Art is alive and well at Gutenberg College. Gutenberg acknowledges the God-given, creative capacity of humans to make art, and the college has cultivated a lively “arts conversation” among its students, including an ongoing dialogue about contemporary and popular art, music, and cinema. The faculty also recognize that the arts have played a major role in expressing the unfolding ideas of Western civilization and are therefore a powerful way the mind of man has made itself known over thousands of years and continues to today, especially as our culture has shifted from a language-based to an image-based culture. Gutenberg College is therefore committed to helping its students understand how the power of art works today.
Gutenberg College is located near the University of Oregon’s art museum and art facilities, which gives Gutenberg students access to a wide variety of art activities, such as dance classes and classes at the university’s Craft Center. The Craft Center, located in the student union, offers short courses in subjects such as photography, fibers, screen-printing, and woodworking. In addition, the city of Eugene and the surrounding area offer scores of local and internationally acclaimed musical and theater venues.
The Western Civilization course during the freshman and sophomore years includes art history, and over the course of four years, students will take three art seminars and an art practicum. The art history, the seminars, and the practicum not only help students learn what art is, but they help students learn to discern the differences between art motivated by indifference and hostility to God and art motivated by a true desire to know and please God.
Gutenberg encourages its students to participate in the Annual Student Art Show and Performance. This event usually takes place in March or April. Its purpose is to showcase the visual and performance art produced by Gutenberg students as well as other students in the Gutenberg community. Visual art is exhibited in Gutenberg College’s Puccinelli Art Gallery.
