turnley. In recent years exhibitors have included: Frank Cassara, Margo Mensing, Ellen Wilt, Kate Blacklock, Wendel Heers, Marianetta Porter, Tom Voorhees, Sherri Smith, Sa Schloff, and all four of the current RC Studio Art faculty. If you have questions concerning the RC Art Gallery, please contact rescollege@umich.edu. The RC Art Gallery closes in the summer. Note: The RC Art Gallery is best accessed through the west side of East Quadrangle, off of East University Street and across from the Ross Business School.
The RC Printmaking Studio offers students the opportunity to create woodblock prints and screen prints as well as one-of-a-kind monotypes and drawings. For more information about the RC Printmaking studio, please contact instructor Toby Millman.
The RC Sculpture Studio offers students the opportunity to create sculpture in wood using hand techniques as well as with power tools including the drill press, band saw and lathe.

Working on a pottery wheel in the ceramic studio

Creating in the printmaking studio

Opening reception of the sand tapete made in collaboration with visiting artist Fulgencio Lazo, October 2019

Hear from RC students about what a creative arts class is actually like.

Last Updated: 07/31/2026

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