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COURSE NUMBER: ARTS 399
COURSE TITLE: Special Topics in History - 2011/12 Winter - Art Appreciation/Seeing is Believing: Helping Thoughtful Christians Look at Visual Art
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Daniel vanHeyst
CREDIT WEIGHT AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION: credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 1)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A course on a topic of figure of special interest to a member of the studio arts faculty and offered on a non-recurring basis.

Prerequisites: Three credits of ARTS at the introductory level; some topics may have more specific prerequisites

2011/12 Winter

What is art for? Is there such a thing as Christian visual art?  If so, how can you tell?  How do we determine excellence when viewing visual art and design?  Can visual art and design serve the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ? How does visual art function in our society?  Which thinkers in contemporary Western Christianity is offering the most helpful answers to some of these questions?  What do some of the working visual artists in our community have to say about these questions? Learn to see art with new appreciation and talk about it with insight.
REQUIRED TEXTS: Hilary Brand and Adrienne Chaplin: Art and Soul: Signposts for Christians in the Arts 2001 Piquant Press/Intervarsity Press
MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT:
Reflective Essay: Visual Art in My Life 5%
Class presentation: Analysis of an art object from my home 10%
Powerpoint essay: Art and Visual Design in a worship space/event
OR Interview report on a visit with a Visual Artist
30%
Review of an art exhibition, art periodical or book 25%
Art Criticism Vocabulary Final Examination 30%
100%

COURSE OUTLINE:
  • Thurs. Jan. 5: Art as communicative transaction involving Artist and intention, Viewer and interpretation, Object and value set assignment: Reflective Essay, Visual Art in My Life (5%)
  • Tues. Jan. 10: Expressiveness in visual art: Representation and Abstraction, symbol and sign, form and function, medium and message.
  • Thurs. Jan. 12: The elements of visual art and design: scale, value, line, movement, colour, texture, pattern, contrast, etc. Building a vocabulary for analysis and description. (add/drop deadline)
  • Tues. Jan. 17: Questions to ask of a work of art: building a vocabulary and an “eye”
  • No class on Thurs. Jan. 19: Day 2 of Winter Interdisciplinary Studies Conference
  • Tues. Jan. 24: The elements of style, the meaning of genre. Reflective Essay due 5%
  • Thurs. Jan. 26:  The major movements and periods in the history of art in Western Civilization.
  • Tues. Jan. 31: Students show a work of art brought from home and describe its aesthetic qualities, provenance, function, and meaning. (Art as private property)
  • Thurs. Feb. 2: Field trip 1 (return to campus by 2pm): Art as commodity, as public good, as repository of cultural heritage:  Visit to commercial galleries and to The Art Gallery of Alberta, including some public art installations.
  • Tues. Feb. 7: Art and originality: influence, appropriation, pastiche, plagiarism—is art-making a communal and collaborative or an individual enterprise? 
    • (set assignment: Interview report on a studio visit with a local visual artist OR Report on the visual design of a worship space and the visual components of a worship event (30%)
  • Thurs. Feb. 9: Visual art and The Bible—is there a big biblical idea to lead Christians toward obedience in making and using visual art?
  • Tues. Feb. 14: Art idolatries: the consequences of deifying artists, artworks, or the viewer’s opinion.
  • Thurs. Feb. 16: Art in worship: visual design of church buildings and worship spaces, visual art elements in liturgy, some traditions and heritages of visual communication in church.
  • Reading Week Feb. 20-24
  • Tues. Feb. 28: Reflections on the “natural” and the human-modified landscape as the subject of visual artworks.
  • Thurs. March 1: Field trip (back to campus by 2pm): Art and design in the built environment: seeking the good life through urban design and planning.  A neighbourhood walk in three contrasting residential areas.
  • Tues. March 6: Presentations by students (power-point) of studio visits or worship spaces and liturgies. (30% of the final grade)
  • Thurs. March 8: More student presentations
    • Set assignment: written review of an art exhibition or an art publication
  • Tues. March 13: Field trip to The Nina Haggerty Gallery and studios, a tattoo parlour, and a shopping centre.  Visual art as therapy, as indicator of personal identity and group affiliation
  • Thurs. March 15: Reading visual art criticism in the professional and popular press.
  • Tues. March 20: Visual art in mass media/entertainment: reading visual art and design on TV, in movies, on the web
  • Thurs. March 22: Visual art and design in live performance events such as theatre, dance, and concerts.
  • Tues. March 27: Visual art for persuasion: reading visual art and design in advertising, propaganda, product design and packaging and branding.
  • Thurs. March 29: The training of visual artists. 
  • Tues. April 3: Artist associations, co-operatives, funding sources, etc. Politics of art.
    • Review assignment due for 25%
  • Thurs. April 5: Visual art and environmental responsibility.
  • Final exam: 1.5 hours, 30%  Vocabulary and three 100-word responses to selected work


Required texts, assignments, and grade distributions may vary from one offering of this course to the next. Please consult the course instructor for up to date details.

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