Area of Knowledge: Arts Component

Requirement

In the AOK Arts and Literature category, all three courses must emphasize arts or literature. At least one of the three courses must be in literature. At least one of the three courses must be in the arts.

---

Rationale

The arts capture many of humankind’s greatest insights into the complex nature of human experience and function as the tangible cultural repository of human activity in its most refined form. A study of the arts enriches our understanding of our own society as well as those societies of other times, places, and circumstances. The arts also exemplify the dynamic balance between creative impulse and trained discipline. A study of the arts helps us understand how humankind experiences life and how we construct meaning out of that experience.

---

Goals

A course in the Arts should help a student to recognize the significant works of a given art form relative to a given period, culture, or style; to critique knowledgably the methods and purposes of artists and their works; and to identify the impetus for the creation of works of a given art form.

---

Learning Objectives

1. The student will be acquainted with (view, read, listen to) a range of works that typify the form in the selected period, culture, or style.
2. The student will understand the theory of artistic creation within the form and experience the process of creation firsthand.

---

Criteria

To meet the criteria for a course in the arts, the course must meet at least one of the following criteria:

1. The course must expose the student to a reasonably extensive body of work in the arts. The “survey” implied by the works may embrace a period (e.g., the Renaissance), a geographical construct or national identity (e.g., Asian or French), a broadly defined style (e.g., Romanticism, Modern), or some combination of the above. The course must require the student to demonstrate a fundamental familiarity with the body of works and require the student to be able to identify the distinctive features of works typical of the body.
2. The course must acquaint the student with the theories relevant to the form of art being studied. The course must acquaint the student with a critical vocabulary. The course must require the student to demonstrate mastery of the critical vocabulary, either in written work at an appropriate level or in informed discussions of works at the appropriate level, or both.
3. The course must require the student to be familiar with the sources and origins of works in the form being studied and to understand the working methods of artists in the form. The course must require the student to experience the creative process firsthand either through the production of original works or through the preparation and presentation of significant works in the form being studied. The course must require the student to produce such works consistent with an established standard and in the context of the classroom.