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Welcome to the Art Department
We have one of the most comprehensive programs of study in Southern California. We offer a wide range of degree programs and have numerous transfer relationships with both the University of California and California State University systems as well as private art schools in the area.
Our goal is to ensure that you are well prepared to move forward with your education, if that is your intention, and our courses are structured to direct your learning to that end. We also recognize that many people take art courses for personal enrichment or to enhance their job skills. This blend of students helps to make our department a vital, dynamic learning environment for everyone.
For an even more immediate, on-site look at our Art Department, be sure and check out the Arts Media Lab blog.
For general information, please contact the Art Department ADA Paul Helling at 760-744-1150 x 2302.
Our Mission
The mission of the Palomar College Art Department is to create a challenging and inspiring learning environment that educates our diverse student body in art history, aesthetic awareness, and provides a strong foundation in the techniques and processes of producing visual art.
We are committed to providing programs and art facilities that promote the integration of the making of art with its critical interpretation and history. We offer studio courses in two- dimensional, three-dimensional and digital arts that are designed to not only address technical development, process comprehension, and material sensitivity, but to emphasize content, concept and cultural framework, historical, as well as contemporary. Our art history offerings are designed to meet the highest academic standards for transfer. They introduce and expose both Art and non-Art majors at Palomar College to theoretical concepts, diverse cultural identities and historical and global developments in all branches of the visual arts, while at the same time developing their aesthetic awareness.
We welcome and encourage interdisciplinary approaches within and outside of the department, and seek to provide well rounded two-year degree programs for transfer, while also preparing students for careers in the visual arts. We strive to provide an all inclusive and supportive academic atmosphere that fosters creative growth, critical thought and intellectual dialogue, while building a strong technical basis of knowledge and skill.