LARTS 291 — Visual Arts Studio: Creative Inquiry
This course will examine what enables us to be artists and create an environment that fosters pleasure in intellectual risk-taking. Directed and sustained observations while encountering art at The Museum of Fine Arts collection and rotating exhibitions will stimulate visual and critical thinking. By looking closely and discussing what we see when discovering and creating individual works of art, we will have the opportunity to engage concepts in critical thinking ranging from the concrete to the abstract, examining thoughts on the construction of a piece of art as well as associations generated by a particular image or subject. By participating in a discussion process that is open-ended, inquiry-based and viewer-centered, we will focus on the awareness that artists are always considering distinctions and making choices. (2 credits) Dash
LARTS 292 — Art History: Critical Analysis
In this course, challenging discussion and written analysis will be catalysts for understanding art. During visits to the Museum of Fine Arts, we will describe and probe what we see as a foundation for critical analysis. Studio investigations will explore the theories and media used in significant periods of art. We will examine multiple interpretations of content and context in the work of artists of different cultures and time periods. Active use of an artist journal, discussion of readings, written assignments, and studio projects will allow us to make larger connections to how one can expansively reflect on history and the objects that endure, as well as those that are lost, fleeting, or yet to be discovered. (2 credits) Dash
LARTS 293 — Sculpture Studio
This course will provide the opportunity to study, experiment with, and create three-dimensional forms both large and small. We will also examine modern and contemporary sculpture and installations, as well as some basic architectural elements. Writing assignments and gallery visits are also required. (2 credits) Breese
LARTS 295 — Interarts: Multimedia Collaborations
Interarts will access all the arts (e.g. fiction, poetry, dance and theatre, as well as music and fine art) and confront the same issues that must be tackled in every discipline to create innovative work. How does an artist push her/himself to really crack open to inventive and authentic ideas and approaches critical to performance and installation art? Multiple ways of engaging a wide range of disciplines will include sampling and scanning, the role of improvisation and chance and the use of non-traditional tools and media. We will actively utilize the Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, collections and films. Multimedia collaborations might entail deep thinking on a small scale and a tight budget or require an enormous space for a brief time. Projects can pull from popular culture to grapple with contemporary issues. This course lives in a place that is “inter”: that which is between and among. We will engage as many inters as we’re interested in. For instance, we might interlope and intermingle, while we internalize, interpret, and interrupt, interweaving as we go along. (2 credits) Dash
LARTS 332 — Poetry Workshop
In this course, students will read and write poetry, and read and discuss the poetry of classmates both in the workshop itself and in small groups outside class. As poet Robert Creeley points out, “Form is never more than an extension of content, and content is never more than an extension of form.” To that end, we will concentrate on the techniques of poetry, such as rhythm, repetition of many kinds, line breaks, pace, point of view, figurative language, imagery, juxtaposition, fixed forms & organic form. At the end of the term the class will give a poetry reading and produce a class booklet. (2 credits) Lepson
LARTS 352 — Drama Workshop I
Drama Workshop I is a collaborative workshop in the elements of acting and directing: the creation of a “serious-play” space where students can take risks and explore the dramatic art form in order to become better actors and better performers. No previous acting experience is required. Students engage in various sense memory exercises and group improvisations and work together as a unit on a series of scenes from a play currently being rehearsed and performed by students in the Boston University acting program. (2 credits) Keppel
LARTS 372 — Creative Writing
A workshop in the elements of Creative Writing, with an emphasis on the craft of writing prose memoirs, short fiction, and one-act plays. We will begin with a series of free-writing exercises (e.g., intensive visualizations of places, people, or scenes) and use these to discuss strategies for the purposeful and effective use of point of view, concrete details, figurative language, plot, character, motivations, conflict, and dialogue. Students submit at least one completed work to the workshop for supportive discussion and feedback, and then return to the group with a revision. (2 credits) Keppel
LARTS 382 — Drama Workshop II
An extension of the techniques of acting and directing presented in Drama Workshop I. Students learn the elements of putting on a full production of a play and perform it at an NEC venue. Prerequisite: LARTS 352. (2 credits) Keppel
2013-04-16
SARAH VAUGHAN