Course Syllabus
Course: ART 1010
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New MediaDepartment: Visual Art
Title: Introduction to the Visual Arts
Semester Approved: Spring 2019
Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2023
End Semester: Fall 2024
Catalog Description: This is an introductory course for non-art majors in which students will learn to understand and appreciate art through the study of the visual language and art history. This course presents the fundamentals of the creative process, including structure, concept, material proficiency, and historical context. Emphasis is placed on developing the student's ability to critically analyze artistic works.
General Education Requirements: Fine Arts (FA)
Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
Justification: This is a fundamental art appreciation course found at most other colleges and universities in the country. It provides a general understanding of the visual language and the historical context of art for non-art majors. This course fills a general education requirement for Fine Arts. This course possesses a common number and title in the USHE system.
Courses to be designated as a Fine Arts (FA) General Education experience are expected to provide students with an understanding of the basic conceptual frameworks, historical and cultural contexts of artistic works, and be instilled with a sensibility of the creative process. Assessment will occur through the students' ability to critically evaluate creative works using the language and methodology appropriate to the disciplines of dance, music, theater, and/or the visual arts.
General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum will have a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world, with particular emphasis on American institutions, the social and behavioral sciences, the physical and life sciences, the humanities, the fine arts and personal wellness. This course is designed to provide non-art major students an experience to actively engage with visual culture. It will expand and heighten historical and cultural sensibilities, and will promote an informed vocabulary of the visual arts. The linkage of the past to the modern world will be discussed during lectures and discussions. Historical context of the visual language, including cultural relevance, is also pertinent to the criticism and interpretation of historic and contemporary works of art. These findings will improve and inform each student's sensibilities about the visual culture that surrounds them and will be assessed through assignments and exams.
2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read, retrieve, evaluate, interpret, and deliver information using a variety of traditional and electronic media. Students will be required to complete a painting evaluation discussing the subject, content and form of an assigned painting. They will also write opinion-based papers responding to art exhibitions of their choice. They will be required to include both traditional and electronic sources for their information. This will culminate in the students ability to engage in more informed and articulate discussions relating to the visual arts.
6: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively about nature, culture, facts, values, ethics, and civic policy. This course is designed to give the non-art major a working knowledge of the language of visual art. Class discussions and assignments are centered on educating the students how to respond intelligently to any form of visual art they may encounter, whether it is historical or contemporary. This will result in the students ability to interpret the visual language and recognize its connections to the broader human experience.
General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes:
1: Each student will understand the vocabulary of the visual language, as well as artistic materials and processes, and will be able to recognize their application in the creation of visual art. Ultimately this understanding will result in an increased ability to articulate their relation to the visual culture that surrounds them. Each student will understand the vocabulary of the visual language, as well as artistic materials and processes, and will be able to recognize their application in the creation of visual art. Ultimately this understanding will result in an increased ability to articulate their relation to the visual culture that surrounds them.
2: Provide an informed synopsis of the performing and/or visual arts in the contexts of culture and history through reading and interpreting pertinent information using a variety of traditional and electronic media. Each student will demonstrate a fluency in historical content and context by articulating linkages of the visual arts to many facets of historical and modern society. This understanding will be assessed through exams, and writings, and application of this knowledge to classroom discussions.
3: Demonstrate an understanding of the conceptual and elemental principles fundamental to the creation of various forms of artistic expression. Students will learn to recognize how artists throughout history have utilized the elements and principles of the visual language to communicate a variety of complex concepts relating to social, religious, political, and personal issues. Ultimately this ability will create a more sensitive, and refined understanding of modes of visual communication.
4: Exhibit an ability to critically analyze artistic works using appropriate techniques, vocabulary, and methodologies. Each student will demonstrate the process of critical analysis and interpretation of works of visual art in oral and written form examining contextual, conceptual, and formal qualities in each. This practice in critical analysis will promote informed viewers and more aware and articulate artists.
Content:
This course will include, lectures, class discussion, slide presentations, written assignments, and applied projects designed to promote a better understanding and use of the visual vocabulary and its relationship to the following topics:
• visual structure
• media
• process
• history
• culture
Key Performance Indicators:
Each student will be evaluated on:
exams/quizzes 40 to 60%
written assignments 10 to 30%
applied projects 10 to 30%
attendance and participation 10 to 20%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
At the discretion of the instructor
Recommended Text - Gilbert's Living With Art, current edition, Mark Getlein, McGraw Hill
Pedagogy Statement:
This course will include lectures, class discussion, oral and written critiques, demonstrations.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
IVC
Maximum Class Size: 40
Optimum Class Size: 25