ART HISTORY MAJORS: Meant to be the summation of all one has done in the Department. The SCE may consist of a comprehensive examination OR a thesis paper that presents an original contribution to the study of a particular work of art, group of works, artist, or artistic tradition. FOR STUDIO ART MAJORS: Required of all graduating seniors within the studio concentration, this course is defined by each student's engagement with a project of active learning and integration of materials and concepts within the major. A continuation of the work initiated in the Studio Art Senior Seminar, students are guided by a faculty advisor and other studio art faculty. The Capstone is an intensive period of advanced independent studio practice with feedback from peers. Students employ their course of study from within the department to think critically, conduct research, and independently produce a substantial body of work. The culmination of this course is the Spring Thesis exhibition in the Kohl Gallery, conceived and produced by the course's participants, and the associated supporting activities. FOR STUDIO ART & ART HISTORY MAJORS: A year-long research project combining studio practice and art historical methodology, developed in consultation with Art + Art History faculty; OR separate SCE projects in each field according to the requirements listed above for each major.

A survey of the arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania from prehistory up to the 20th century. This course also serves as introduction to the basic tools and concepts of art historical analysis, which synthesizes form, content, and cultural context to develop a deeper understanding of artworks.

A careful discussion and analysis of a selection of significant topics in the history of Western art from prehistory to the 21st century. This course also serves as an introduction to the basic tools and concepts of art historical analysis, which synthesizes form, content, and cultural context to develop a deeper understanding of artworks

An introduction to the art history of Islamic societies from the 7th century to the present, including discussion of the place of art in the Islamic faith, the relationship between art and power, and the importance of cross-cultural exchanges. Basic art historical methodology is introduced. Lectures and some discussion.

This introductory level studio course investigates conceptual and material skills useful for making visual art. The curriculum is interdisciplinary and designed to emphasize the development of studio fundamentals through hands-on studio projects that allow for technical practice, critical thinking, and experimental approaches. Basic visual design principles are covered, while contemporary examples are presented through lectures and applied to studio problems.

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This art history course surveys the material culture of the religions of Europe from 300 to 1500 CE, including Christianity, Judaism, and polytheistic traditions. The function of artworks in religious practice will be discussed, with particular attention to controversies over the use of art in religious practice. Lectures with rich discussion.

This art history course examines how art and architecture served to project power and prestige among cultural elites in Europe from 300 to 1500 CE. Considers how imagery, materials, and technological elements enhanced the social standing of the people who created, owned, and displayed a work of art. Lectures with rich discussion.

Although this art history course sketches in the art of the early colonies, its main body begins at the period of the American Revolution. Lectures and discussion explore the changing significance of the visual arts in American life and culture through the 1930s. Field trips to museums in Washington. This course is cross listed under American Studies.

This course gives an overview of major topics in creativity: the pleasures and pitfalls as well as effective strategies to use in creative work. Each week we tackle another issue and explore ways to approach creativity in the broadest sense. At the same time students work on self-directed projects throughout the semester (largely outside of class time), submit weekly progress updates, and periodically share with the class. By the end of the semester students have a range of tools and hands-on experiences to return to again and again in their future creative work. Prerequisite: One course of Studio Art, Music, Theatre, Dance, or Creative Writing, or permission of the instructor.

This course brings students into the chemist's lab and artist's studio at turns to offer interdisciplinary insight into the overlap between scientific versus artistic processes of inquiry. Students are taught the chemical processes of various art materials and how to make, harvest, or find their own environmentally friendly materials which are then incorporated into self-designed art projects. The laboratory curriculum asks students to identify environmental hazards of art materials, understand the link of these hazards to related ailments and devastations, and identify sustainable science solutions that avoid use of the hazards. The studio curriculum introduces students to aesthetic and conceptual frameworks that contemporary artists use, and encourage students to develop a distinctive creative voice that considers the meaning of the materials and processes they work with. This course fulfills the distribution requirement for either the Humanities and Fine Arts OR the Natural Sciences and Quantitative. Chemistry majors on the non-ACS certified track, Chemistry minors, and Art and Art History majors/minors can count this course as an elective for their major or minor. ACS-certified majors can only count this course as an elective for the Fine Arts distribution.

This seminar course introduces students to the basic concepts of environmental art through a series of environmental art projects made both inside and outside, in the field. The curriculum centers on deepening student awareness of how a range of materials, spaces, and approaches can be used to make environmental art projects. The course will explore both individual and collaborative strategies. Students will engage in creative work and basic environmental research, supported by related class discussions and critiques. Readings and screenings about environmentally engaged artists coincide with creative projects.

This studio course serves as an introduction to digital photography, and will cover basic camera skills and photographic processes, although course emphasis is on the conceptual and creative uses of photography as an artistic medium. Students will gain the technical and critical skills to fulfill creative goals. Complex relationships between imagery, composition and meaning will be explored through creative assignments, lectures, discussions, and readings. The work of contemporary artists working in photography will be explored at length.

This studio class introduces students to drawing through a range of material, conceptual, and skill-based approaches. While focusing on basic skills and concepts of drawing, the curriculum is also interdisciplinary in nature. In addition to drawing fundamentals, the course also places emphasis on experimental approaches and on connecting conceptual thinking to one's broader creative practice. Contemporary and historical examples of artists working within such a creative practice are covered through readings, lectures, and screenings.

Using a range of traditional and experimental methods, this course introduces printmaking as an artistic and expressive medium. Printmaking techniques generate artworks that may be repeatable or unique, and assignments highlight the multiple as a conceptual or strategic choice. Course builds upon and expands students' skills in drawing, 2D design, color, and composition while emphasizing the relationship between concept, imagery and form. Printmaking's role in contemporary art is examined through readings, lectures and screenings.

This studio course focuses on the fundamentals of painting including material, technical, and conceptual perspectives. The curriculum introduces basic skills and theories while also exploring interdisciplinary, experimental, and expressive applications of the medium. Basic materials and processes are covered to help students move from concept to completed works. Emphasis is placed on the field of contemporary painting in particular. Artists who work within a painterly tradition are explored in lectures, screenings, readings, and research projects.

This introductory course introduces students to the basic skills, processes, and conceptual concerns of contemporary sculptural approaches. The curriculum examines the expansiveness of sculpture's inherently interdisciplinary definition. In addition to sculpture fundamentals the course engages the critical and theoretical relationship between meaning and making. Artists whose works exemplify historical and contemporary approaches are examined through lectures, screenings, and readings.

An internship focusing on the administrative work of running an arts organization, including marketing, finances, program logistics, volunteer coordination, and other managerial work. The standard syllabus for AME Internships must be followed as the internship contract unless another arrangement is made with the AME director. Graded A-F. 45 hours, per credit are required.

This studio course introduces students to an interdisciplinary grounding in the techniques, concepts, and empirical experiences they will need to engage video and new media technologies in the making of art. Students develop the necessary conceptual and technical grounding to engage the creation of imagery through digital means by studying various video and computer imaging strategies. Contemporary artists working in the mediums of video and new media are examined through lectures and screenings.

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An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and a student letting the student study a topic of interest not offered at WC. 45 hours are required per credit.

An art historical exploration of how ideas about the natural world can be perceived in artworks from Europe from 500 to 1500 CE. Topics include the depictions of animals and landscapes, the use of natural materials in art, and cultural concepts such as Creation, wilderness, and wonders. Lectures with rich discussion.

How did medieval Europeans view human differences? What defined ethnicity for them? Did they have a concept of race, or is that a wholly modern phenomenon? This course explores these questions and more through the art of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, as well as modern revivals of medieval culture.

Starting with Romanticism, this art history course gives intensive coverage to the major nineteenth-century movements in European art. The art of the period is seen in its cultural context with special reference to art criticism and to social conditions. Prerequisite: one art history course or permission of instructor.

This art history course discusses major artistic developments and key figures in twentieth-century art from Matisse and Picasso into the twenty-first century. The emergence of abstraction, the historical position of the avant-garde, and theories of visual modernism are among the themes discussed in the course.

Although the course sketches in the art of the early colonies, its main body begins at the period of the American Revolution. Lectures and discussion explore the changing significance of the visual arts in American life and culture through the 1930s. Field trips to museums in Washington.

This art history course examines historical developments in photography from the 1830s to the 1920s, from the medium's inception through early modernism. Lectures and discussion consider topics at issue in debates about photography's place in the history of art, such as changing attitudes toward photography's dual role as aesthetic creation and as documentary artifact.

This is an advanced studio course in the study of the intersection between art and technology. A broad interdisciplinary investigation of the skills, concepts, and applications that are necessary to develop a creative practice versed in the technologies of our time are pursued. Particular emphasis is placed on the conceptual implications of choosing such a practice, and how those implications inform each student's work. Current practitioners within the discipline are examined through lectures, readings, and screenings.

This studio course examines the production and pertinent concepts of photographic based images. The curriculum is primarily centered on camera-based work, while allowing for the exploration of other methods of photographic image creation such as scanners, cell phones, and copiers. Technical instruction and principles of composition are employed to form an understanding as to how the construction and manipulation of photographic images implicate form and meaning. Contemporary photographic based image-makers are examined through screenings, readings, and lectures.

Our society and traditions separate what words mean from the way words look. However, contemporary artists such as Glenn Ligon, Barbara Kruger, Yoko Ono and Bruce Nauman have explored words as aesthetic and conceptual material. This seminar course emphasizes written, printed and spoken language as a medium for making 2D, 3D, installation and time-based art. This course is taught from a studio art perspective but welcomes students of poetry, creative writing and all other disciplines.

Drawing is both a verb and a noun; it is a practice and an outcome. The making of a drawing can be highly personal and intimate or public and collaborative. A drawing can be a mark on a page left by the hand, a line or residue on the landscape or in three-dimensional space, or an action in time. Drawing Intensive focuses on expanded definitions of drawing and methods of mark-making in 2, 3 and 4 dimensions. Assigned projects allow for maximum opportunity to explore individual subject matter interests, whether ideological, political, environmental, aesthetic or otherwise.

Students expand upon previously-developed skills in relief, monoprint, silkscreen and experimental printmaking techniques, with an emphasis on identifying and actualizing individual creative goals. Assignments and coursework are student-driven and participants must possess a high degree of independent motivation.

Sculpture Intensive offers students a chance to explore the materials and strategies associated with contemporary sculpture in a sustained, in-depth way. The course is taught thematically to align with or complement programming happening on campus or in Kohl Gallery, respond to current news and events, and meet challenges posed by students' individual interests. Skills developed may include casting and mold-making; fabrication strategies; soft sculpture; kinetic art; responding to site; socially-engaged practices and other topics according to student interest. Assigned projects offer maximum opportunity to explore individual subject matter interests, whether ideological, political, environmental, aesthetic or otherwise. No prerequisites.

This course explores various aspects of leadership, management, and entrepreneurship for the visual and performing arts. Students learn how arts organizations define themselves, make decisions, and plan for the future. Topics may include: leadership & governance, mission & strategy, program planning & evaluation, intellectual property & contracting, marketing & public relations, and/or budgeting & fundraising. This course has no curricular prerequisite, but requires a baseline interest in and understanding of the arts.

An internship focusing on the administrative work of running an arts organization, including marketing, finances, program logistics, volunteer coordination, and other managerial work. The standard syllabus for AME Internships must be followed as the internship contract unless another arrangement is made with the AME director. Graded A-F. 45 hours, per credit are required.

This course provides a practical and theoretical framework for students who wish to pursue a life in the arts. Students begin to define their creative practice by writing an artist statement; learn about the range of professional and career opportunities in the field and develop the skills needed to present their work professionally. Students will gain familiarity with the field of contemporary art through studio visits with practicing artists, field trips to galleries and museums, and independent research. Required of all majors in Studio Art and recommended for interested minors. Prerequisite: major or minor status, any 300 level studio art course or permission of instructor.

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Exceptional students in their Junior or Senior years seeking to define their own course of study, distinct from the course offerings in the department, may submit a formal application to do so. The deadline for applications is the end of the 7th week of the preceding semester and must consist of a 1-page written proposal for the student's course of study, a portfolio of recent written work, a bibliography of texts relevant to the proposed course of study, and a proposed course syllabus. Proposals will be reviewed, and notice will be given by the department's faculty. If the student's application is accepted, notification of acceptance will be accompanied by an assigned art history advisor to facilitate the course of study during the desired semester. Prerequisite: one art history course.

This art history seminar examines the variety of approaches that feminist art historians have taken in studying art made by women in the modern and postmodern periods. We are concerned both with the historical analysis of individual works of art and with an exploration of how feminist theories, practices, and political commitments have affected, and can continue to change, the discursive and institutional construction of the history-or histories-of art and visual culture.

This internship is for seniors with a strong academic record in the Department. In recent years, art majors have held internships at such places as the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts; the Kunst Museum, Bonn; and the British Museum, London. Students can also intern for academic credit at the College's Kohl Art Gallery.

Required of all graduating seniors preparing for the Studio Senior Capstone Experience, this course instigates a concept-driven and research-supported project. Guided by a faculty advisor and other studio art faculty, the seminar is an intensive exploratory period of weekly studio work and research with feedback from peers. The curriculum prepares each student for the culminating Spring Thesis exhibition by guiding them through the process of developing a coherent body of work, including the ideas and influences driving that work, and the practical issues that need be navigated in order to fully realize each student's vision. Each student's performance in this non-credit bearing course will influence their grade earned at the completion of the Studio Senior Capstone Experience. Should be taken in the fall semester of senior year.

Required of all graduating seniors preparing for the Studio Senior Capstone Experience, this course is a continuation of the intensive weekly studio work and research begun in ART 491 culminating in the Spring Thesis exhibition. Each student's performance in this non-credit bearing course will influence their grade earned at the completion of the Studio Senior Capstone Experience. Should be taken in the spring semester of senior year.

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An agreement between a sponsoring faculty member and a student researching a topic of interest that is relevant to a student's major or minor. Research is conducted on campus. Students must be enrolled before the research can begin. 45 hours are required per credit.

Exceptional students in their Junior or Senior years seeking to define their own course of study, distinct from the course offerings in the department, may submit a formal application to do so. The deadline for applications is the end of the 7th week of the preceding semester and must consist of a 1-page written proposal for the student's course of study, a portfolio of recent written work, a bibliography of texts relevant to the proposed course of study, and a proposed course syllabus. Proposals will be reviewed, and notice will be given by the department's faculty. If the student's application is accepted, notification of acceptance will be accompanied by an assigned art history advisor to facilitate the course of study during the desired semester. Prerequisite: one art history course.