Arts and Ideas Program

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Arts 310

Humanities Linked ARTS Courses

Studio/Workshop or Applied ARTS Courses

Arts 371 - no longer offered after Fall 2006

310 Arts and Ideas (3)

Arts and Ideas is an interdisciplinary course that introduces the student to the creative process using a number of artistic disciplines including dance, drama, film and video, music, poetry and the visual arts. This survey class includes readings of essays, attendance at outside performances and events, lectures, classroom presentations and performances, informal discussion and development of written responses. Prerequisite: 60 earned hours (junior

standing). Fall, Spring, Summer.

Community Arts Project (3) (Pope & Williams)

In this participatory arts and humanities class students will gather oral histories from a specific community (of place, cultural identity or tradition) and create art based on those stories.  Students will learn several techniques for recording and preserving community stories and study examples of successful community-arts projects across the world.  Finally, the class will create and present an original community arts project that preserves the cultural heritage and history of our community partner.

Art and Politics (3) (Pope & Williams)

The focus of this section will be to examine the intersection of art, politics and culture.  We will study a wide variety of works from this perspective.  We will look briefly and occasionally at ancient and classical art, but focus primarily on contemporary, American works.  We will study literature, film, theater, music, dance, and visual art.  We will look at art whose purpose is to create social change or promote a specific political ideal.  We will also examine the issue of censorship, the politics of identity, the role of the artist as witness, public versus private art, and the political content of mainstream art and popular culture.  In addition, we will occasionally explore some gentle art-making processes that will deepen your understanding of the creative process itself.

Arts and Religion (3) (Dunn)

This stimulating course focuses on Art and Spirituality, primarily in the monotheistic world. We look at the ways art and spirituality inform each other, and explore common impulses, themes, techniques, possibilities, limitations, intentions and effects. We look primarily at poetry and prose fiction from the Christian tradition, but also visual art, drama, film, music and dance from world traditions. Topics we investigate include: chaos and order (why do people need religion and art), the relationship of craft to inspiration and empirical to revealed knowledge, the artist as creator and the creator as artist, art and religion as transformative (transcendent) experience, the role of melancholy in the spiritual and artistic journeys, to what degree and in what ways truth and beauty are absolute or relative,  the artist as prophetic voice of the divine, the nature of the divine, the nature of evil, the feminine in the divine, and issues surrounding free will, ethics, redemption, and authenticity. Finally we ask what a world void of art or spirituality would look like. Required Texts: Dante's Inferno / Milton's Paradise Lost / William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience / Goethe's Faust Part I / Thomas Mann's Death in Venice / Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge / Miriama Ba's So Long a Letter. Students write weekly prompts in class, one take-home midterm, one take-home final and create a 10 minute power-point presentation combining art, music and text.

Arts and Crafts Movement (3) (Caldwell)

In this class we will explore the cultural and political relevance of the British Arts and Crafts Movement as well as its historical effects on similar movements in other countries.  We will study designs in furniture, textiles, architecture and jewelry, to name a few.  The American Arts and Crafts Movement had a huge impact on design in Asheville and we will take several field trips to sites around town.  The class will also focus on WWI and its influence on design and technology.

Unleashing Your Creativity (3) (Pell)

Julia Cameron, creativity guru and inspirational teacher, shares her proven techniques of recovering our artist within.  This course will follow her teachings, as laid out in The Artist’s Way, in the hopes of encouraging students to discover/uncover their artistic natures then activate expression in a myriad of ways.  Critical to this technique are Morning Pages (2-3 pages written daily, long-hand in a journal) and Artist’s Dates (solitary ventures into the world for inspiration).  The text provides additional TASKS to wade through the layers of negative critiques that block our mental / spiritual growth along our artist’s journey. This course will provide students with tools to bring artistic endeavors into their everyday lives.

Celtic Arts (3) (Pell)

In Celtic Arts, we will be exploring three primary artistic arenas: literary arts, music, and visual arts.  For the literary arts, readings and original creative writing will lead us through classical tales of heroes in Celtic mythology and immortals of the Otherworld.  The art of storytelling-the oral tradition-transcends time, connecting legends and lore.  In studying Celtic music, we will examine primary instrumentation stemming from Bardic traditions, folklore motifs in ballads, and creative sources compelling contemporary songs/tunes.  Visual art covers broad areas such as fiber arts (weaving), tartans, smith craft, jewelry, and architecture.  Celtic symbols, interlacings, and knotwork found in illuminated texts proved creative outlets for the ancient Celts.  Rich legends concerning holy grounds, sacred animals, and festival traditions create overarching ties with superstitions and folkloric beliefs.

Japanese Culture/Outsider (3) (Daniels)

The outsider has always been an unavoidable subject in Western literature, visual art, music, cinema, etc… due to its ability to provide a somewhat objective window onto modern society, but also due to its ability to shine a light on the difficult but necessary relationship between individual and group. This class will examine the concepts of both the artist and his or her characters as outsiders.  However, we will be looking at this phenomenon in Japan, through the lenses of history and various media, to appreciate how the island nation has naturally absorbed, reconfigured, and even then reintroduced this subject to the West. 

Integral Arts (3) (Senzon)

The focus of this section will be integral art, a new movement that comprises body, mind and spirit, in self, nature, and culture. The class will study integral art through painting, music, film, and literature.

Anthropology and the Arts (3) (Ross)

This seminar will explore experiential, interdisciplinary paths through the expressive or contemplative arts (meditative visual artmaking, movement, music, voice, writing, story-telling) as other ways of knowing. Our explorations will be grounded in studies of how various cultures reflect and meditate, do creative work, and engage in community-building ritual. The expressive arts approach, which bridges the fields of anthropology, the arts, and psychology, is traditional among indigenous peoples in many parts of the world. Interestingly, it has emerged as a serious field in the West only recently - grounded in the philosophical foundations of phenomenology and existentialism. Through self-study as well as the study of other cultures, students will explore connections among these fields, as well as concepts such as multiple intelligences; the link between contemplation and creativity; the felt sense; energy, prana, or chi; liminal or ritual space; and the role of the arts in learning and building community. Interdisciplinary readings from the list below. Journal handed in weekly in the form of brief papers; group presentations, portfolio presentation required. Cross-listed with East Asian Studies.

The Faust Legend in the Arts (3) (McKnight)
The legend of Faust is an ancient one, but from the 17th through the 20th centuries this story of humanity’s dealings with inhuman powers has become a metaphor for our age. The Faust story has been told in almost every artistic medium during this period: drama, music, fiction, poetry, painting, film and many others. During the semester we will explore the nature of these various art forms using the Faust legend and its modern significance as a common thread. We will see how the story evolved from rumors about a historical character, to a children’s tale and puppet show, to one of the central works in European culture of the last three hundred years. Artists of many kinds have been fascinated with the character of Faust, especially during the 19th and 20th centuries, when it seemed to many that we had made a Faustian bargain with industrialization and technology. We will focus on five artistic elements in our exploration of these themes: structure, color, space, time, and line.

Art of Mindful Living (3) (Newman)

What is Mindful living?  Is it, as the word suggests living with more mind, more thoughts, more intellectual approach, or is it something altogether different?  Living mindfully starts with becoming Present.  What you discover about yourself when you do, may surprise you.  This class begins the discovery by exploring the question, who am I?  In this class we will explore who you are, what you value, and how you can wake up to the Present to create lasting positive changes in your life and relationships.  Join us in a creative, expressive, meditative experience.  One thing for sure, Mindful living begins when you take the first step.      

Holocaust and the Arts (3) (Chess)

Writers (probably artists in other media, too) have said that it is impossible to write about the Holocaust—that what happened during the Holocaust is beyond imagining.  Yet literature and artistic works in other media have been created in response to the Holocaust—by victims, survivors, children and grandchildren of survivors, and by others with no direct personal connection to the Holocaust.  How were the arts and artists treated during the Nazi period?  What kind of art was created as the events of the Holocaust unfolded?  How has the Holocaust been represented since 1945?  Have artistic responses to the Holocaust changed as we’ve gotten further from the event?  As the body of art created in response to the Holocaust has grown, do new works respond both to the Holocaust itself and to the ways its been represented artistically?  What are we looking for when we seek out films, novels, works of visual art and music on the Holocaust? These are some of the questions we’ll consider this semester as we read, view, and listen to various works of art having to do with the Holocaust.

Art on the Edge: Contemporary Artists Challenge the Status Quo (3) (Horvitz)     

This section will focus specifically on art that blatantly questions and undermines the status quo. We will begin by focusing on works by activist artists of the 1960's--artists who reflected the sentiments of the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, the women's liberation movement, etc. Our study will encompass literature, music, theatre and visual arts. 

World Music (3) (Wilken)     

History of Rock 'n' Roll (3) (Wilken)

Course Objectives:  To provide the student with an understanding of the history and development of rock ‘n’ roll as a musical style through the following:

• Knowledge of basic musical elements such as melody, harmony, rhythm, texture and form

• Knowledge of how rock music is constructed and performed

• Knowledge of how rock music is performed, recorded, packaged, and promoted to the general public

• Knowledge of general trends in rock music and the major artists and music that pioneered those trends

Art as a Reflection of Self (3) (Williams)

Artists use photos, films, paintings or words to express their personal experience and shape the narrative of their life. We’ll look at examples of autobiographical art and explore art-making activities to better understand our own experiences and personal stories. Through journaling, mixed media and digital storytelling, we will approach art as a tool for self-reflection and self-identity.

Postcolonial Francophone Arts Experience (3) (Malicote)

We explore, in English, cultural, social, and political dimensions of the postcolonial arts of poetry, drama, the novel, cinema, the visual arts and music of francophone Asia, Africa and the Antilles.   Students prepare short oral reports, a mid-semester and  final exam, and  a final paper or project on the postcolonial francophone arts. 

How We Danced (3) (Schrader)

The study and discussion of the ways that humans have used movement to create and regulate their societies, commune with their gods, to and order their life experiences—to celebrate and to mourn.  This course replaces DAN 331. Cross-listed as DAN 373.001

Body and Earth (3) (Schrader)

Body and Earth is a three credit course exploring patterns and perceptions about the relationship of the human body to the earth and the earth to the human body.  The course will utilize physical explorations, writing, reading and arranging bodies and other things.

American Documentary Tradition (3) (Iglesias)

This course examines documentary film and photography as tools for social change. Students will analyze how mass media shapes public memory and identity and frames issues of social justice. Study of contemporary works will be contextualized historically, with attention to issues of racism, poverty, immigration and labor. 

Students will learn basic film and photography language and the political purpose of art. While many films address national issues, one unit will be devoted to Appalshop, an award-winning media arts cooperative in eastern Kentucky. 

Each student is expected to practice the skills of an active, critical viewer; to practice public speaking in oral presentations; to develop and write viewing guides for films in small groups; and to write a research paper and a persuasive essay.

Clay, Architecture, and Historic Zen Gardens of Kyoto (3) (Keenan)

This course examines the history, architecture, and gardens of the ancient capital of Kyoto, Japan while providing students with hands-on studio experience in ceramics. As a center of arts of culture for over 1200 years, Kyoto’s patronage of the arts was unsurpassed. Students will develop a critical understanding of the arts and culture of Japan through studio work (including wood-firing and Raku,) film, readings, and discussion.

Shakespear's Tempest: Past, Present, Future (3) (Bostian)

Come explore the text and staging of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  We will analyze Shakespeare’s words and the theatre during the late 1500’s and early 1600’s.  Then we will turn our studies towards UNCA’s spring production of The Tempest.  What are this production’s influences and how do they relate to what we learned of the first productions?  Final we will delve into how we might approach future productions of this delightful play.

Nonverbal Communication and the Arts (3) (Berls)

Course description coming.

Workshop in Interdisciplinary Collaboration (3) (Meyers)

Course description coming.

HUMANITIES LINKED ARTS COURSES

ARTS 322 Arts of the Ancient World                                             

ARTS 323 Arts of the Medieval and Renaissance World

ARTS 324 Arts of the Modern World: 17th-20th Century (3) (McNerney)

We will examine the challenges brought about by the modernist artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  We will interrogate the formal claims made by philosophers concerning what constitutes a work of art, and what does not.  In pursuit of this latter issue, we will read Arthur Danto and apply his thinking to the domains of literature and, more emphatically to music.  If you are expecting a touchy-feely anything-goes approach to art and artists, think again.  A vigorous attack on the popular notion that art merely services our emotional needs will be undertaken.  You must have had or be taking HUM 324 to take this class.

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On-line Registration Assistance for Spring 2008

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ILS-Approved ARTS Courses

Frequently Asked Questions (in development)