Introduction

Ideas about the Core--both pro and con--need to continue to be addressed openly within a broad forum that represents the diversity of concerns of the School of Art. The Core as structured is a constantly evolving entity that has benefited over the years from the insights and professional opinions of arts educators from within the School of Art as well as from many different types of institutions.

Dan Collins, the Studio Core Coordinator since 1989, has developed the curriculum in the areas of 2-D, 3-D, and Color for T.A.s teaching our 112, 113, and 115 classes. Janice Pittsley, the Drawing Coordinator since 1988, has developed the curriculum for Teaching Assistants with responsibility for Drawing I. Responsibility for the survey courses in Art History (ARS 101 and 102) continue to be rotated among full faculty in the Art History area with no one person coordinating the curriculum.

With respect to the studio components of the Core, we understand how important it is that the curriculum be responsive to a wide range of educational and professional objectives. The primary purpose of the studio Core should be to provide the student with a firm foundation in the "elements and principles" of art and design. It should neither privilege specific media orientations nor be perceived as irrelevant to the demands of any of the SOA area emphases--including those areas without fine art studio orientations such as art education, art history, and graphic design. Taken as a whole, it should provide a general introduction to the diversity and richness of the field and its relationship to the larger culture. It should also arm students with experiences and information that will help them to achieve personal and professional goals after graduation and beyond.

"Core Instruction" does not stop at the end of a student's first year. It is the responsibility of the faculty as a whole to continue to reemphasize the basic skills, vocabulary, and formal principles that will help students to succeed in our program as well as in their chosen career path. Educational theory has shown that students often do not absorb information the first time they are exposed to it. Depending upon the manner in which information is presented--as well as the learning style of the student--as little as 5% of what a student is exposed to will be retained and transfered to work in other classes. As Core teachers attempt to teach for more recall and transfer of skills and information, SOA faculty should recognize the fact that students need to be exposed repeatedly to basic information before being able to apply that information.

Goals of the Core (1989)

Outcomes of Core instruction within the School of Art include:

1. A range of "felt experience."
2. Basic technical skills
3. Perceptual development
4. Conceptual development and critical thinking.
5. Personal expression and "artistic sensibility."
6. Art historical awareness and sensitivity to alternative cultural/ethnic voices.
7. Introduction to studio disciplines and career options.

The following paragraphs expand on the seven points above:

1. A range of "felt experience." The Core is the only time that many students will be exposed to a real variety of materials, physical processes, and techniques. The ability to empathize with felt processes is essential to the full appreciation of works of art--regardless of media. While the development of sufficient technique and expertise with specific processes is essential for success in upper level courses, the engagement of actual materials in ways that encourage haptic, kinesthetic, and tactile responses is often overlooked. As a result, important "touchstones" for deeper kinds of appreciation are completely missing from many peoples' experience. The gloss on a stick of graphite, the sensation of placing a brush to paper, the physical weight of a block of plaster or stone--these are things that can only be understood via direct engagement of the sense of touch. Before a student specializes in any particular process, it is crucial that they be given an introduction to a range of felt experience.

2. Basic technical skills. The Core fosters basic skill development. Eye hand coordination, facility with basic media, the control and self-confidence that comes with practice--these goals constitute another part of the "implicit" curriculum found in the Core.

3. Perceptual development. Core classes in art sharpen a student's visual acuity, their powers of observation, and their ability to discriminate between similar but not indentical features or qualities. Perceptual explorations into the differences and similarities of 2-D and 3-D experience, and careful investigation into the characteristics and connotations of color--these are also features of the Core.

4. Conceptual development and critical thinking. While all art classes involve problem solving, in the Core it is the range of problems and the many different kinds of processes employed by students that distinguish it from the studio specialities. Stress is laid upon the "design process" as an aid to problem solving and design development. This is not presented as a linear process with predictable outcomes, but as a malleable and developmental tool for fostering a student's flexibility, adaptability, and self-reliance. Students need to learn to negotiate a series of processes--not a collection of recipes leading to "pat" solutions. Critical thinking (e.g., "conceptual blockbusting") is encouraged through problems and projects that require more than "filling in the blanks."

5. Personal expression and "artistic sensibility." The sensibility and workin gmethods of the artist can and should be addressed in the Core classes. To expect a student to follow a program devoid of opportunities for "self-expression" for a year, then to shift gears and suddenly indluge in flights of creative genius the next is not only pedagogically unsound, but absurd. The problem needs to be framed differently. The lack of clear objectives--not "personal expression"--is the problem. Personal expression will be the natural outcome of a program that is designed to maximize the creative potentials and technical abilities of young artists. Yes, students must "do their scales and fingering exercises" (to borrow one faculty member's analogy from music), but it is the opportunity to play "real music" that sustained and excited me as a young musician.

6. Art History and alternative cultural resources. The studio Core classes are structured so that there is a fluid interaction between hands-on studio experiences and historical and cultural support materials. Materials which supplement existing academic coursework required of students (e.g., the Art History 101/102 survey) should be introduced by Core instructors. Discussion about works--actual works whenever possible--by artists and designers who employ aesthetic strategies relevant to the lesson at hand is essential. Beyond this, instructors need a clear picture of the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the particular orientations to aesthetics and design practice that they are advocating in the classroom. The problem, simply stated, is that instructors (particularly TAs) are not "self-critical" in regards to their own philosophical and aesthetic orientations. A further need is a careful examination of the implicit cultural and/or sexual biases that exist in Core Resource materials. Materials need to be catalogued and made available to instructors who make a convincing case for the existence of "good design" in traditions and cultures apart from the standard litany of western survey courses. This is not seen as a "supplement" to existing resources; it is seen as an essential interweaving of alternative viewpoints.

7. A foundation, a platform, and a bridge. While the metaphor of a "foundation" is useful when speaking of the Core, other equally evocative and descriptive terms are "platform" and "bridge." Yes, the Core is charged with providing a firm footing for the School of Art as a whole, but it must also serve as a "platform" from which a student can intelligently survey the range of options available in the School of Art and beyond. This presumes enough experience to know what one is surveying. More than this, the Core must build "bridges" between the introductory classes and the upper levels. To see the Core as a bridge is to recognize its responsibility to present students with images, information, and activities that give them insights into and skills within the specific practices of the various disciplines represented by the School of Art. It is also to see the necessity of making students aware of possibilities and careers in the visual arts.

Core Organization


--The Units are organized to introduce related clusters of the "elements and principles" of design. The traditional elements (line, shape, texture, value, color, etc.) are integrated with an objective that necessarily brings the various principles (rhythm, balance, contrast, harmony, etc.) into play. Technical exercises lead developmentally to assignments that stress formal relationships and conceptual problem solving. In the most ambitious assignments, students are asked to develop their own problems that synthesize concepts learned earlier in the class.

--The objectives as written in the attached synopses stress the formal and technical aspects of each Unit. Individual assignments (found in the Course Outline given to T.A.s--not attached) are designed to explore the conceptual, aesthetic, and expressive potentials of these Objectives.

A note on the coursework in the Art History Core:

The two courses comprising the freshman Art History Survey--ARS 101 and 102--are rotated among the several art history faculty. There is a list of seven introductory textbooks that faculty may choose from to use in their courses--though, generally, the standard textbooks by Gardner, Janson, or Hart are utilized. Each instructor uses their own syllabus. Instructors approach the course in ways that reflect their approach to art history as a discipline. According to one art history faculty member, certain instructors emphasize a "conceptual" approach; others emphasize an "historical/cultural" approach.