ARTST-112 Introduction to Art Practices
This course explores the various ways that visual storytelling and creative research can be used to develop strategies for problem solving in all our academic pursuits. Art-making will be explored through a range of approaches from traditional drawing and painting, to site-specificity, lens and time-based media, as well as collaborative, community engaged actions. Assignments will focus on visual journaling, autobiographical prompts, and integrating diverse influences into expansive visual languages. Creative work will be enriched through field trips and collaborations across the campus and beyond.
ARTST-120FR Drawing I: 'Form, Structure, and Space'
Drawing I is an introductory course designed for all students, regardless of their previous experience in art. The course emphasizes creative, expressive, and analytical approaches to translating visual experience. Students will work with a variety of traditional and experimental materials, and will hone their skills through guided in-class exercises, independent homework assignments, and regular feedback. Upon completion of the course, students will have a strong command of the fundamental language of drawing, a deeper understanding of visual perception, and an ability to use the medium in imaginative, expressive, and conceptually engaged ways.
ARTST-131 Art Studio Foundations
ARTST-131MM Art Studio Foundations: 'Making and Meaning'
Making and Meaning is an interdisciplinary course exploring the processes, ideas, and variety of materials in the visual arts. The course addresses thematic concepts that are central to the nature of art making including the principles of art and design, approaches to color, light, and environment, and issues of identity and community. Assignments in drawing, installation, collaboration, and basic three-dimensional construction will be combined with slide lectures, assigned readings, and short written reflections. Visual problem solving, critical thinking, and experimentation will be emphasized throughout the course, in addition to an in-depth exploration of basic materials and tools.
ARTST-142 Digital Art Foundations
ARTST-142AT Digital Art Foundations: 'Art and 'Technology'
A hands-on introduction to digital art making using computers and related technologies. We will think creatively, work digitally and explore techno-centric art making as a new form and medium, engaging both technical and conceptual considerations. Through readings, discussion, demonstrations, viewing sessions, technical tutorials and hands-on projects, we will explore the techniques, practices and aesthetics of a broad range of current and emerging digital art practices.
ARTST-220 Drawing II
Further exploration and investigation into the techniques and conceptual issues of drawing. The human figure is used as a departure point for developing perceptual skills and personal expression.
ARTST-220NT Drawing II: 'Drawing as Installation'
How do we draw in three-dimensional space? This course will examine how artists have brought techniques of two-dimensional drawing and reimaged their application to three-dimensional space. Drawing as Installation explores drawing as a conceptual and formal tool that is designed to have a particular relationship with spatial environments such as architectural site-specific locations, with time, and with conceptual and/or social level. In this course we will engage with identity, audience relationship, immersive display, site, time, and space through readings, writing, various exploration of materials, and research topics pertinent to students' individual investigations.
ARTST-226 Topics in Art Studio
Topics courses are offered each semester which are outside the realm of the usual course offerings, focusing on contemporary issues.
ARTST-226DF Topics in Art Studio: 'Costume Design for Stage and Film'
This course introduces students to the history, art, and techniques of designing costumes for stage and narrative film. Students will learn how a designer approaches a script, how the designer's work supports the actors' and the director's vision and how it illuminates a production for the audience. Students will have the opportunity to develop their visual imaginations through the creation of designs for stage and film scripts. They will engage in play analysis, research, collaborative discussion, sketching, drawing, rendering, and other related techniques and methodologies.
ARTST-226DH Topics in Art Studio: 'Print/Digital Hybrid'
This course will explore how to integrate digital processes with traditional printmaking techniques. Students will learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and develop and create imagery through those programs. They will then use digital devices such as laser cutter, router and plotter to turn a digital file into a physical printing block. The final art form will be hand-printed work, utilizing relief printing, engraving on wood, collographs, and monoprinting. This course also covers print-based digital animation.
ARTST-226EV Topics in Art Studio: 'Experimental Video: Theory and Practice'
This production course grounds practice in theory and history. It will introduce students to canonical and contemporary works from avant-garde cinema while engaging them in experimental filmmaking concepts, aesthetics, and practices. Through lectures and screenings, students will be exposed to groundbreaking filmmakers and analyze their works. These will serve to inform and inspire students' own film projects which will cover a range of experimental film approaches including archival and found footage, structural, surrealist, and poetic. This course is open to students with any level of video production experience, including those new to the practice. Students taking this course will gain experience in planning, shooting and editing their work using DSLR cameras and the option of cell phones.
ARTST-226PM Topics in Art Studio: 'Expanded Print Media'
This course asks students to explore the sculptural possibilities of printmaking while examining ideas of the multiple. Both traditional printmaking (relief printmaking and screenprinting) and various digital methods are employed to push the boundaries of "print media" as a contemporary art practice. Class projects will include print installation and print media driven social interventions. Students will work both collaboratively and independently to explore ideas of space, scale, and the multiple, while creating interactive three-dimensional print media work.
ARTST-236 Painting I
Painting I is an introduction to the fundamentals of the discipline and practice of acrylic painting. We will investigate both historical and contemporary strategies of painting and engage in observational and imaginative uses of materials and subject matter. This course promotes and includes a wide variety of opportunities to enhance our educational experience including guest artists, an emphasis on sketchbook habits and critique skills, writing exercises, material experiments, and student presentations on contemporary painters. We will undergo a deep study of lights and darks, color, paint application and composition as we develop distinct visual languages of painting.
ARTST-242 Topics in Digital Art
ARTST-242DM Topics in Digital Art: 'Digital Media Art'
This intermediate digital arts course explores diverse contemporary methods of digital production and engages conceptual and aesthetic issues that arise in this new medium. Possible topics may draw from creative coding and algorithm art, computer animation, and interactive/immersive environments on platforms ranging from computer monitors to projections, to VR headsets and to portable electronic devices. We will explore emerging digital art practices and the role that digital media art plays within contemporary art.
ARTST-242PE Topics in Digital Art: 'Digital Fabrication and Media Installation'
This intermediate digital arts course explores how open-source movements and contemporary art have cleared the way for play as a powerful metaphor for cultural participation. We will explore interactive tools, technologies which reframe our senses, and professional practices in environmental installation. We will consider the role of historical and social knowledge in the creation of interactive experiences and audio-visual environments, looking at work which tends to be discursive, which argues for a story or sets out a case, or which operates as a metaphor for our own digital realities.
ARTST-246 Sculpture I
In Sculpture I, demonstrations and introductory projects will familiarize students with the tools and processes used to form and manipulate materials such as wood, metal, plaster, paper, wax, and glass. Students will also be asked to explore the potential of combining new technologies in media and fabrication with traditional approaches into immersive sculptural experiences. Each project will present students with a series of conceptual problems to solve. In this way, art-making is positioned as a process of finding individual and independent solutions to three-dimensional problems.
ARTST-256 Printmaking I
This course is an introduction to the four basic areas of printmaking: relief, intaglio, screen printing and lithography. Students will begin the semester learning the basics of each technique through attending demonstrations and working on small projects in each area. Students will then choose to focus on one of the four processes, spending the remainder of the semester learning more advanced methods within their chosen area and completing a series of in-depth projects.
ARTST-263 Topics in Paper and Book Arts
ARTST-263ZP Topics in Paper and Book Arts: 'Zines, Prints & Ephemera'
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of traditional bookbinding, contemporary artists' books and digital book design. A variety of book structures and skills will be demonstrated, discussed and used throughout the semester. Students will develop a basic understanding of what an artist's book is, where it fits in contemporary art practice as well as its historical context. This course will focus on both editioned and one-of-a-kind zines and ephemera for exchange and intervention throughout campus.
ARTST-280 Topics in Art Studio
Topics courses are offered each semester which are outside the realm of the usual course offerings, focusing on contemporary issues.
ARTST-280CK Topics in Art Studio: 'Collective Making'
This interdisciplinary course investigates collaborative modes of making through a sequence of projects: creating works in chorus with objects in the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, engaging with biological/chosen family members, and interacting with the campus community. Individual and group projects (including object-oriented and performative production), in-class exercises, critiques, readings, and discussions will introduce students to conceptual, practical, and ethical aspects of collective art making.
ARTST-280CM Topics in Art Studio: 'Casting, the Multiple, and Installation'
This course will introduce basic mold-making practices in relief casting, multi-part plaster mold building, life casting, vacuum forming, and more. These molds will then be used to mass produce objects in wax, plaster, concrete, pewter, and glass, as well as non-traditional materials like candy. Throughout this initial skill-building portion of the course, students will work closely with partnering institutions on campus (such as the Botanical Gardens and the Williston Library) to propose, fabricate, and ultimately install large-scale installations of their cast objects.
ARTST-280EP Topics in Art Studio: 'Experimental Painting and Drawing'
Through a studio-based, interdisciplinary approach, this course explores diverse methods and practices within contemporary painting and drawing. We will discuss both traditional and experimental definitions of painting and drawing and exercise connections between other disciplines, including performance and sculpture. Topics include artwork as a byproduct of movement, unconventional materials in abstraction, and creative responses to current events. Upon completion of this course, students will gain a broad understanding of contemporary art, build a distinct visual vocabulary, and develop an interdisciplinary mindset in thinking about what paintings and drawings are and can be.
ARTST-280PT Topics in Art Studio: 'Painting the Series'
Painting the Series is a rigorous course that expands skills that students have gathered prior to this semester. Students will engage deeply with the practice of painting in water or oil-based paint on variety of substrates, and create multiple series of works. The semester includes presentations, research, critiques, and discussions. Throughout history, artists have actively approached the strategy of creating a series in order to transform, distill, unpack, and otherwise evolve an original idea. Throughout our course, students will do the same through creating multiple series of works that respond to initial prompts and efforts.
ARTST-280SJ Topics in Art Studio: 'Art, Public Space, and Social Justice Activism'
What are some ways that art can disrupt oppressive structures of power? This course explores the ways in which contemporary artists centuries have responded to the call for political change and social justice, particularly with regards to issues of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. Drawing from interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives, we will examine the role of visual and performance art within public spaces in shaping and furthering social movements and protest. Some possible themes and issues include public memory, artistic citizenship, counterpublics, "material" and "immaterial" artistic forms, and the collective impact of art activism on the social imagination.
ARTST-280WE Topics in Art Studio: 'Wearables and Soft Sculpture'
This course introduces students to the history of textiles, fiber arts, soft sculpture, and wearables in relation to cultural and political themes. How do textiles transform from flat surfaces into three-dimensional objects or become a second skin to the object? We will focus on the design, fabrication, and creative application of textile construction processes using a range of fabrics, yarn, and materials associated with wearables and soft sculpture. We will experiment with the use of traditional hand tools, digital technologies, patterning, and natural dyes, engaging in small-scale and large-scale projects that culminate in group critiques.
ARTST-295 Independent Study
ARTST-330 Junior Studio
The primary goal of this course is to provide strategies for each student to develop an individual studio art practice. Through experimentation, thematic development, strong sketchbook skills, and research, students will begin the process of developing and articulating a conceptual focus in their own art production. Students will be asked to draw on technical skills acquired in 200-level medium-specific courses to create independently generated projects. Simultaneously, students will be required to reflect clearly upon their work in short writing assignments towards the creation of a coherent artist statement. Our discussions will center on critical texts that help students position their work in larger contemporary art and cultural contexts.
ARTST-380 Advanced Topics in Art Studio
ARTST-380AE Advanced Topics in Art Studio: 'Race, Gender and Sexual Aesthetics in the Global Era'
Reading across a spectrum of disciplinary focuses (e.g. philosophies of aesthetics, post-structural feminisms, Black cultural studies, and queer of color critique) this course asks the question what is the nature of aesthetics when it negotiates modes of difference? This course explores the history and debates on aesthetics as it relates to race, gender, and sexuality with particular emphasis on Black diaspora theory and cultural production. Drawing on sensation, exhibitions, active discussion, observation, and experimentation, emphasis will be placed on developing a fine-tuned approach to aesthetic inquiry and appreciation.
ARTST-380PE Advanced Topics in Art Studio: 'Media and Performance'
Red-curtained theatrical stages, rock concert arenas, and avant-garde galleries all use media technologies to stage acts of live performance. At the same time, live performance frequently plays a role in media exhibition practices, from film screenings to Instagram feeds. Across sites ostensibly devoted to "media" or "performance," this course examines their intersections. Combining theoretical perspectives from media studies and performance studies, we will explore critical approaches to mediation and liveness, production and reception, and performance's digital directions.
ARTST-380TX Advanced Topics in Art Studio: 'Abolition and Radical Textiles'
How do the topics of abolition and textiles come together? Marginalized communities have historically used folkloric, textile arts and material culture to amplify abolitionist causes. From secret quilt codes of the Underground Railroad to an abolitionist community sustained by a silk mill in Florence, Massachusetts, how might thinking with textiles intervene on patriarchal systems rooted in rigidity, isolation and punishment? From the social devaluation of domesticized and feminized labor of weaving, quilting, sewing to banners, students will theorize and experiment with textiles, leaving with a grounded understanding of how textiles/fibers can and have played an essential role in the history of abolition.
ARTST-390 Advanced Studio
Concentration on individual artistic development. Emphasis will be placed on experimentation, thematic development, and critical review. Students may elect to take this course more than once.
ARTST-395 Independent Study
ARTST-395SS Senior Studio
