Arts courses

ARTS 592

Best Practices in Art Making: the Process of Art Making
1 credit

This one-credit-hour course is designed for teachers who would like to develop ideas for classroom instruction that will enable students to process how and what they learn. Teachers will investigate motivational activities that will build a student’s knowledge base for art making. They will brainstorm conceptual and instructional strategies for pushing beyond the obvious, discuss written and oral reflection, engage in inquiry-based learning and plan anchoring and extension activities for students that will further enrich their learning experience. Clohessy

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Possibilities With Papermaking
3 credits

This course is designed for those who would like to expand their studio repertoire to include mixed-media papermaking in their teaching. The course will use concepts as the focus for instruction while merging meaning, materials and methods. Students will expand their knowledge base for art making, practice conceptual strategies for enhancing creativity and think critically through written and oral reflection. Students will create a plan for incorporating concepts, strategies and experiences from this course in an educational setting. Prichard

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Art Making as Practice: Principles of Practice
3 credits

As a profession, art making, rather than adhering to a rigid set of rules and methods, draws upon general principles of practice that enable artists to experiment, investigate and communicate. The course addresses these principles of practice from a conceptual perspective as they occur in the practice of contemporary artists. Specific topics in the course include reasons to make art, problematizing ideas, asking critical questions, thinking inventively, engaging play as a major artistic strategy, making media and formal choices, recognizing an audience and acknowledging the significance of cultural, social and artistic context. To develop such understandings, students will analyze the conceptual practices of selected contemporary artists, produce a personal art-making project and reflective journal and construct a research paper that synthesizes their understandings of art-making as a conceptual practice. Walker

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Teacher Institute: Transformation: Authentic Connections Through Art and Writing
2 credits

This three-day institute is designed for anyone who is interested in linking art and writing. This fast-paced three days will focus on utilizing contemporary art and artists, exploring authentic connections between art and language arts and writing activities that strengthen literacy as well as using art history, art criticism, art production and aesthetics to generate new insights and to synthesize new relationships between ideas. Participants will engage in learning experiences that promote meaningful connections between visual art and language arts using carefully selected examples, materials and terminology that are compatible with the arts. Teachers will also participate in engaging lectures, art making, group activities, gallery explorations and more. Content will be presented using various differentiation strategies to address the different levels of expertise of the participants. Faculty from visual art and language arts will be the workshop leaders.

Please preregister with the Contemporary Art Center. Questions regarding registration policies should be addressed to Alison Byrne, CACV at (757) 425-0000 ext. 29, or e-mail Alison@cacv.org. VCU registration will be held on the first day of class.

ARTS 692

Individual Projects: Exhibition
3 credits

Individual work for M.I.S. students preparing their final exhibitions. Please call Sue Munro at (804) 828-6931 to register for this class and for further information. May be repeated.

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Individual Projects: Documentation
1-3 credits

Individual work for M.I.S. students writing their documentation papers. Please call Sue Munro at (804) 828-6931 to register for this class and for further information.