ARTS 310 Art of the Young Child
Interdisciplinary approach to the teaching of visual art, music, movement and creative drama; culminates in the production and presentation of a themed, integrated instructional resource. Formative assessment tools focus on lesson-planning, portfolio, performance, and in-class participation. Primarily intended for people who work with or plan to work with children pre-Kindergarten through grade 6 in a variety of settings, especially future elementary school teachers.
ARTS 310 The Asian Imagination in the 21st Century
This course will examine the changing worldviews and perceptions in Asian societies about “the good life,” as a consequence of the sweeping transformations that have accompanied modernization, Westernization, globalization, and materialism in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia in the wake of rapid economic growth in these societies for the past two decades. Readings will be interdisciplinary, and course material will focus on aesthetic expressions through multimedia (films, documentaries), and literary works (contemporary fiction). The overarching theme in arts and ideas addressed in this course is how societies change as a result of wealth and materialism, and what we can learn about cultural changes through the prism of aesthetic expression.
ARTS 310 Under the Covers and Between the Sheets
Students will explore books as sculptural art by using mixed-media to create personalized texts, alter existing books, and consider/express their own artistic identity through their art.
ARTS 310 Glass Art: Multicultural Uses and Designs
This hands-on course presents a multicultural overview of glass, the original “New Media,” and its role in art, science and communication. Students will study the history of glass design and production, and learn through hands-on workshops about the glass art techniques of several cultures, including the Middle East, China, Europe and America. Students will learn about the various creative impacts that glass has made throughout history, from ancient vessels, sculpture, and telescope lenses, to the contemporary fiber optics, and touchscreens that are so crucial to contemporary life. The class will examine artistic, spiritual, trade and technological touchstones of creative glass through assigned readings, writing, and hands-on sculptural glass projects.
ARTS 310 Fantastic Art
This course is an investigation of Fantastic Art, its meanings and implications from the beginning of the 19th century to the present time, including, in Literature, William Morris, James Stephens, Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats, J RR Tolkien, C.S Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and at least one other chosen by the class during our first week. In the visual arts we will be looking at a whole raft of Victorian fairy painters, an under-appreciated and intriguing genre. In music we will be listening particularly to Berlioz, Wagner–beginning with his first opera Die Feen, and including, of course, the giant Ring Cycle, as well as the astonishing number of takes on fairies, fairy lore, legends, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in symphonic music and the ballet. As we enter the twentieth century, brooded over by the colossus of Tolkien, we will be able to add cinema and fan fiction to our sheaf of genres.
ARTS 310 Dance in Non-Western Expressive Cultures: African Dance
This course investigates the historical and aesthetic practices of human societies in non-western cultures focusing on: dance as a system of communication, dance as part of a social structure, dance as ethnicity, and dance as sacred art form. The course also examines dance as a human phenomenon that both reflects and shapes culture. Through a series of lectures, discussions, studio workshops, readings, films/videos and outside performances or guest artists (when possible), students are introduced to a variety of dance forms from different African (and World) traditions. The focus of this course will be on Ghana, West Africa with general survey of dance from sub-Saharan Africa, and the Africa diaspora (and other world dance and music forms). The course examines the place of dance in its own cultural setting and its relationship to contemporary artistic expressions. Assignments will include both performance work and research presentations. This course involves lectures, studio workshop, as well as research presentations.
To see more classes which have been approved for the ARTS credit, please check this comprehensive list.