Rebecca Keller

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

What do we mean when we say ¿nature?¿ The word is a large container. According to the NY times, ¿Natural¿ doesn¿t mean anything anymore. Like any container, the language we use frames our understandings. Famously, the `natural world¿ was organized into a naming system designed by Carl Linneaus in 1758. But things have changed. DNA has shaken the categories; First Nations scholars restore indigeneous names to taxonomy; new ideas about relationships between the human and non-human world are evolving, and approaches¿both visual and verbal-- of organizing, depicting and describing the `natural¿ world are shifting. There is science, there is theory, there is common usage, there is policy, poetry, art. This class will touch upon all. Texts include Braiding Sweetgrass, The Language Of Landscape, A Darker Wilderness/Black Nature Writing, essay collections on science and nature, poems by Mary Oliver, explorations of alternative naming systems, legal doctrine/ laws governing usage, investigations of how nature is described, organized for study, depicted and codified. The class will use the 280 building interior courtyard/ garden and adjacent classroom as a studio/laboratory/gallery/exploratorium. Assignments will engage ephemeral `natural¿ materials, co-creation with natural forces, and projects that incorporate or examine systems of display, description and study. We will learn about current initiatives around contemporary sustainability/ ecological/diversity/ educational and art practices. Collaboration and iteration will be encouraged.

What is the relationship between artists, arts, institutions and the body politic? This class looks at how artists respond to political moments, and how those moments are in turn shaped by artists. The course provides an overview of activist and protest art from the early twentieth century until today, and also focuses on the political and institutional responses engendered: raising issues of censorship, identity, public funding, community, and the role of art and artists in society at large.

Beginning with pioneers like Kathe Kollwitz and Jacob Lawrence, we look at a wide range of 20th C artists and how they responded to the issues of their day (topics include War, Propaganda, McCarthyism, Feminism, ACT-UP, the 90's Culture Wars, etc,) and continuing to 21st Century artists and exhibitions engaging political and social concerns. The class links historic developments and artist's responses, including artworks and exhibitions on the front lines of institutional and cultural change.

Major assignments : Students prepare a 20-25 minute presentation with a bibliography and write a research paper. Graduate students will write an additional essay

This course addresses the complexities of teaching a studio art or seminar course at the college level. Various teaching approaches and structures will be explored including leading discussions about ideas and art, conducting critiques, working with diverse groups and individuals, instructional design (curriculum, syllabus, project assignments, etc.) and demonstrating and presenting ideas and materials. We will examine issues related to arts assessment for individuals and for institutions. We will consider evolving conceptions of teaching in different higher education contexts?art schools, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and research universities. Gain practical knowledge about teaching strategies. Develop your own teaching philosophy, portfolio and curriculum examples. Assemble a 'tool kit' to build your teaching career.

This independent study requirement for candidates for the MAAE (Master of Arts in Art Education) or for the MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) follows either the MAAE course ARTED 6109--Art Education: Thesis I: Research Methodology or the MAT course ARTED 5290--Graduate Art Education Thesis: Research as Social Inquiry. Students produce a thesis that demonstrates a student?s ability to design, justify, execute, and present the results of original research or of a substantial action research project. Students work closely with an assigned thesis advisor, in addition to participating in supporting workshops, presenting at the annual symposium, and defending the work at a final defense panel.