Visual Culture, Arts, and Media VCAM

Haverford’s new Visual Culture, Arts, and Media (VCAM) facility is a 24/7 creative hub for students, faculty, staff, and the wider community.

VCAM houses the College’s Interdisciplinary Minor in Visual Studies, the Haverford Innovations Program, a Maker Arts Space, and the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and its Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives initiative.

Humanists as Builders

Modern Language Association PMLA recognizes VCAM as a model for interdisciplinary education in the 21st century. Photo: Lara Swimmer Photography.

COOL CLASSES: “Food and Religion”

This course explores the role of food in religious beliefs and practices, including the role of food in religious rituals, the connection between religious foodways and religious identities, and the ethics of food production and consumption.

Inside the VCAM building, a view of three stories

VCAM Building Wins National Education Facility Design Award

Haverford's new Visual Culture, Arts, and Media space in the repurposed Old Gym has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects' 2018 awards program for its innovative and sustainable design.

A view of the VCAM box with Casablanca being projected on the wall

VCAM Welcome from the Director

Welcome to VCAM—a material realization of a key feature of the College’s vision for a 21st-century liberal arts education: that is, the development of students as interpreters and makers of visual media in spaces made for this work.

COOL CLASSES: “Art and the Environment in East Asia”

This course, which is cross-listed in East Asian languages and cultures, environmental studies, and visual studies, examines the relationship between environment and the arts in China and Japan—particularly how artists engage with and respond to nature through varied modes of artistic production and exhibition.