Department of Fine and Performing Arts
Dr. Loretta K. Notareschi, Professor, Co-Chairperson, Music
Ms. Robin Hextrum, Associate Professor, Co-Chairperson, Art
Dr. Mark Davenport, Professor
Mr. Anthony Ortega, Professor
Dr. Trudi Wright, Professor
Dr. Michael Ballard, Assistant Professor
Dr. Khristin Montes, Assistant Professor
Ms. Mariana Pereira Vieira, Assistant Professor
Dr. Barbara Coleman, Professor Emerita
Mr. Eugene Stewart, Professor Emeritus
Mr. William Sutton, Professor Emeritus
Departmental Information
The Department of Fine and Performing Arts offers courses in visual arts, art history, music, music history, music theory, recording arts, applied music, and music ensembles. The Bachelor of Arts degree is available with a major in Visual Arts, Art History, Music, Music Performance, and Music History and Literature. Minors are available in Visual Art, Art History, Music, and Music Recording Arts.
Fine Arts: Core
Regis College students may choose Fine Arts classes from among their options in the Creative Expressions category of the Regis College Core.. The Core Studies requirement emphasizes that the basic human impulse to create is common across all of the arts. The Creative Expressions category of core courses may be fulfilled by taking any courses with the FAC prefix, 200-level FAA courses, and the following FAM courses: FAM 201 Introduction to Singing, FAM 207 Introduction to Piano, and FAM 208 Intro to Songwriting and Composition. These courses introduce students to aesthetic vocabularies through a survey of specific art disciplines (Visual Arts or Music) and to artistic or musical methods of production. Core Studies students are also exposed to the fine and performing arts through attendance at exhibitions, performances, poetry readings, and lectures in the O’Sullivan Arts Gallery, a widely recognized cultural center, and Peter Claver Recital Hall.
These events serve students in the Fine and Performing Arts Department as well as the entire Regis University and Denver area community.
Fine Arts: Visual Arts
The Visual Arts Program at Regis University offers a supportive and engaging learning environment where students can explore a diverse range of artistic practices. All Regis University students can take classes in Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Printmaking, and Digital Design.Visual Art Majors will take art classes in the areas of their choosing, along with coursework in Art History and Professional development. Our Art History courses emphasize diverse traditions of art making practices. Visual Art Majors learn how to think and write critically about art and how to contextualize their art making within a global visual tradition. We are also committed to supporting diverse voices, traditions, and approaches to art making. The Visual Arts major is designed to give students a broad and flexible foundation in the visual arts while also giving them an opportunity to develop an emphasis in a particular medium. Students establish a firm basis in design and art history, while pursuing technical proficiency. This prepares students for the practice of art and grounds their knowledge in experience and first-hand problem solving. The Visual Arts major prepares students for jobs in a wide field of options.
Our program aims to provide students with valuable skill sets and perspectives that they can apply to personal growth, creative thinking, and to professional career paths. The Visual Art Major prepares students to work asart educators, curators, professional fine artists, gallery owners, museum administrators, commercial artists, public relations professionals, graphic designers and many other creative paths. The the Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts is also excellent preparation for MFA programs (graduate programs in Fine Arts).
All visual art majors gain practical experience working with archives, developing digital skills, installing artworks, and curating their own exhibitions. While studying at Regis, students are also eligible to work in the O’Sullivan Art Gallery where they can gain tangible experience learning administrative tasks that support a gallery, installing artwork, curating exhibitions, and lighting shows. This work has helped our alumni land key positions in the art world. A Visual Art Major at Regis University sets students up to have a variety of valuable marketable skill sets they can apply to their unique career path.
Each student works with an advisor from the department who will guide them through completion of the requirements for the major and assure that the student’s future plans are optimized by the art curriculum.
Transfer students who wish to major in Fine Arts must present a portfolio for review by the Department. At least half of the upper division courses must be taken at Regis University. Visual Art Major seniors will complete professional and portfolio development courses which will culminate in a student exhibition in the O'Sullivan Arts Gallery.
Fine Arts: Art History
Art history at Regis University is grounded in social justice. We celebrate the ways that art and visual culture express diversity while honoring the connections we all share in our drive to be creative beings—beings that desire to materialize and communicate our own inner worlds and our shared worldviews. Ultimately, we understand and teach the history of art, throughout time and across the globe, as a way to celebrate the human condition in all of its manifestations.
Art history at Regis University is a global adventure and students will encounter art, architecture, and artifacts from places as diverse as ancient Egypt and the larger continent of Africa, Classical Greece, Rome, Renaissance Europe, the Medieval World, Western and Eastern Asia, and Indigenous cultures across the Americas. Students can also take thematic courses in Modern Art, Global Contemporary Art and Environment, Race Gender and Art; Decolonizing African Art, Sacred Landscapes of the Native Americas, and the Art of Borderlands. Our art history program also focuses heavily on local artistic practices and cultures native to the Denver and greater Southwest region. We offer courses dedicated to Chicano/a movements, the art and archaeology of the American Southwest, contemporary Native American art, Latin American art history, and our world-renowned Santos collection.
Art history at Regis University also supports and welcomes interdisciplinary interests and collaborations especially in areas of peace and justice, archaeology and anthropology, and in museum, gallery, and archive studies. The art history program offers significant opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience with art, artifacts, and collections both on campus and in Denver. Many art history courses are cross-listed with the core curriculum and other departments across campus. This gives students the opportunity to double-major or minor if they wish. Our majors and minors also engage in opportunities to build their professional resumes including taking part in teaching and research assistantships, internships, study abroad programs to international destinations, and speaking at professional conferences. During our majors’ senior year, students undertake the thesis project which entails writing an original, publishable research paper useful in supporting students’ in the next steps of their academic or professional careers.
Fine Arts: Music
The Music Program includes a wide variety of courses and is intended for students of all levels of experience, offering participation in beginning to advanced music lessons and classes, performing ensembles, and courses in music history, music theory, and recording arts. Students who want to concentrate in more advanced studies in music may pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Music or a Music minor.
Students wishing to pursue the music major or minor should contact the music department co-chair/music program director. Currently, the Department of Fine and Performing Arts offers three music major degrees: the Bachelor of Arts in Music; the Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance; and the Bachelor of Arts in Music History and Literature. Music education is also available via the K-12 Education Licensure program with the Department of Education. The music major curriculum offers a comprehensive course of study in historical, cultural, theoretical, and performance perspectives. With a grounding in the traditional music styles of Western art music, music majors will also acquire an essential awareness and knowledge of contemporary musical directions, American music, interdisciplinary studies between music and art, and the musical traditions of other cultures. The Bachelor of Arts in Music prepares students to go onto graduate studies, education, performance, or a career that combines music with other disciplines such as music and liturgy, arts management and administration, communication, business or community-based professions.
Music majors with an emphasis in performance are expected to participate in applied lessons and ensembles every semester, once they have declared the major. Performance majors have added studies in Techniques and Performance and advanced ensembles. Performance majors prepare and present public recitals in both their junior and senior years. The Department currently offers the Performance Emphasis in the applied areas of voice, piano, guitar, and instruments of the orchestral woodwind, brass, percussion, and string families. Auditions are required.
The Music minor is offered to any Regis College student who demonstrates substantial skill and technique on an instrument or voice (audition required). The Music minor at Regis College is designed to give students an excellent general foundation in music, music history, and the technical language of music. Music minors develop a serious mastery of an instrument or voice and gain experience working in advanced ensemble groups. For those interested in music recording, a minor is also available in Music Recording Arts.
Note: All music majors must pass a keyboard proficiency exam.