Courses
ARTS-100 Non-Liberal Arts Studio Crs. (1 TO 6)
Attributes: NLIBARTS-103 Perspectives on Painting (3)
This course introduces the student to basic water media painting techniques, focusing on the properties and possibilities of watercolor and acrylic paint for still life and landscape subjects. Individual as well as group instruction is given with an emphasis on composition, color, and personal expression. Works from traditional and contemporary artists are studied.
Attributes: YLIBARTS-105 Perspectives on Drawing (3)
This course introduces the student to the basic drawing techniques of line, form, and shading. Using pencil, charcoal, and ink, we develop skills and increase visual perception. The goal of the course is to work toward a creative approach to expressive drawing of the figure, still life, and landscape. Works from traditional and contemporary artists are studied.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
FallARTS-112D Digital Art (3)
The course introduces students to techniques of using the computer as an artist’s tool. Some familiarity with Adobe Photoshop© is helpful but not necessary. Project work will explore a variety of digital effects possible and will focus on helping students gain an understanding of important style and art movements of the past. Consideration will be given to developing a basic understanding of related technical issues such as: image capture, file formats, color management, output options and creating works for print or digital display. Course emphasis will be on generating works that reflect a fine art aesthetic.
Attributes: YLIBARTS-115 Theater Festival (1)
Students participate in the Fisher One-Act Play Festival, either as a playwright, actor, director, designer, stage manager, or by working in theater management.
Attributes: YLIBARTS-117 The Craft of Acting (3)
An introduction to the actor’s craft. Students will engage in physical and vocal exercises, improvisation, scene study, and analysis of text and character.
Attributes: NLIBARTS-118 Theater Ensemble (3)
Theatre Ensemble is an experiential-learning course in which students will learn about performance and theater through participation in a faculty directed production. Students may choose to participate in multiple areas, including acting, stage managing, administration, and technical theater: set construction, lighting, sound, costumes, and props. Students also will conduct research related to the play, playwright, and characters.
Attributes: NLIB ZEXLARTS-120 Music Theory (3)
This course is designed to teach students the basics of music theory, including reading, writing and studying how elements of music (notation, harmony, rhythm) are put together to create musical works. Specific musical compositions will be listened to and analyzed. The main musical grammatical areas that will be covered are: notation (history and development); harmony (traditional triadic harmony); rhythm (traditional rhythmic notation) and score reading (classical to popular forms of music). The course will focus on a selection of musical examples, ranging from medieval to contemporary music.
Attributes: YLIBARTS-131 All-College Choir (1)
Students will work collaboratively with faculty, staff, and members of the community to create and present a choral concert. Theory and historical context for the work will be explored throughout the semester as students apply choral technique and musical knowledge to the vocal production. No prior singing experience is necessary.
Typically offered:
Attributes: NLIB ZCIV
Fall & SpringARTS-150 P1 Introduction to Dance (3)
An introduction to the world of dance as an artistic discipline. This course is comprised of experiential studio classes and lectures including topics on dance technique, dance history, improvisation, composition, and world/folk/social dance styles. Through movement exploration, observation, discussion, reflection, and reading and writing assignments, students will develop literacy as it relates to dance and the creative process.
Attributes: P1 YLIBARTS-161 Sculpture (3)
The course introduces basic means of producing sculptural art. Students develop an increased awareness of both aesthetic and conceptual choices as related to a 21st century understanding of sculpture.
Attributes: NLIB ZEXLARTS-217 Topics in Theater (3)
The topic of this course will vary each semester. Possible topics include improvisation, solo performance, musical theater, and theater directing.
May be repeated up to four times with a different topic.
Attributes: YLIB ZEXLARTS-221 Voice (3)
This class is an opportunity for those who sing and for those who would like to learn. The class will explore the fundamentals of vocal production, music theory, music history and genres, vocal health and performance etiquette. There is no prerequisite or experience necessary.
Attributes: NLIBARTS-222 Guitar (3)
This course offers an introduction to guitar for students with little to no previous experience. The course will cover the fundamentals such as reading music in tablature, treble and bass clefs, scales, intervals, chords, blues basics, strumming, and ear training. Students will develop their ability to understand, describe, discuss, create and play music.
While a limited number of guitars will be available for loan, students are strongly encouraged to rent or purchase their own instruments.
Attributes: NLIBARTS-228D P3 Intro to Museum Studies (3)
Museums are repositories of world history and knowledge in all of its formats and are significant disseminators of this knowledge. This course explores why museums exist, how they are governed, how they acquire, care for and exhibit their collections, and the efforts being made to preserve those collections. Field trips to local museums, opportunities to meet with various professionals in the museum field, and preparation of exhibits in the department’s display cases are scheduled throughout the semester. This course is required for the Museum Studies Certificate.
Attributes: P3 YLIB
Cross-listed with MSTD 228D.ARTS-250 Topics in Dance (3)
The topic of this course will vary each semester. The course may focus on one dance style or take an interdisciplinary approach to dance performance.
May be repeated up to four times with a different topic.
Typically offered:
Attributes: NLIB ZEXL
SpringARTS-261 Topics in 2D Design (3)
The topic of this course will vary each semester. The course may focus on a variety of topics, including printmaking and book arts. May be repeated up to four times with a different topic.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB
SpringARTS-262 Topics in 3D Design (3)
The topic of this course will vary each semester. The course may focus on a variety of topics, including installations and other mixed media forms (including expanded cinema). May be repeated up to four times with a different topic.
Attributes: YLIBARTS-303 Advanced Painting (3)
This course offers creative exploration in acrylics designed to build the student’s understanding of the role of art in contemporary culture. Expanded freedom to develop a personal style, with an emphasis on developing proficiency in advanced techniques.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: ARTS-103 D-ARTS-305 Advanced Drawing (3)
Students will further develop their drawing skills, with an emphasis on developing proficiency in more advanced techniques. Projects assigned with student input, resulting in finished art works. Examples from drawing history will be discussed.
Attributes: YLIB
Pre-requisites: ARTS-105 D-ARTS-318 Advanced Theater Ensemble (3)
Advanced Theater Ensemble is an experiential-learning course in which students will learn about performance and theater through participation in a faculty directed production. Students may choose to participate in multiple areas, including acting, stage managing, administration, and technical theater: set construction, lighting, sound, costumes, and props. Students also will conduct research related to the play, playwright, and characters. Students will be expected to take on additional responsibilities in performance, stage management, theater administration, lighting or sound.
May be taken up to six times.
Attributes: NLIB ZEXL
Pre-requisites: ARTS-118 D-ARTS-490 Internship (3)
The internship program in Arts allows eligible students to earn academic credit for supervised off-campus work in an arts-related business or nonprofit organization. No more than three credits earned in an internship will be counted towards the minor.
Graded S/U.Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB ZCIV ZEXL
Fall, Spring & Summer
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Junior, SeniorARTS-496 Independent Study (1 TO 3)
Eligible students may pursue independent study under the direction of a given instructor. The student submits a written proposal approved by the instructor to the program director and writes a final paper. The student presents an oral version of the project to a student conference at the end of the semester.
Completion of the Independent Study/Tutorial Authorization form is required.
Typically offered:
Attributes: YLIB ZCAP ZEXL ZRES
Fall & Spring
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Junior, SeniorARTS-1020 Gender and Visual Culture (3)
Visual culture is all around us and helps to define our individual and collective interpretations of the world. Gender is one integral aspect of identity that is expressed through the visual. The course will look at constructions of gender identity, moralizing “good vs. bad” bodies (i.e., the “nude vs naked” debate), intersections of religion and gender, and the birth of the gendered and racialized body in art. In this course, we will examine a range of visual art (painting, performance, sculpture, installation, music videos, film and TV, etc.). Students will read a series of scholarly articles and other written responses to the objects and themes discussed in class and provide their own critical reading responses and questions each week. The class will engage in writing workshops where we will examine art and practice writing creatively and analytically. The course will culminate with individual projects where students will develop and curate imaginary art exhibits.
Attributes: LC YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman, Sophomore -Attribute: New Core 20-21ARTS-1030 Arts In Action (3)
Artists regularly address social and political issues within their works, and in doing so, actively shape cultural conversations. This course examines the way works of art engage in public discourse and influence how we see Earth, others, and ourselves.
Typically offered:
Attributes: LC YLIB
Fall
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: New Core 20-21ARTS-1035 Art of Anger (3)
What makes us feel angry? Is it only a passing reflex response, or is anger also built over time? How can anger and frustration be expressed artistically? What reactions are people searching for when they voice frustration, and how should we respond as audience members? In this course we will read excerpts from the Iliad, take in slam poetry, watch films, and analyze murals and holograms, all with the aim of understanding what frustrations led these makers to create their work. We will examine the tools makers use to express their thoughts and experiences in essays, poems, art, and film. In a series of short papers, we will critically engage with the methods of these accounts, and through peer response and self-reflection we will determine the effectiveness of our analysis and reflect on the writing process as a whole. Students will culminate the semester by making a TED Talk about an enraging topic of their choice.
Attributes: LC YLIB
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: New Core 20-21ARTS-1299 Research-based Writing (3)
Students study and practice skills central to academic and professional research through the development of independent, inquiry-based projects. In their projects, students assert, support, and integrate their own positions into a scholarly conversation based in research. Students develop competency in the location, evaluation, analysis and documentation of sources that represent a range of different perspectives on important issues.
Attributes: RW YLIB ZRES
Restrictions: Including: -Class: Freshman -Attribute: New Core 20-21ARTS-2100 Engaging Public Arts (3)
We often talk about how the arts are used for individual creative expression, but we speak less often about how the arts also can cultivate community. This course is built around site visits, hands-on learning, and the connection between arts and community-building. Students will learn about creative practice as it intersects with issues of access by visiting a different arts organization in Rochester every three weeks. Each visit will be preceded in class by general discussions of principles of the art form we are studying and histories of how that art form has (or has not) engaged different publics. Engaging with recent theory about revising the mission of the Public Humanities and Public Arts, we will interrogate how our local site-visit organizations work to address the systemic racism and poverty in Rochester, and how they have worked to disrupt the systems of power that historically made the arts a playground solely for the elite.
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Additional fees apply.Typically offered:
Attributes: CCE YLIB ZCIV
Spring
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2125 Theater and Social Change (3)
Theater often examines politics, current events, and issues related to social change. In this course, students will read several plays dealing with social problems and then will engage with members of the community to research, write, and create their own work of devised theater around a contemporary issue (e.g., climate change, democracy and human rights, war and trauma). This final project will be a performance of student-written monologues and short plays (likely presented as a staged reading). Opportunities to learn about theater design and arts management will be available to interested students.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CCE YLIB
Spring
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2200 American Arts & Culture I (3)
This course looks at the intersection of art and culture in the United States from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th. In addition to considering painting, film, photography, and other visual arts, students explore the significance of influential exhibitions and publications. Students examine the ways in which cultural, political, economic, social, and scientific concerns were literally “envisioned” from the Victorian era into the modern era.
Attributes: AMHU CIA YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2201 American Arts & Culture II (3)
A study of art and culture in the U.S. from 1945 to the present. Students examine how works of art produced during this time express and help determine the changing ideologies and realities within America. Topics covered include the emergence of an American Avant-Garde; Abstract Expressionism and the Cold War; Pop Art and the 1960s; the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement and the art of protest; feminist art and the sexual revolution of the 1970s. In addition, some consideration is given to the way in which American culture was shaped by popular forms of entertainment such as television, movies and music.
Typically offered:
Attributes: AMHU CIA YLIB
Fall
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2204 Self-Discovery & the Arts (3)
Throughout history, people have tried to capture and make sense of the moments that make them feel larger than life and most themselves. In this course we will study many forms of art documenting journeys of self-discovery: films like Into the Wild, poems by the Romantics, diaries of long-distance runners and LSD trippers. We will explore how the act of capturing thoughts and experiences in writing, art, music, and film, helps us better understand them. We will also ask whether seeking self-discovery is an ethical endeavor since it so often emphasizes independence, isolation, and detachment from our communities. Students will culminate the semester by making a TED Talk about their own journeys of self-discovery.
Typically offered:
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Variable
Restrictions: Including: -Attribute: New Core 20-21; Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2216 Irish Music: Trad&Change (3)
In this class, students explore the social, historical, and political contexts of music through a focus on Ireland’s traditional music and its worldwide and Rochester-based diaspora. This course introduces students to the traditional music of Ireland through its instruments, song, and dance. Students will engage with Irish music and dance through reading and discussion, ethno-musicological research methods, and participation in dance, song, and instrumental music-making
Attributes: CIA
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2224 Global Modern Art History (3)
This course offers a chronological and thematic survey of major developments in global art (art of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas) from the mid-18th century through the beginning of the 21st century. The course is designed to introduce visual culture from a contextual perspective with a view toward understanding issues of the arts as they relate to their historical settings. Beginning with an introduction to Enlightenment philosophies of art that originated modern ideas about the periodization of art, the notion of the “universal museum,” and new interactions among artists and their patrons/publics, the course moves on to explore the relationships of the arts to political and industrial revolutions and to nationalism, colonialism, and imperialism. Works by female and non-Western artists are discussed throughout, and the course devotes special attention to the consideration of the role of art as a site for the articulation of value systems (including race, class, and gender). Class readings, lectures, and discussions are regularly supplemented by visits to local art museums and galleries and with presentations by local artists.
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2250 GOTTA DANCE! (3)
This course will examine theories and philosophies of dance from the European Renaissance to 21st century through an exploration of literature, history, film, and new media (e.g., music videos, YouTube, and TikTok). In addition to considering broad, theoretical questions about dance—What exactly counts as dance? Are there “good” and “bad” forms of dancing, and what makes them so? What happens when we or others see dance? When and why do we ourselves dance? We will engage in longstanding critical conversations about dance’s status as a virtuous or corrupting art; dance’s so-called “high” and “low” forms; and dance’s role as an expression of mass communal harmony or unique, individual expression. Throughout the course, we will consult scholarship on how race, class, and gender have affected and continue to affect perceptions of dance. No actual dancing is required, though students are more than welcome to reflect on their own experiences with dance as part of this course.
Attributes: CIA YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, SeniorARTS-2325 Photography/Social Moment (3)
In this course students will first learn how to analyze photographs in terms of their formal attributes and how to make digital photographs. As the course proceeds, students will learn how to place photographs within a sociohistorical and cultural context, so that they understand that art does not exist by itself but within a particular social, cultural, and historical moment. They then will be asked to consider how their own photographs operate in much the same way. In so doing, students will engage in an exploration of how photographs always operate in a social moment, engaging with diverse peoples, situations, and contexts.
Attributes: DEI YLIB
Restrictions: Excluding: -Class: Freshman, Senior