Independent Studies – Art Department

BA: Studio Art

Independent Studies for Art Undergrads

Independent Studies – General Information for Undergraduate Art Students:

In the Art Department, students have the opportunity to participate in independent studies for course credit. This page will review each type of independent study and their requirements along with the forms and instructions for filing for an independent study.

The most common types are a five-credit Art 199 independent study or a two-credit Art 199F independent study.

ART 199: Five-credit independent studies require 15 hours of work per week. (Check the five-credits box on the form). Up to two (five-credit) independent studies classes can be used as substitutions for an art major’s upper division studio major requirements.

ART 199F: Two-credit independent studies require 6 hours of work per week. (Check the two-credits box on the independent study form). If a student does three 199F two-credit classes at the same place (internship etc.) they can use it as an upper division studio; however, the student will need to follow up with the Art Department undergraduate advisor to request that substitution be made in their portal.

Art 196: a five-credit “senior project” independent study and can be used if requested. If this is the type of independent study that you would like to do then make sure to specify if you are requesting an Art 196 in the correspondence with the art staff.

Art 198: a five-credit internship / field study and must include who the student is interning with, address, contact name, work with that person for 150 hours. You will be required to keep timesheet and details of work completed for Art 198 independent studies. If this is the type of independent study that you would like to do then make sure to specify if you are requesting an Art 198 in the correspondence with the art staff.

NOTE ON SUMMER SESSION: Independent studies in Summer Session have to go through the summer session office and they have their own process. Please contact them directly if you are wanting to do an independent study in Summer.

Independent Studies Instructions for Undergrads:

This is the process that you will need to follow to do an independent study with the art department:

Read all of the information on this page.
Download the independent studies forms from this page (see forms below).
Fill out the student portion of the form(s) and save a copy.
Email your filled out and saved forms to any Art Department ladder rank faculty member asking them to sponsor your independent study. That is Art faculty member with a title that includes the word “professor” and is not labeled as “affiliated faculty”.
They will review your request and if they approve they will sign the form(s) and send to the Art Department Assistant.
Once the Art Assistant receives the completed and approved form(s) then they will finalize the forms with class numbers and will email the student and the faculty sponsor back with the completed form and enrollment instructions.
Students have until the “Add/drop/swap” date to enroll (can be found on the Academic and Administrative Calendar).

Independent Study Forms:

There are two forms available to download from this page and to use to start the process. Please do not use other independent study forms or the generic UCSC version.

01-ART-INDEPENDENT-STUDIES-MAIN-FORM.pdf
This form is required for all independent studies requests.

02-ART-INDEPENDENT-STUDIES-FACILITY-FORM.pdf
This form is required only if the student will be using an Art Department facility (studio, shop, classroom, cellar) to complete their independent study and if so is needed in addition to the above form.

Frequently Asked Questions:

The “faculty sponsor name” is the professor who you are asking to sign off on your form.
The “Site Study Address” is wherever the work is to be done. If you are doing the work in any of the art studios and have filled out a facilities form then you can put “UCSC Art Department”. If you are working from home you can write that. If you are doing an internship somewhere, that is where you will put the address of that institution in addition to the contact name and their phone number or email address (for two-credit Art 199F internships or for five-credit Art 198 internships).
Do not forget to indicate if you are requesting two-credits or five-credits.

Information for Faculty:

Please make sure to read the student’s entire form for accuracy and completeness before signing the form.
Please make sure that your name is listed in the faculty sponsor section.
For the Facilities form, only sign this form after you have discussed the specific facilities use with the appropriate SRA and list their name on the form. This indicates that you have already had the discussion with them.
Once you have reviewed and signed the form please send it to the Art Department Assistant and make sure that the filled out and saved form is actually attached to the email.
If you are responding to a student’s email where they attached the form in the email to you – if just adding the assistant email to your response, the attachment does not come through – you have to use the forward function and/or manually attach the file.

Independent Studies for Art Grad Students

There is a separate process for Grad students. Please read below. For questions about grad level independent studies please contact the grad advisor at artmfa@ucsc.edu

Art 297: a five-credit independent study for Graduate Students only.

Art 299F: a two-credit independent study for Graduate Students only.

The process for graduate students to request an Independent Study or Thesis Advising Course is as follows:

Students discuss their independent study or thesis plan and confirm with the relevant instructor
Students complete the Graduate Independent Study Google Form
After reviewing the request, the Graduate Adviser will write an email to the student and instructor detailing the plan or confirming participation
In the email, the Graduate Adviser includes an enrollment code for the student to enroll.
If the use of Art Department facilities at Elena Baskin Visual Arts complex is required for the independent study then you must also fill out a facilities form 02-ART-INDEPENDENT-STUDIES-FACILITY-FORM.pdf and email it to your faculty sponsor to fill out after consulting with the appropriate SRAs. Then that faculty member will need to send the filled out and signed facilities form to Jason Greenberg.