ART§CHOOL conforms to the CAA guidelines and requires the completion of 60 semester credits of course work for the M.F.A.
CORE [REQUIRED]
COURSES: (40 credits)
STUDIO:
Painting
Sculpture
Video & Audio
Drawing (see sample syllabus)
Digital Media
Installation
Social/Community Art
•Studio classes are offered in the main areas of concentration,
and any student may take any studio class they feel is relevant to their research,
but there must be at least 3 different core studio classes taken to
qualify for completion of studio requirements.
•To achieve the most appropriate mix of classes for each semester, it
is the students' responsibility to make themselves aware of the professional
practice and background of Professors and visiting
faculty operating particular studio classes. This information can be researched
this through the ART§CHOOL website.
•All students are assigned
a studio that will accommodate their needs, and from this point students are
expected to manage their time effectively.
•For MFA, there are no technique
classes, no materials classes and no other brief given to student for studio
classes. Self-Motivation is the key here.
•Studio classes at ART§CHOOL
follow a very open and loose format. However, if a student feels the need
for input, their advisor can always be reached.
•It is expected
that students will investigate the media that they are working with rigorously:
that they have a clear notion of the reasoning for opting for their chosen
media when making the work.
•ART§CHOOL
students will have numerous opportunities every semester to discuss their work
in a one-on-one tutorial with a visiting artist. These visits will be augmented
by tutorials with advisors/faculty.
•MFA Students will react to this critique
by creating a log or diary, which will be submitted to their advisor. This
helps students appreciate what may be gained through tutorial, especially with
an artist unfamiliar with their work. In addition it gives students the opportunity
to reflect upon their working progress and identify patterns, errors, etc.
•There are 2 reviews with advisors per semester, and end of year exhibitions
are mounted by all students.
•Graduation shows are for 6 weeks (May to June,
annually).
THEORY:
In theory students find external reasoning for making their work. They find a source of inspiration and questioning that can feed their artistic impulse for the rest of their lives. At ART§CHOOL students are required to undertake a rigorous set of theory courses that will deepen their understanding of their art practice and equip them with a practical historical footing for the theoretical underpinnings of their discipline.
A Non-linear History of Art (2) - this class positions art as the backbone of culture. As in the undergraduate version of this course, students will avoid a chronological narrative of art history, and the method will be again be alluded to as a pedagogic formula aiming to inform the students about the implicit effect of presenting a narrative to students. Students will in this version of the course be expected to attach theoretical interconnections throughout the duration of the class. In this seminar class, students will deliver a paper to the class that will approach art history from this viewpoint. Discussion of papers will follow. Subjects of papers will be submitted and discussed with professor at the beginning of the semester.
Art Education Curricula for Higher Education - ART§CHOOL is very concerned with arts curricula being divorced from the reality of contemporary art. As a subject, art curricula hold as much promise for the future of art as does even the practice of artists. This class exposes various alternate methods of education, and asks students to develop a curricula during weeks 1-2, wherein they will continue to rework the elements as they navigate the theoretical implications exposed through readings and lectures.
Theories and Philosophies of Art – the theoretical interconnections of artwork are examined in detail; students delve into aesthetics, semantics and related discourses that continue to affect artists production. The connection of visual art to philosophy is constantly highlighted throughout the course.
New Media and Old Rope: The Thread that runs through Art across Media - students look into various attendant issues concerning new media: digital democracy, digital aesthetic specificity, the non object-artwork conundrum, amongst others and treat each as a thread that is traced back to preceding theoretical/philosophical contexts to provide a solid founding for a subject still establishing itself. Reading assignments are heavy for this course; Students write a full length essay.
Theoretical Contexts – throughout Theoretical contexts, students investigate the conceptual site of an artwork. Social/Community art issues are raised here as the perennial alternate to the gallery system, and both are contextualized against the other. Students complete a full length essay set by the professor.
Community/Artworks: Advocate or Adversarial? – (MFA students will take this class in collusion with the Studio class: Community/Social art). Students will work in conjunction with a non-profit arts group to develop and initiate a community-based artwork. This theory class will be intended to give students a deeper historical perspective on the position of community based art as it relates to artists and the rise of NPO’s. There will be guest lectures/seminars featuring arts NPO founders and project managers to create an annotated history of working within this field. Additionally, seminars will present the theoretical position germane to such works. In-class sessions will take into account the political, social and psychological impact of community-based artworks. Questions pursued may include: Is there really any validity or purpose or need for artists to create their work with altruistic intent? How does this position them and their resultant works within a wider appreciation of the disciplines of art? Is the artwork of a ‘higher value’ because it has from the outset an integrated, overt ethical position? The ability of art to change lives is undeniable, but does that mean that it should? This class takes into account the political, social and psychological impact of community-based artworks in an effort to introduce students to the form.
CRITICISM:
This module explores the history and current positions of contemporary analysis and critique of art. Criticism classes are delivered seminar style, although the exact details of each syllabus will be determined by the professor. Criticism courses will give students the opportunity to contemplate the various discourses that focus on both the fabrication of contemporary art, and the attendant issues of viewing and teaching art. It is intended that students will benefit here by training their focus on the ways which art practices are understood in wider critical and cultural contexts, including social art and associated pedagogy.
Some examples from this component:
Criticism in Context – this class will take students through weekly meetings in galleries and/or museums and discuss the work seen whilst in the gallery space. Professors will help students by creating a critical backdrop through which the work may be examined that illuminates an historical context. Students will write responses after visits, and these will be uploaded to the class discussion group for further development.
An Ethnographic History of Art in Education – (this class has a pre-condition that is familiarity with all major developments in the westernized history of art. A short survey must be completed by all students before being allowed to register). Students navigate this seminar-style class via an exposition of concurrent historical and art-historical episodes and events. The feeds of information multiply as critical theory proliferates through history. Using this structure of simultaneous data sources students will be exposed to a range of critical and social issues, theories in the social sciences, particularly drawing attention to post-modernism, post-structuralism and critical realism and providing examples of their uses from the wide literature in education and education policy research.
A History of Critical Thought – students investigate the application of critical thought to visual art objects and trace this aspect of arts legacy from devotional art upwards. A full length essay is preceded by a short statement of intent mid semester.
The Critic vs. The Artist – are critics and artists necessary for contemporary art to be what it is? Does one hinder the other? Or rather do they help? How often does an artist succeed as a critic and vice-versa? Is it necessary for each to understand the other? Questions such as these are surveyed in depth by students to help situate themselves within these two practices. Students write weekly responses to readings and current or archived exhibitions (via catalogue).
Concept and material within a critical framework – through this course, students examine artists of their choice and investigate the resonance of their chosen materials and its critical implications. The semester includes several lecture/seminars discussing various artworks via their media in its time and place, amongst its peer group. An emphasis is placed upon the historical, progressive import of an artists’ conceptual accommodation of particular media as an artists’ communicative device. Students critique several artworks in essay form.
A Social Dimension for Contemporary Art Practice – given that art’s basic structure is engineered to communicate, art as a discipline is very closely allied with contemporary pedagogical practice, and actually it has been historically concurrent. The educative aspect of art often invokes the spirit of social artworks, and this class examines the relevance and affect of such artwork/artists upon the demographic of the art-world and the wider population within which the work is installed. The theoretical basis for this form of art is inserted into lecture and seminar classes. Students will examine a social artwork and ruminate upon the potential of this form in the future.
SPECIALIST/ELECTIVE
COURSES: (40 credits)
Although this component only represents 30% of the graduation requirements, it embodies an extremely important element of the ART§CHOOL operating principle. As ART§CHOOL requires students to be self-motivated individuals as a pre-qualifier to matriculation, the management of elective courses is largely the students’ responsibility.
Each new location ART§CHOOL settles in will be a city, naturally comprising existent well established Universities/Colleges. ART§CHOOL will view this as a facility of the host city, and will expect students to divine which school runs courses most applicable to their research and interests. These issues will of course be discussed and approved by the students’ advisor.
The intention is for the students to be able to transport this self sufficiency into developing their career as an artist, which will demand ingenuity and resourcefulness in addition to a mind open to external influence. All courses taken externally will be processed by the ART§CHOOL admin staff, and credit will be applied to the students’ transcript accordingly.
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