Senate Document #44 4/24/86 1985 - 1986 General Education Document #22 A Proposal for a General Education Arts Course I. COURSE TITLE & DESCRIPTION ARTS 310 ARTS AND IDEAS (4) A study of the arts as a way of knowing; their relationship to society and the individual; the creative process; aesthetic theories; forms of expression and methods of working in particular art forms. Lecture and Laboratory. II. RATIONALE The mandate from the Senate to establish a General Education Arts requirement for all students expresses aptly the rationale for this course. It is not a traditional art appreciation course, although it aims to develop in students a greater appreciation for all the arts as expressions of human understanding. It also seeks to deepen the student's personal experience of the arts. It is not an introductory course for any one of the arts. although it seeks to introduce students to the working methods of at least two different art forms. As the Senate rationale directs, this course will emphasize the social role of the arts, the creative process, and the way in which the creation of art and the experiencing of art integrate intellectual, sensory, emotional, and intuitive ways of knowing. III. FORMAT Instructors for University Arts will be drawn from many arts disciplines, as well as from philosophy, history, literature, psychology, sociology, and even the sciences. Using the Humanities course as a model, the instructors will work together to devise a common core of lectures and readings. All students enrolled in the course will meet together once a week for lecture and then break into smaller sections for a discussion once a week. Students will also meet in sections of a weekly studio-laboratory devoted to one particular art form. At mid-semester, students would rotate to a different section for a different art form. A student majoring in one of the arts areas would be required to select two studio sections outside the major. The instructors and lecturers working together (presumably with a coordinator, on the model of Humanities) would develop the readings, lectures, and studios to stress connections among the topics, to relate to the experiences of non-artists, and to show issues among many of the arts. IV. CONTENT/APPROACH The Lecture/Discussion/Reading portion would center on central themes serving as a point of reference for all the arts and aesthetic theories starting with introductory topic: What are the arts (Concept Content); How do they present themselves (Style, Technique); What role do they play in society; then proceeding topically with areas of "art forms" or "movements" such as: Forms: (Examples) Folk Commercial Functional Liturgical Civic Classical Movements: (Examples) Expressionism Impressionism Modernism Neoclassicism Technology & the Arts Romaniticism B. The Studio/Laboratory The studio-laboratory would stress the artist's need for observation, self-awareness, discipline, and creative thinking. The emphasis would be involvement with the process and materials of the arts, rather than mastery of skills or the production of finished pieces. Film, video, recordings, and required attendance at concerts, plays, and exhibitions would be incorporated into the course. V. Special Considerations There are logistical details of staffing, credit hours, coordination among instructors, division of responsibilities, class lengths and module, grading, etc., which remain to be developed in discussion among the arts faculty and with consultation with the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Because of the unusual and completely new format and content, this course will take at least one full-year to develop. All the arts departments (music, art, and drama) are currently at full-capacity with regard to both staff and facilities. The implications for new faculty positions, additional space, and additional budget for instructional supplies should be considered thoroughly by the General Education Implementation Committee and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.