University Bulletin
Undergraduate Degree Programs
ART 100
(GA)
Concepts and Creation in the Visual Arts (3) A study of the personal and cultural foundations of artistic creation and practice of creative production in the art studio.
ART 100 Concepts and Creation in the Visual Arts (3)
(GA)
(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements.
ART 100 is intended as an introduction to the concepts underpinning artistic creation. Through lectures and studio work, students will explore relationships between artistic processes and in daily life. The objective of the course is to develop in the student both an appreciation and understanding of contemporary art through an examination of art and contemporary social, cultural, and political issues surrounding artistic practice. Students will respond to the ideas presented in the lectures by completing a series of artworks intended to reflect the issues and concepts that have been presented. The intended, though not exclusive, audience for the course is non-art majors. While the focus of the course is a critical examination of both the artworks studied and the artworks created by the students, the critique will be derived from the various backgrounds and academic experiences of the students and not necessarily from their knowledge of art. In this manner, the course can become a relevant complement to all of their studies. In short, the goal of the course is to understand art as a means to critically engage and begin to understand our surroundings and not simply as an end product. Evaluation of student achievement will be done in both the classroom and studio portions of the course. Since it is not expected that students have a background in art, content knowledge assessment will primarily be based on the students' active participation in class discussions as well as objective tests in the form of written responses to the issues and concepts examined. In the studio, their work will be judged on how well students have responded to the concepts and issues explored as well as on their ability to articulate their own ideas in relation to those of other students and other aesthetic and cultural ideas to which they have been exposed. In the studio, this process will primarily be done in the form of individual conversation and group critique. Since the School of Visual Arts now requires a portfolio review for visual arts majors to enroll in studio courses, ART 050 provides an opportunity for non-art majors to do studio work in conjunction with an exploration of art concepts.