The following courses satisfy the Arts Program requirement. Each course is an intensive foundation course designed to give students a thorough introduction to basic techniques, principles of visual communication, and artistic expression of ideas. After completing a foundation level course, students are encouraged to pursue areas in greater depth in the program’s elective courses.
Notes:
• These courses require no previous experience. Students with little experience will be supported in their learning in a step-by-step process. Students who have had some experience with the material will be challenged by more advanced options within each project area as the course progresses.
• Students with definite interest in visual art are strongly encouraged to take their first course in Class III so that they may take an advanced course in Classes I or II in time to complete a college portfolio. Each of these Arts Program courses will give students opportunities to produce some of the work necessary to begin a college portfolio should they choose to do so.
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Studio Art
Satisfies Arts Program Requirement
Classes I, II & III
In this intensive foundation course, students will be introduced to drawing, design, painting, sculpture and ceramics. Other options may include printmaking, digital imaging and mixed media. This course allows beginners to succeed and experienced students to be challenged. Studio Art is a course for students who like action and “doing.” Basic exercises will culminate in major projects. Students will learn visual language, apply techniques, and solve problems by means of a creative process. Each student will be urged to explore ideas, experiment with an open mind, and make expressions personal, dramatic and original. The course will include fi eld trips to art museums and contact with professional artists.
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Photography
Satisfies Arts Program Requirement
Classes I, II & III
The ground beneath the world of photography has been shifting, as digital photography has become the dominant medium for capturing and processing images. This course follows that shift. While some exposure to traditional fi lm and paper techniques will be maintained, the dominant tools for exploring photography will be digital cameras, scanners, computers and printers. The emphasis on seeing, discovery and imaginative creativity will remain. Students will develop craftsmanship in making fi ne prints, becoming fl uent in the language of the medium as a means of personal expression, while sharpening their perception of their world. Digital photography will allow much more work with color, though work with black and white images will remain dominant. The interdisciplinary foundations of photography will be studied through consideration of the aesthetics of the art form, the works of signifi cant photographers, the science of image making, and the role of photography in journalism. Loan cameras will be available, including 35mm fi lm cameras and fully adjustable and automatic digital single-lens refl ex cameras with zoom lenses.
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3-D Studio Art
Satisfies Arts Program Requirement
Classes I, II & III
This course centers on the three-dimensional design and construction of functional and artistic objects. Students solve a series of design problems in a hands-on way, acquire skill in the use of hand and power tools, and learn design principles that inform both industrial and fi ne arts. Projects may include the making of clocks, rustic furniture, toys, kinetic sculptures, architectural models, inventions and material-inspired expressions. Students will consider the difference between unity and variety, explore the relationship of art to utility, and learn basic concepts of form, space, rhythm, balance and function. Does form always follow function? What works? What is good design? What is beautiful? Why?
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Film and Video Production:Moving Image
Satisfies Arts Program Requirement
Classes I, II & III
This course introduces students to the basic principles and practices of video production. The course is project-based with substantial production assignments in documentary, music video, broadcast journalism and narrative. Students learn the basics of preproduction, effective camera technique, the editing process and production management. Special attention is also given to the role of video media in society and culture.
Semester Electives
Classes I & II
The department offers advanced level courses in art and design for students who wish to study specific areas in depth. Students will develop higher-level skills, interpret more sophisticated ideas, and create work at a more ambitious scale. Although these courses are structured with themes and assignments, students will work in an increasingly independent way.
The department recommends (but does not require) that a student who elects a first semester course take a second semester course as well. The department strongly recommends semester over half courses, but will consider requests from students who can only pursue a course for half credit. Requests for any of these half courses must be made in the spring because later adjustments in the schedule may not be possible.
Courses to be offered are:
First Semester
(1) Advanced Art: Drawing
(2) Advanced Art: Photography
(3) Advanced Art: Sculpture
(4) Advanced Independent Art (2-D, 3-D, or Photo) Class I only
Second Semester
(5) Advanced Art: Painting
(6) Advanced Art: Ceramics
(7) Advanced Art: Architecture
(8) Advanced Art: Installation Art
The prerequisite for semester electives is a full-year Arts Program course or the equivalent. The visual arts department recommends that students take Studio Art, Photography or 3-D Studio Art before taking an elective. Preference may be given to students who have taken these courses. Permission to take an advanced course may be denied if a student’s preparation or experience is insufficient. Such permission must be obtained from the department chair before registering for these courses.
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Advanced Art: Drawing (Semester 1)
In this course, students will explore major genres of drawing and work in both color and black and white. The course will begin with reality and finish with fantasy. After an intensive review of line, volume, space and light, we will focus on how to “see” and how to draw in relational terms. Students will do landscape drawing on location in the Blue Hills and at the edge of Boston Harbor. Students will create a social issue drawing that is intended to be psychological. Past topics have included a portrait of gender, a response to the Holocaust, and an interpretation of bystander mentality. A major section of the course will focus on drawing the human head and figure and will include “life drawing” of the human figure. The course will culminate in a large, color, fantasy drawing that may explore surrealism, dreams or mythology.
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Advanced Art: Photography (Semester 1)
This course leads experienced students into new technical, aesthetic and journalistic areas. Each student will have full access to a digital single-lens reflex camera as the dominant mode of taking photographs, though limited work with film will remain a creative option. Students will be expected to develop their personal vision and explore the creative options in the medium through work with photojournalism, portraiture, sports, studio lighting, macro-photography and landscape, as well as the transformation and combination of images through the tools of Adobe Photoshop. A portfolio of finished and mounted prints will be expected, including large format display prints. Support for the creation of portfolios for college admissions will be integral to early work. (ARAPH, a full year, half course option, may be available with special departmental permission.)
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Advanced Art: Sculpture (Semester 1)
In this course, students will be challenged to do hands-on work to explore a range of ideas and possibilities. The course will begin with the favorite boat building challenge and move on to an Andy Goldsworthy art-in-nature campus installation. Students learn to hand-build with clay, to design and construct large wooden forms, to carve soapstone, to weld with metal, and to cast forms with plaster. By investigating properties of shape, form and surface, and by using a variety of hand and power tools, students acquire technical skills and self-confidence in self-expression. Project themes may range from the abstract to the symbolic. Past projects have included surrealistic transformations of found objects like computers or windows, interpretive self-portraits in Joseph Cornell-style boxes, and the welding of life-sized figures.
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Advanced Art: Painting (Semester 2)
In this course, students learn to put what they see and what they imagine into paint. By doing introductory exercises, they explore the basics of painting, working with color, light, surface texture, structure and weight. Students then apply these concepts to a variety of projects including paintings from ideas, observation and technology. Without losing sight of classic painting genres, students will find new approaches to the still life, the figure and the landscape while establishing a dialogue with their work. Field trips to museums and galleries will keep the students informed about art in the contemporary scene.
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Advanced Art: Ceramics (Semester 2)
This course covers the basic techniques of working with clay: sculptural hand-building, slab and coil construction, wheel-throwing and glazing. The course emphasizes individual expression in clay, whether artistic or functional. The projects range from traditional teapots and bowls, to surrealistic transformations of objects, to large abstract sculptural expressions. Past projects have included totems of male and female figures, and ceremonial objects and heads.
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Advanced Art: Architecture (Semester 2)
This course develops the skills of drawing and model building while students explore the process of architecture, working through each design step for a building from their imagination. This comprehensive introduction covers the aesthetic issues, structural design and functional parameters that are essential to the creation of spaces and structures. Students explore drawing as a tool in analysis, planning and presentation, and in free-hand rendering. Students are also introduced to mechanical drafting and computer-assisted drafting. The course includes field trips to notable buildings, construction sites and the offices of practicing architects.
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Advanced Art: Installation Art
(Semester 2)
In this experimental course, students will transform spaces in artistic ways. They will construct and arrange physical materials, light, sound and motion to alter campus spaces. Installation art is the latest term for what has been called environmental art, public art, and versions of performance art. The projects will challenge students to build, hang, arrange or stage something unexpected. These installations will challenge the viewer’s assumptions about how we use space. What is private? What is public? What is sacred? What is profane? What is normal? What is extraordinary? Projects may include building geodesic structures, creating short-lived YouTube events or “happenings” at recess, and dramatizing social causes with unexpected visual displays. Students will work both indoors and outdoors to create visual campus surprises.
The following Semester 1 courses are Advanced Independent Art courses and are open to Class I students only.
Note: A full year half course or a semester 2 option of these courses may be available for individual students under special circumstances. Departmental permission is required for either option.
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Advanced Independent Art 2-D (Semester 1)
Advanced Independent Art 2-D is a seminar-based course, for Class I students, designed to meet the individual needs of students with visual ideas they wish to explore in depth. Most students will use this time to complete work for their college portfolios. Working together in a classroom structure, these 2-D students will benefit from dialogue with each other, critiques and field trips. (Prerequisite: At least one, and preferably more than one, advanced semester elective in art or permission of the department.)
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Advanced Independent Art 3-D (Semester 1)
Having completed advanced 3-D electives, students may request to work independently in ceramics or sculpture. If approved, these students will work on a tutorial or class basis, depending on enrollment. (Prerequisite: At least one, and preferably more than one, advanced semester elective in art or permission of the department.)
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Advanced Independent Photography (Semester 1)
Having completed Advanced Photography or the equivalent, students may request to work independently in photography on a tutorial or class basis. (Prerequisite: At least one, and preferably more than one, advanced semester elective in art or permission of the department.)
