Fall 2013 Course Catalog - School of the Museum of Fine Arts

School of 

the Museum 

of Fine Arts, 

Boston 

Fall 2013 Course Catalog 

1

Contents 

Academic Calendar...................................................................3 

Important Information................................................................4 

Artist Resource Center..............................................................5 

Ceramics................................................................................5-6 

Directed Study........................................................................6-8 

Drawing................................................................................9-12 

Education...........................................................................13-14 

English................................................................................14-16 

Fabrication...............................................................................16 

Fine Art History..................................................................16-17 

Film....................................................................................18-20 

First Year Program ............................................................21-23 

Graphic Arts.......................................................................23-26 

MFA...................................................................................26-28 

Metals.................................................................................28-31 

Painting..............................................................................31-37 

Post Baccalaureate Consultations.....................................37-38 

Performance.......................................................................38-40 

Photography.......................................................................40-44 

Printmaking........................................................................44-47 

Sculpture............................................................................47-50 

Sound.................................................................................50-51 

Senior Thesis Project.........................................................51-52 

Video..................................................................................52-53

Fall 2013 Academic Calendar 

3 

Monday 7/15/2013 

• Fall 2013 financial deadline. Payments must be received and all financial 

arrangements made in order to attend classes in September. 

Friday 8/9/2013 • Fall 2013 Registration closes. 

Thursday 8/29/2013 • Faculty Orientation. 

Sunday 9/1/2013 


Tuesday 9/3/2013 

• New student move-in. 

• New student (and guests) orientation/faculty advising. 

• New student orientation. 

• Labor Day– no classes at SMFA, Tufts or Northeastern 

• Classes begin at SMFA and Tufts. 

• Add/Drop begins. 

Wednesday 9/4/2013 • Classes begin at Northeastern. 

Tuesday 9/10/2013 • Last day to add/drop studio courses. 

Tuesday 9/17/2013 • Last day to add Academic and Art History courses. 


• Last day to drop Academic and Art History courses. 

• Last day to elect pass/fail option in Academic and Art History 

courses. 

• Last day to change enrollment status with refund. 

Monday 10/14/2013 • Columbus Day–no classes at SMFA, Tufts or Northeastern 


• Last day to make up incompletes from spring 2013. 

• Substitute Monday’s schedule. 

Thursday 10/31/2013 • Registration for spring 2014 begins. 

Monday 11/11/2013 • Veterans Day–no classes at SMFA, Tufts or Northeastern. 

Wednesday 11/27–11/29/2013 • Thanksgiving Break–no classes at SMFA, Tufts or Northeastern. 

Friday 12/6/2013 • Final exams begin at Northeastern (12/6-12/13). 


• Studio classes end. 

• Academic and Art History classes end; 

• Last day to withdraw from courses and receive a grade of W. 

Tuesday 12/10/2013 • Review Boards begin (12/10–12/19). 

Thursday 12/12/2013 • Final exams begin at Tufts (12/12-12/19). 


Thursday 12/19/2013 

Thursday 1/2/2014 

• Spring 2014 financial deadline. Payments must be received and all 

financial arrangements made in order to attend classes in January. 

• Continuing Education classes end. 

• Review Boards and final exams end 

• Winter break begins. 

• Grades due for the term at Tufts 

• Spring 2014 Registration closes.

Important Information 

4 

Academic Affairs 

The staff in Academic Affairs provides students with information 

about academic planning, scheduling and managing your 

academic courses. Contact Academic Affairs Office with 

questions about: 

- Selecting and managing academic courses 

- Academic advising 

- Undergraduate degree programs offered in 

partnership with Tufts University 

- Support services such as the Writing Center and 

tutorial services 

- Services for students with learning disabilities 

- Getting in touch with faculty, course evaluations, 

sharing problems concerning faculty or scheduling a 

meeting with faculty members 

Phone: 617-369-3612 

E-mail: academicaffairs@smfa.edu 

Enrollment Verification 

Students may request their enrollment to be verified for insurance, 

financial, or other legal purposes. Verification requests must be 

received in writing. Enrollment of current students cannot be 

verified until after the add/drop date of the current semester. If 

enrollment verification of a pre-registered student is requested, 

the verification will state that "enrollment is expected," and is 

therefore up to the recipient whether or not it is acceptable. 

Requests can be processed from the Verification Request 

Form or from a written letter including the following information: 

student's name, Social Security number, year(s) and semester(s) 

that need to be verified, where the letter should be sent, and 

the due date. 

Please note: all verification requests are processed on Thursdays. 

Please plan accordingly if you have a pressing due date. 

Registration 

Registrar Information 

The Registrar's Office is responsible for student records and 

information, managing student registration and processing 

transcript requests, enrollment verifications and status changes 

(i.e. changing from part time to full time or vice versa). 

Phone: 617-369-3621 

E-mail: registrar@smfa.edu 

Add/Drop 

When adding or dropping courses after registration, please 

follow these instructions: 

- Consult the academic calendar for dates. 

- Complete a Studio Add/Drop Form (available in the 

Registrar's Office). This form must be submitted to the 

Registrar's Office by the deadline. 

- Complete a Tuition Adjustment Form if you wish to 

change your enrollment status along with the course 

change. 

Currently enrolled students must pre-register for classes in 

November and April. All students pre-register through the 

Registrar's Office. Pre-registration times are assigned according 

to how many credits each student has left to complete their 

Diploma, certificate or degree. 

All new students are assigned a time to register for classes 

during the orientation, advising, and registration week. The 

times are assigned according to how many studio credits each 

student has left to complete their Diploma, certificate or degree. 

Students are notified of their registration time when they check 

in at orientation. 

On Registration Day all registration forms are brought to the 

Registrar's Office where they are processed. Student schedules 

are provided at that time. 

Contact the Academic Affairs Office for information on registering 

for courses at Tufts University. 

To add or drop Art History and Academic courses you must do 

so with the Academic Affairs Office. You must also complete a 

Tuition Adjustment Form if you wish to change your enrollment 

status along with the course change.


5 

Creatives Futures: Business 

Essentials for Artists 

ARC 3075 01 (4 Credits) 

Nadeem Mazen 

TBA 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

TBA 

This course is a practical introduction to art and business. It will cover business planning and 

research; marketing (branding, pr, and advertising), networking and collaboration, fundraising, 

grant writing, and financing, budgeting, accounting and legal matters, writing for business 

and practical business habits. The aim is to prepare students to be self-reliant and resilient 

after school, helping them to access their innate abilities to vision and problem-solve with 

the goal of developing projects with real-world applications. Content is presented via in-class 

lectures, guest speakers, readings and assignments in a sequential manner – beginning in 

the fall and continuing through the spring semester. This course requires reading, research 

and writing assignments, development of an art business and marketing plan, and full class 

participation. During the spring semester a pitch event will be organized to showcase student’s 

business models before a general audience in a competition for seed money funds. 

Beginning Ceramics: 

Handbuilding & Construction 

CER 1018 01 (2 Credits) 

TBA 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A005 

Clay, a tactile material with an amazing range of possibilities, can be used to create functional, 

decorative and sculptural ceramics. In this course you will explore a variety of construction 

techniques including wheel-throwing, hand-building, glazing and firing methods such as raku 

and gas firing. Demonstrations and slide presentations will provide technical instruction and 

creative inspiration. All techniques are open to personal interpretation. 

Ceramics Level 1: Wheel 

Throwing 


Michael Barsanti 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A005 

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundmentals of ceramics process through 

the method of using the potters wheel. Students will learn the fundamentals of throwing all 

basic elemental pottery forms, cylinders, bowls, plates and enclosed forms. In addition to 

forming we will use various firing and glazing methods that include, low-fire, pit-fire, raku 

and stoneware. 

Ceramics Level 1: Combined 

Methods 


M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A005 

This course, an introduction to the sculptural, painterly, and functional approaches to ceramics, 

will explore techniques in wheel throwing and construction for hand building. We will 

examine the basic use of fire, glaze at low and high temperatures, and raku. For beginning 

through advanced students. 

Ceramics II: Intermediate 

Projects 



W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A005 

This course is designed for students moving forward in with their interest in the ceramic 

medium. This course is primarily a studio class structured around students proposals for a 

current body of work in combination with thematic assignments. Assignments will highlight 

and examine both advanced process based learning involving Mold making, introduction to 

mixing and working with surface treatments such as slips and glazes. We will also discuss 

firing methods of gas and electric kilns. Students will be instructed on how to fire and program 

computer controlled electric kilns. Attendance is required all day. Prerequisites: Ceramics 

level I combined methods or equivalent, or portfolio review and permission from the instructor. 

Ceramics: Wheel Throwing 


Ji Eun Kim 

S 

9:00 AM - 12:15 PM 

A005 

Prepare to get your hands dirty in this introductory wheel-throwing course. We will start by 

learning the basics of creating a simple vessel and move on to more refined techniques that 

push the limitations of this versatile media. Through demonstrations and hands-on learning, 

we will cover the use high-fired stonewares and colored slips. You will be provided with an 

opportunity to explore a variety of wheel-throwing techniques and various glazing methods. 

This course is designed for beginner throwers.


6 

Images On Clay 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A005 

Tired of your work vanishing into cyberspace when the power is turned off? Use the tools 

of the twenty-first century to make your work withstand water, fire, biological, and material 

decomposition beyond the thirty-first century. This course is an introduction to clay as a threedimensional 

canvas for photographers, printmakers, ceramists, and painters working with 

imagery in two dimensions, as well as students needing a shapeable and reproducible element 

for installation or performance. The Mac computer and screen-printing, laser toner, and decals 

will be utilized to transfer to clay your working images as drawings, paintings, video stills, 

photographs, or computer generations. We will develop suitable clay bodies, glaze palettes, 

and firing strategies, as well as construction, modeling, and carving techniques. Knowledge 

of basic photography, video, computer, screen-printing, or ceramics will be helpful, but not 

required. This course is not a substitute for a more complete introduction to digital imaging, 

ceramics, or screen-printing. You will be expected to finish one introductory and a second, 

more involved project each semester. Ultimately, the class will enter unknown territory: the 

intersection of electronic media and clay as a durable vehicle for wall art, sculpture, vessel, 

functional container, mural or installation. 

Images on Clay 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A005 

Tired of your work vanishing into cyberspace when the power is turned off? Use the tools 

of the twenty-first century to make your work withstand water, fire, biological, and material 

decomposition beyond the thirty-first century. This course is an introduction to clay as a threedimensional 

canvas for photographers, printmakers, ceramists, and painters working with 

imagery in two dimensions, as well as students needing a shapeable and reproducible element 

for installation or performance. The Mac computer and screen-printing, laser toner, and decals 

will be utilized to transfer to clay your working images as drawings, paintings, video stills, 

photographs, or computer generations. We will develop suitable clay bodies, glaze palettes, 

and firing strategies, as well as construction, modeling, and carving techniques. Knowledge 

of basic photography, video, computer, screen-printing, or ceramics will be helpful, but not 

required. This course is not a substitute for a more complete introduction to digital imaging, 

ceramics, or screen-printing. You will be expected to finish one introductory and a second, 

more involved project each semester. Ultimately, the class will enter unknown territory: the 

intersection of electronic media and clay as a durable vehicle for wall art, sculpture, vessel, 

functional container, mural or installation. 

Directed Study: Ceramics 

DIR 3000 01 (2 Credits) 


W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A005 

Advising, mentoring, and critique in one-on-one and group meetings: Directed Study Blocks 

are structured 3 hour periods designed for students to do research and develop and get 

feedback on work that is self-directed. Students meet as a group and work with individual 

members of the faculty to begin and follow through on individual projects and work that 

falls outside of course assignments. Reflecting on your work in meetings with your studio 

faculty mentor/advisors, Directed Study offers an opportunity to define both near and long 

term goals. In-depth discussions of your work as they relate to your full range of courses 

focus on building strategies for moving your work forward according to goals and path of 

study you have defined for yourself. In group meetings peers discuss progress among one 

another and develop invaluable skills for responding and giving feedback to one another 

regarding the work of fellow students. Directed Studies also serves an important venue for 

preparing for your Review board. A faculty signature and a written statement of intent is 

required for registration.


7 

Directed Study: Drawing 


Charles Goss 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

A204 













required for registration. 

Directed Study: Film + 

Animation 


Joel Frenzer 

T 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B113 














Directed Study: Photography 


Jeannie Simms 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C113 














Directed Study: Sculpture 


Fritz Buehner 

R 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A210 

Advising, mentoring, and critique in one-on-one and group meetings: Directed Study 

Blocks are structured 3 hour periods designed for students to do research and develop 

and get feedback on work that is self-directed. Students meet as a group and work with 

individual members of the faculty to begin and follow through on individual projects and 

work that falls outside of course assignments. Reflecting on your work in meetings with 

your studio faculty mentor/advisors, Directed Study offers an opportunity to define both 

near and long term goals. In-depth discussions of your work as they relate to your full 

range of courses focus on building strategies for moving your work forward according to 

goals and path of study you have defined for yourself. In group meetings peers discuss 

progress among one another and develop invaluable skills for responding and giving 

feedback to one another regarding the work of fellow students. Directed Studies also 

serves an important venue for preparing for your Review board. A faculty signature and a 

written statement of intent is required for registration.


8 

Directed Study: Graphic Arts 


Chantal Zakari 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A207 














Directed Study: Video 


TBA 

R 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

B115 














Directed Study: Painting 


Tom McGrath 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B305 

This class consists of one on one meetings in which a student will meet individually with 

a faculty member several times over the course of the semester to critique work, assess 

progress, and develop mentorship between individual faculty and students. Individual critique 

sessions promote and foster abundant work and rapid progress by helping students deepen 

their understanding of their artwork, creative process, and work method through focused 

critical feedback at regular intervals. Prerequisite: at least two previous painting courses, a 

written statement of intent, and permission of the instructor. 

Directed Study: Painting 


Julie Graham 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B305 

This class consists of one on one meetings in which a student will meet individually with 

a faculty member several times over the course of the semester to critique work, assess 

progress, and develop mentorship between individual faculty and students. Individual critique 

sessions promote and foster abundant work and rapid progress by helping students deepen 

their understanding of their artwork, creative process, and work method through focused 

critical feedback at regular intervals. Prerequisite: at least two previous painting courses, a 

written statement of intent, and permission of the instructor.


9 

Mixed Media on Paper 

DRW 1009 01 (2 Credits) 

Mara Metcalf 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A202 

Capture your visual experience and physical sensations by combining observation and 

recollection in this multi media drawing course. Through touch, surface, shape and form you 

will be encouraged to develop ideas and understand the relationship between the subject 

and your creative process. You’ll be introduced to a variety of materials, including graphite, 

charcoal, ink and pastel and study their interaction with format and meaning. Collage and 

related strategies for construction will be addressed. Classes include the discussion of 

contemporary art that uses alternate ways to sense and record the subject. Your resources 

might include; invention, memory, prints, digital & photo documentation, found images or 

borrowed forms. Open ended questions invite you to play, experiment and follow through 

with your own ideas. Finding relationships between work in your other classes and use of 

new and nontraditional media are encouraged. This course is suitable for beginning students 

or those who may concentrate in another area, and want to utilize drawing as a way to find 

and make meaning. 

Observational Figure Drawing 


TBA 

R 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A202 

Learn different fundamental approaches that, if mastered, contribute to dynamic figure 

drawings. Each class focuses on a skill to be developed (gesture, contour, structure, form) 

by observing nude models in various poses, settings, and light conditions. Short lectures 

are followed by demonstrations, after which you will incorporate the skill into your drawing 

repertoire as the instructor works with you individually. Each class becomes a building 

block for the next; which when used together propel you to new levels of skill and mastery. 

We introduce new media, problems, and experiments as the semester advances and you 

develop their own unique approaches to drawing the nude. 

Drawing Studio 


Paul Stopforth 

W 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A202 

An emphasis on drawing skills and techniques complements principles of design and visual 

structure. Beginning students develop basic skills; intermediate students advance their basic 

skills to a higher level of fluency. Work through a set of projects that call forth a variety of 

drawing approaches and employ source material ranging from models, to master drawings, 

to nonvisual input. Work with the interrelated roles of hand, eye, mind, and imagination in 

drawing. Instruction is via individual guidance and review of work as well as group discussion 

and critique. This is not a figure drawing course per se, but several projects use the figure 

as their base. 

Drawing/Prints: Prints/Drawing 


John Schulz 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A204, A104 

This class will explore the dialogue between the direct mark of the drawn and the indirect 

mark of the print -- the two inform each other endlessly. We will focus on the directness of 

the process of drawing in facilitating and simplifying visual concepts for making prints, and 

draw on the indirect methods of printmaking to move toward new ways of thinking about 

making drawings. Various approaches to direct drawing, collage, frottage, woodcut and 

relief, collagraph, photocopy, and waterless lithography will be utilized. The aim of this class 

is an open-ended, continuous process of exploration. There will be extensive emphasis 

on experimental techniques in various media or whatever it takes to help your developing 

visual ideas. If what you ultimately produce is neither clearly definable as a drawing or print, 

so be it. In this view, there is potential for the print matrix to become an endpoint, a part of 

the drawing itself. Group critiques and individual consultations with both instructors will be 

ongoing throughout the semester. Contemporary and historical examples of the overlap 

and relationship of prints and drawings will be explored. This course can also be found listed 

under DRW 2027. Students must register for this class under Print and Paper: PRT 2064-01


10 

Figuremania 


Mara Metcalf 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A202 

Drawing from the figure is an active process that is simultaneously physical, visual, and 

emotional. In this course you will develop your own style while focusing on the human form 

as a source for drawings that investigate the relationship between expression, ideas, and 

subject matter. During the semester, basic techniques will be combined with new strategies 

to enhance visual memory, sensory awareness, and specific observational skills. We will tap 

the expressive component of figure drawing by exploring new ways of seeing and creating. 

You will be encouraged to experiment with new technologies, such as computer-generated 

images, while working with traditional media, including graphite, charcoal, ink, and pastel. 

We will look at contemporary and historic drawings through slides and reproductions. This 

course is suitable for those who have some figure drawing experience and want to continue 

working from life while investigating alternative sources and methods. 

But Is It Drawing? 


Erica Daborn 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A202 

Designed for students who have already taken a fundamental class and are interested in 

broadening their range of drawing options, this course emphasises an exploration of materials 

and processes. A significant amount of in-class time is designated for instructing students 

in critique technique. Materials used range from the familiar to the unexpected and each 

student is encouraged to fully explore specific properties in their own way. Drawings begin 

from the visual recording of designated objects but students may subsequently continue in 

any direction that they find of interest. Work produced can be either figurative or abstract. 

As the course progresses we will continue to expand the options for surface, mark and 

meaning until the question has to be asked “But Is It Drawing?” Work is required outside of 

class. No models will be used. Regular attendance is required. Students who miss classes 

without good cause will not be readmitted. 

Bumps on the Wall 


Charles Goss 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A204 

Bumps On The Wall is multi-disciplined approach for students working in any media who are 

curious about merging their material interests into one creative experience and incorporating 

the wall as an integral part of their art practice…not just a place to install and view the work. 

With drawing as the essential beginning point of this process we will mix media, idea and 

intent to produce finished work. Building from old work and existing imagery you will create 

new possibilities for your production and gain new technical skills of attaching, fastening, 

gluing and screwing things to the wall. We will also investigate and discuss, in-depth, past 

and present artists working in this area. The class has weekly assignments, homework and 

an all-term project. 

Intermediate Observational 

Drawing 


TBA 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A202 

This new course will focus on the extended development of drawing from direct observation. 

The focus is on building complex works and on integrating traditional skills and media. It 

will use your established perceptual and observational skills to develop more complex 

imagery and ideas. Students will be encouraged to assimilate their visual experience across 

areas. . (Video, film and photos and as resource for developing imagery.) Through in class 

projects and homework assignments, you will be challenged to make drawings that combine 

direct representation of the world with visual thought, and imagination. You will learn to ask 

questions that suggest further direction and investigation of traditional drawing subjects 

like body, object or landscape. Numerous demonstrations will address the technical use of 

materials, the role of paper surfaces and the significance of adequate resourcing for image 

development. As the semester progresses you will look at the work of contemporary artists 

who work on paper and examine ideas in current drawing. Significant out of class work is 

expected and attendance required. The course is suitable for advanced and experienced 

intermediate level students. 

Interdisciplinary Drawing Practices 


TBA 

TBA 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A204 

Description TBA


11 

Anatomy: Skeleton 


Gerry Hoag 

M 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A202 

This course is designed to improve your concept and understanding of the human figure by 

studying the underlying skeletal structure and how it affects surface appearance. This is the 

first of a two-part study; the musculature is the focus of the spring course. You will gain an 

improved sense of observation, proportion, perspective, planes, structure, volume, weight, 

space, clarity of articulation, and the visual dynamics of body movement and resultant formal 

changes. Class meetings will include observations and drawing from the model (gesture 

and long pose), illustrated lectures, the skeleton, plaster casts, occasional slide lectures, 

and more. So that you may develop a working knowledge and full comprehension of the 

skeleton, there will be periodic long studies from the model during which you will test your 

memory of bone structure in relationship to surface form. Homework is required (one hour 

per week minimum). Anatomy study is best suited for students who have had at least a 

beginning course in drawing. 

Abstraction, Process, 

Formulation 


David Kelley 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 2:00 PM - 

5:00 PM 

A204 

Drawing as a process and product has the ability to communicate a wide variety of observations 

via traces of mental processing. Drawn images, on their own or supported by verbal and 

visual research, have the capacity to present ideas in a way that allows for broader concepts 

to be read at a glance and/ or in depth. Through the development of a personal visual 

vocabulary form the general to the specific this course will encourage students to investigate 

and develop the visual formulation of ideas in a multitude of drawn forms. Development 

of Individual imagery and concepts through experimentation with varying methods of making, 

materials, and modes of presentation (performance) is essential. Class discussion surrounding 

work and concepts will take place on a regular basis. Work will be done in and out of the shared 

studio environment. Computers, scanners, digital cameras and a variety of printers will be available 

for sourcing and output, but are not required. This course will require individual out of classroom 

work and commitment to developing ideas. 

Altered Landscapes 



T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A204 

Prerequisite: Any introductory studio course. Students will travel as a group to a site in the 

country, or to the bank of a river, or to a beach. The selected landscape will be explored 

with a view to altering independently chosen sites, using a variety of means, none of which 

will harm or pollute these specific areas. Drawings, photographs, films or videos of the 

altered landscapes will be made, and along with additional materials gathered at the site, 

may function independently or as sources and point of departure for a series of extended 

drawings in a wide variety of graphic mediums. (As the fall weather patterns tend to be 

unpredictable we will emphasize a drawing studio component at the end of the fall term.) 

Required reading: One Place After Another: Site Specific Art and Locational Identity. Author: 

Miwon Kwon. MIT Press 2004. 

Experimental Life Drawing: 

The Figure and Beyond 


Robert Siegelman 

R 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A204 

This course is open to individuals at any level and will focus on figure drawing as an 

experimental medium. By using the figure as a focus and as a point of departure, we will 

explore various approaches for developing personal connections to drawing and content. 

Representation, abstraction, expressionist and conceptual possibilities will be discussed. We 

will look at different ways of using drawing to expand creativity and enhance your willingness 

to take risks. Experimentation, process, materials and learning to critique will be emphasized 

in this fun and supportive, yet challenging course. 

Drawing Revelator 



W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A202 

Drawing has always been an essential component in the lives of working artists, and the 

significance of this fact has become increasingly apparent in contemporary art practice. 

The act of drawing reveals rich and complex avenues of thinking and feeling through its 

capacity to generate images from a seemingly infinite variety of sources through a wide range 

of graphic means. This course will involve an intensive process of discovering directions 

and concepts through very focused, explorative drawings that make use of as much of the 

world as possible. From the human figure to plastic flowers, from fragments of food to your 

own skin, we will use everything possible as a springboard to discover and explore what it 

means to draw.


12 

Drawing Issues: Subject, 

Content, Comp 


Erica Daborn 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A202 

This course offers an opportunity to work for an extended period of time on large scale 

drawings. Emphasis is on the development of an image, initially through preparatory studies, 

then through the actual process of drawing (ie.redrawing). Students are encouraged to develop 

their own iconography based on visual information from a variety of sources, including the 

model. Students are provided with starting points for a series of drawings. Work is then 

done both in class and outside to bring these images to a resolved state. Regular critiques 

address the formal needs of composition, value, markmaking and spatial illusion. Regular 

attendance and participation in all class activities is required. This course is designed for 

those who have already studied the fundamentals. 

Making Sense 


Charles Goss 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A204 

Develop images or pieces from senses other than visual-specifically sound, smell, touch, and 

taste-through weekly exercises. Intensive group critiques are directed to problems in, and 

potentials for, each student’s work, with an emphasis on how drawing can function beyond 

the Museum School environment as a tool in the process of developing ideas in any and 

all artistic disciplines. These might include video, film, performance, installation, sculpture, 

painting, photography, printmaking, and drawing itself. This course is experimental and 

flexible in format; the shape depends in large part upon the wishes and needs of the students. 

Drawing as an artistic function will be expansively defined. You must attend regularly and 

commit to the process. 

Drawing Dialogue 


David Kelley 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

TBA 

This course functions as an arena for group discussion surrounding work done for intermediate 

level “independent” course study periods in which students work on their own based on their 

individual selection of materials and media. The relation of content, strategies, and contexts 

will be explored, shared, and emphasized. Some electronic technologies (iMacs, iBooks, 

scanners, printers, still digital cameras) are available for studio use. 

Long Pose and Portrait 

Drawing 


Mara Metcalf 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A202 

This is a course for students that have had some Anatomy or training with the figure. The 

course is designed to accommodate various levels of drawing ability. By extending the length 

of the model’s pose, you can explore in much greater depth the technical and expressive 

possibilities associated with drawing the human form. You will learn how the anatomical 

forms are responsible for describing the final structures of the figure. We will break down the 

complex anatomical forms of the human body to their simpler geometric counterparts. This 

will allow the drawing to progress slowly and develop Into a more realistic and accurate 

interpretation of the human form. More traditional approaches to drawing will be explored, 

with an emphasis on the investigation of materials, methods, and techniques that lend 

themselves to a finished drawing. Through regular class critique and group discussion, 

you will learn to recognize what your completed work means in relation to your perceived 

intentions. The course takes you on a personal journey of discovery leading to understand 

what is a “finished drawing?” Showing past examples of non-Western, Renaissance, and 

contemporary works of art, we will see how artists succeeded in the use of technique to 

express and expand the intentions of their visual inquiry. Discussion of contemporary and 

past artistic movements will help clarify your own artistic position and lead to a final finished 

piece. Attendance will be required for this course. 

Observational Figure Drawing 


TBA 

R 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A202 

Learn different fundamental approaches that, if mastered, contribute to dynamic figure 

drawings. Each class focuses on a skill to be developed (gesture, contour, structure, form) 

by observing nude models in various poses, settings, and light conditions. Short lectures 

are followed by demonstrations, after which you will incorporate the skill into your drawing 

repertoire as the instructor works with you individually. Each class becomes a building 

block for the next; which when used together propel you to new levels of skill and mastery. 

We introduce new media, problems, and experiments as the semester advances and you 

develop their own unique approaches to drawing the nude.


13 

Art Education and Human 

Development With a 

Multicultural Perspective 

EDS 0121 MU (4 Credits) 

Katharine Furst 

T 

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM 

C110 

This course is aimed toward undergraduate students who are considering art teaching as 

a career path. The course considers human development from early childhood through 

adolescence and its relevance in creating a cohesive and appropriate art curriculum. It 

also puts strong emphasis on multicultural education and its importance as a tool for the 

art educator to gain a deeper understanding and empathy towards all students. Readings, 

seminar activities and field visits to PK-12 classrooms will focus on the role of art in human 

development and learning. Special attention is paid to how art teachers engage youth in 

studying, critiquing and making visual art while considering multicultural education theory 

and the role of contemporary artists in learning. Introductions to curriculum development, 

seminar reflections and classroom discourse are cultivated to respond to student observations 

about the human development of learners in diverse settings. Open to all BFA students with 

priority registration given to BFA students who intend to apply to the MAT program. 

Art Education Foundation PK-8 


Katharine Furst 

W 

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM 

C110 

In this course students investigate how the histories of the field of PK-8 Art Education 

and the evolutions of cultural production influence philosophies, current theories and 

practices. These are explored through a sociocultural lens in four areas: 1) the postmodern 

framework on knowledge and learning, 2) voices of teachers, students and families, 3) future 

directions of the field of Art Education and 4) relationships between theory and practice. 

The dynamic interplay of these four influences on Art Education are understood through 

reading, discussing, community-working, art making, presenting, reflecting and developing 

philosophies. Sociopolitical issues of educational reform, globalization, diverse learners’ 

needs and the effects of national and state achievement standards on art programs are 

integrated throughout the course. Course requirements include weekly readings and class 

discussions, facilitating Family Arts Night in a BPS School, a research presentation, a 

personal philosophy of Art Education expressed in written and artistic forms. Open only to 

MAT Art ED students with some exceptions with permission of instructor. 

Foundations in Art Education: 

5-12 


Pamela Bower-Basso 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C110 

Students examine middle school and secondary art education by studying historical, 

psychological, social and theoretical developments. A range of educational researchers 

and their theories are explored. Students will research and present a project that focuses 

on an art education issue, either historical or contemporary. Topics will include components 

of Discipline Based Art Education, Multiple Intelligences, Visual Culture, Interdisciplinary 

Instruction and Postmodernism. Students will identify areas of research which influence the 

practice of art education. They will examine the psychological and artistic development of 

pre-adolescents and adolescents and the influence of art education. Studying and analyzing 

personal creativity and process, the course combines academic inquiry with art making 

activities. Through discussions, presentations, and art making, we will explore how theories 

and research can enhance the classroom learning experience for all art students. There 

will be a special emphasis on the development of your own personal vision of art education 

leading towards authentic instruction, activities and assessment. 

Field Studies in Art 

Education:PK-8 



R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C110 

Students participate in school and community art programs for children in preschool through 

grade eight. Fieldwork includes internships at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and focused 

observations one day a week in public school settings. Emphasis is placed on reflection 

and discussion of lesson planning and presentation, assessment strategies, classroom 

management, children’s artistic development, and student diversity. Course work includes 

individual field site visits, observation papers, readings, reflection papers, research, and 

presentations. Open only to MAT Art ED students, limited exceptions are made with permission 

of instructor.


14 

Field Studies in Art 

Education:5-12 



W 

10:30 AM - 1:30 PM 

C110 

Students participate in school and community art programs for young people in grades 

five through twelve. Fieldwork includes internships at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

and focused observations one day a week in public school settings. Emphasis is placed 

on reflection and discussion of lesson planning and presentation, assessment strategies, 

classroom management, children’s artistic development, and student diversity. Course work 

includes individual field site visits, observation papers, readings, reflection papers, research, 

and presentations. Open only to MAT Art ED students, limited exceptions are made with 

permission of instructor. 

English I: The Fictional Frame 

ENGS 0001 A (4 Credits) 

Ted Weesner 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C111 

This course will allow you the opportunity to write creatively (story, scene, script) while 

developing the critical tools to interpret both you own and others’ work. We will read, interpret 

and seek inspiration from a range of contemporary texts, including short fiction (Junot Diaz, 

Judy Budnitz, George Saunders), film (Andrew Bujalski, Werner Herzog) and music as well 

as your own stories. In examining what makes for a successful narrative and constructing 

your own, you will have the tools to create essays and stories that are animated by theoretical 

vigor, your experience, your voice. Please visit: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/visualcriticalstudies/ 

English/EnglishCourses.html 

English I: Last Things 

ENGS 0001 B (4 Credits) 

Adam Spellmire 

W 

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM 

C111 

We will read and write about literature that imagines catastrophe. Although we will discuss 

the post-apocalyptic novel, the course will consider last things in larger literary and historical 

contexts as well. How do artists represent the end of human experience? What happens at 

the end? Who remains? What cultural anxieties help to produce these texts? Why does a 

disaster genre persist? What are its central concerns? In order to investigate these questions 

we will read Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Cormac McCarthy, and others. The reading 

assignments, though, will act as prompts for your own writing, and the course will focus on 

your essays. 

English I: Reconfigurations: 

Representing History & 

Memory 

ENGS 0001 D (4 Credits) 

Cheryl Alison 

W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C111 

Reconfigurations will consider the way that the stories we tell about ourselves and our pasts 

(our histories, and indeed our memories) are the results of a making or composition (whether 

it be artistic, conscious or unconscious, strategic, or by way of happenstance), that is also 

inevitably a reconfiguration: it vies with, exists in relation to, or retells other such narratives. 

Modes of representation matter and how we represent a thing often equals its reality for us: 

the way that it becomes accessible to us or even gestures toward an inaccessibility. This 

class will consider the categories of history and memory, putting them in conversation with 

each other and teasing out how we understand these two categories. We will approach 

history and memory via story, understanding representation as inextricable from both of 

these. Please visit: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/visualcriticalstudies/English/EnglishCourses.html 

English I: Film as Literature 

ENGS 0001 E (4 Credits) 

Micah Nathan 

T 

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM 

C111 

This course will provide a “close-viewing” approach to contemporary cinema and literature, 

analyzing film, screenplays, and short fiction, as well as writing (and rewriting) original short 

stories. The purpose of this course is three-fold: 1. To analyze story structure within cinematic 

context 2. To discuss and debate where cinema and written fiction converge and diverge 3. 

To use these lessons to produce short fiction with an emphasis on the vivid and the visceral. 

Students will be asked to workshop and revise their stories, and I will provide extensive 

written comments as well. Ultimately, students will learn about structure, foreshadowing, 

character development, and thematic connections to story via both cinema and prose. We 

will cover Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Haruki Murakami, J. D. Salinger, and John Cheever 

as a basis for comparison and contrast. Also, we’ll be outlining an original screenplay as a 

group exercise, to give students the experience of crafting a story in real-time.


15 

English I: People and Things 

ENGS 0001 F (4 Credits) 

Cynthia Williams 

M 

5:30 PM - 8:30 PM 

C111 

Alain de Botton once said, “Objects can feel like plausible solutions to needs we don’t 

understand.” This writing class will respond to that provocative notion by drawing on a 

variety of forms—fiction, poetry, essays, film, and other visual arts. We’ll acknowledge the 

forthright materiality of objects but at the same time explore the porous boundaries between 

self and thing, material and immaterial, seen and unseen. Prompted by our reading and 

viewing, we’ll pursue a number of interpretive questions: Do objects have stories to tell? 

Do they have life-spans? How do things construct a people or a nation? What are the 

mechanisms whereby persons become things, or objects come alive? Reading and viewing 

assignments will be quite manageable in length so that students can focus on developing 

written responses to how the things we touch also touch us. Please visit: http://www.ase. 

tufts.edu/visualcriticalstudies/English/EnglishCourses.html 

English II: (Dis)Figuring 

Narrative 

ENGS 0002 A (4 Credits) 

Kimberly Hebert 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C111 

Thus, in our day two main tendencies appear: the one maintains the figuration, the other 

eliminates it. It is evident that the latter […] can more easily and thoroughly free itself from 

the domination of the subjective than can the figurative tendency; particular forms and 

colors […] are more easily exploited than neutral forms. 

—Mondrian, Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art 

I am moved by fancies that are curled Around these images, and cling: The notion of some 

infinitely gentle Infinitely suffering thing. 

—T. S. Eliot, Preludes, IV 

John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of 

superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put 

down in figures. 

---Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 

How have (de)racinated, (un)sexed bodies come to figure in the narratives we inherit, and, 

how do these inherited narratives come to determine the cultural production of who becomes 

captive, who remains free? In this course, we will examine (dis)embodied figuration and its 

traumatic hysterical (& historical) excess. In addition to the requisite analyses & discussion 

of varied texts—particularly film, music, literature, the built environment, and visual art— this 

course will focus on helping you to acquire the cross-disciplinary critical thinking skills you will 

need for writing analytical essays. Class discussions on notions of the Gothic, the monstrous, 

kinship, family, desire, pleasure/pain, marriage, eugenics, reproduction, obscenity/profanity 

& (im)purity will provide us with raw material for exploring the writing process itself—the 

brainstorming, free-writing, research, note-taking & organizational strategies necessary to 

craft well-written, thesis-centered college essays. 

English II: Are We Modern Yet? 

ENGS 0002 B (4 Credits) 

Cynthia Williams 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C111 

This writing class will explore what being “modern” means by immersing ourselves in three 

moments of time: 1812, 1912, and 2012. We will trace themes and anxieties that abide 

across that chronology, not to make the past another version of the present, but to illuminate 

vitally important aspects of life in the twenty-first century. For example, we will examine 

our culture’s evolving relationship to the natural world and to food. We will ask: what has 

the experience of war been, on the battlefield and on the homefront? We will investigate 

how new the idea of globalization really is. Turning toward science, we will consider the 

boundaries of the human and how they have been understood. Finally, we will explore how 

these enduring questions have been given expression by verbal and visual artists in all 

three moments. What is the “modern” concept of the artist and the avant-garde? Pursuing 

such investigations through fiction, poetry, essays, film, and other visual media will stimulate 

shared discussion and, more important, provide fuel for your own work as writers.


16 

English II: Moc and 

Documentary 

ENGS 0002 C (4 Credits) 

David Greenwood 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C111 

In this course, we will look at films using the documentary toolkit and examining the nature 

of “reality” in art. We will view documentaries such as Capturing the Friedmans, Fog of War, 

and Control Room, along with documentary-style features like In this World, and even films 

that use documentary techniques in non-naturalistic ways, like Elephant. These films will be 

launchpads for frequent writing of your own as you practice analysis of style, content, and 

perspective, learning to detect just how any of these components yields “truth.” Please visit: 

http://www.ase.tufts.edu/visualcriticalstudies/English/EnglishCourses.html 

Architectural Installation & 

Design 

FAB 2001 01 (4 Credits) 

Barbara Dowling 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A208 

This course is designed for students interested in exploring Boston’s building landscape 

and public parks. It is neither a glass class nor a technical architecture class. Students will 

work throughout the semester to develop a site specific “dreamscape”. We will examine 

the creative process of Frank Gehry, Antonio Gaudi and Frank Loyd Wright. Students will 

be expected to develop a conceptual world in what ever medium of their choice sculptuure, 

painting, glass etc. This will become your class final project. 

Material a Week 

FAB 2005 01 (4 Credits) 

Barbara Dowling 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A208 

Approach sculpture-making through nontraditional materials. Use the particular properties 

of each material as a departure point and discover that materials themselves can suggest 

ways to transform into sculpture. Materials are not mute: they can speak if we only listen. 

We will provide a different material every week to explore for its sculptural possibilities. 

We guarantee that you will learn if you bring a commitment and willingness to experiment. 

Prerequisite: some sculpture experience or Down, Dirty, and Dimensional, or just a willingness 

to be open minded. 

A View of Ancient Middle and 

South American Art 

FAHS 0002 01 (4 Credits) 

Eulogio Guzman 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B311 

This class is a general survey on American cultures prior to European contact. It introduces 

selected topics in the field of Pre-Columbian studies such as myth, religion, cosmogony, 

archaeoastronomy, kingship and sacrifice as manifested in the arts of Middle and South 

American peoples. The course examines the ways art referred the worldview and the 

social history of indigenous cultures. The formal, technical, and iconographic merits of 

indigenous artworks will thus be analyzed to support the historical, socio-economic and 

political interpretations put forth by scholars of the discipline. Lectures will present the theories 

and methodological approaches scholars use to understand Amerindian visual imagery; 

students will be expected to evaluate critically the merits of such methods. Students are 

to consider every work presented in this course as part of a larger puzzle that can help us 

better comprehend the Pre-Columbian past. Additionally, students are urged to keep in mind 

what agendas play a role in pursuing our interest in studying this past. 

Histories of Film/One: 1895- 

1955 

FAHS 0007 A (4 Credits) 

Tina Wasserman 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B311 

The two Histories of Film courses are sequential, one-semester courses that may be taken 

separately, but are created as a year-long inquiry into the history of the art of cinema. 

Constructed as a foundations course, we will examine the historical development of cinema 

from its inception in the late nineteenth century through the present. Presented through a 

broad historical, aesthetic, and critical framework, this course will introduce the student to 

the study of cinematic representation by focusing on the first half-century of its development 

in the fall and the second half-century of its development in the spring. By investigating the 

aesthetic, formal, and stylistic devices of film as well as its narrative codes and structures 

we will consider the evolution of its rich and complex language. Our study will focus on such 

noteworthy film movements as the early international avant-garde, German Expressionism, 

Soviet filmmaking of the 1920s, the classical studio Hollywood film (including genre and 

authorship studies), postwar cinemas in Japan and Italy, international New Wave cinemas 

of the 1960s, post-classical American cinema, World cinema, contemporary independent 

film practices, and more.


17 

American Art and Visual 

Culture 1800-2000 


Emily Gephart 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B311 

This course presents a survey of the major movements in the art of the United States in the 

19th and 20th centuries, a time in which American artists struggled to define themselves 

and their relationship to an emerging sense of national identity. We will look in depth at 

formative themes in the evolution of American art, culture, society and politics, and pay 

particular attention to the productive critical interaction between American visual culture and 

the fine arts. Throughout the class, we will consider the ways in which issues important in 

the development of American art remain significant to artists today. Students will polish their 

critical skills through reading analyses, presentations and written assignments that interpret 

the ways in which American art has been presented and promoted to the world. 

Sculpture In-Site: Land Art, 

Installation Art, and Public Art 


Silvia Bottinelli 

M 

12:30 PM - 3:30 PM 

B311 

This class focuses on site-specificity in contemporary sculpture and installation since 1960, 

offering insight into the relationship between the work of art and the environment in which it 

is installed. The course will discuss and examine the peculiarities of site-specific sculpture in 

different geographical contexts. In particular, the course will cover Land Art, Environmental 

Art, Installation Art, Public Art, Art and Activism, and examples of community-based sculpture 

projects. When appropriate, the course will also address precursors to the contemporary 

sculpture discussed, and related topics. The course format includes lectures, student 

presentations and discussions. Students will choose to work individually or collaboratively on 

a final research paper or curatorial project, which they will present to their peers at the end 

of the semester. Some integrated activities and collaborative efforts with students enrolled 

in SCP 2003 In/Site is expected. 

A History of Photography 

Through Ideas 


James Dow 

RF 

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM 

B311 

“Photography as such has no identity. Its status as a technology… depends on the institution 

and agents (that) define it and set it to work… There is no such thing as photography...” – John 

Tagg, historian and critic. A yearlong survey that will examine all aspects of photographic 

usage through a range of different ideas and subjects; examples include the effects of technical 

developments, representation of the family, advertising, visual recordkeeping, conflict and 

so forth. Each presentation will range from the pre-photographic period of the 18th century 

through the contemporary. Students will attend lectures, participate in class discussions, 

write expository and research papers and do projects related to the course content. There 

are no prerequisites for the class and there are no unexcused absences. 

Art of Ancient Mexico 

FAHS 0100 A (4 Credits) 

Eulogio Guzman 

W 

12:30 PM - 3:30 PM 

B311 

With a cultural history that spans over three and a half millennia, Mexico’s indigenous 

heritage is rich and varied. This historical continuum is a result of an enduring occupation 

of several brilliant civilizations that populated Mexico’s diverse regions including, the arid 

northern deserts, the agriculturally rich and temperate climates of Central Mexico, and the 

lush jungles of the south and tropical eastern coast. This upper division course focuses only 

on the indigenous art and architecture of Mexico and examines how visual culture manifests 

many principles such as the cult of the dead; mythical creation and religion; sacrifice; hard 

and soft power strategies; and ritual performance among West Mexican, Olmec, Teotihuacan, 

Zapotec, Huaxtec, Toltec, Mixtec, and Aztec cultures from a range of methods and theoretical 

approaches across disciplines. Prerequisites: At least a prior introductory course in the art/ 

culture of the Americas. 

Film Noir 


Tina Wasserman 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B311 

This course will introduce the student to a group of historic American films produced 

between 1941 and 1958 that are often identified as “film noir.” We will contextualize 

these films through broad historical, aesthetic and critical frameworks and analyze a 

range of common underlying themes and preoccupations including: the creation of a 

dark and brooding pessimism; the representation of the noir woman as a “femme fatale;” 

modernity, urbanism and the noir landscape; paranoia and anxiety in the atomic age, the 

existential impulse of noir, and more. We will also venture into newer incarnations of film 

noir and examine how this historic group of films has influenced a broad range of neo-noir 

practices. The work of such directors as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Otto 

Preminger, Jacques Tourneur, Orson Welles, Robert Aldrich, Ridley Scott, Carl Franklin 

and more will be considered.


18 

Stop Motion Animation 

FLM 1012 01 (2 Credits) 

Joseph Kolbe 

F 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B113 

This course will focus on puppet and object animation, including both old- and new-world 

styles. Through film screenings and course exercises combined with in-class workshops, 

you will learn to design and build puppets for purpose and function as well as to animate 

them. We also will examine how to build sets and light them to scale, and explore the 

techniques of character directing. A required final project will be the focus of the last weeks 

of the semester. The instructor provides some supplies. A materials list will be given out and 

discussed during the first day of class. Animation skills are recommended but not required. 

Introduction to Filmmaking 


Gregory Mahoney 

M 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

B113 

Designed for individuals with little or no previous experience, this course provides an 

introduction to the technical and aesthetic aspects of film production. The course covers 

basic shooting and editing techniques using primarily Super-8mm equipment and introduces 

a wide range of production methods and creative strategies that encourage exploration 

and risk-taking in all aspects of the medium. Through a strong workshop component with a 

hands-on instructional approach, this course creates a stimulating, inspiring and challenging 

environment that fosters the exchange of ideas, offers new ways of seeing and promotes 

experimentation. Please note: There is an additional $25 lab fee associated with this course, 

collected at the first class meeting. Materials for assignments, including Super-8mm film and 

supplies and film-processing lab expenses are not included in the tuition. 

Film 1: Visions and 

Construction 


Jane Gillooly 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B015 

We introduce students to the practical and philosophical aspects of making media using 

Super-8 film. The class views and analyzes important historical and contemporary films, 

discusses and critiques students’ work, and completes assigned readings from history and 

theory of cinema. Students develop skills in four assignments and produce an individual 

semester project. We demonstrate relevant technical processes in film, including the camera, 

composition, strategies for choreographing action, structuring time, lighting, and editing. 

Through a hands-on workshop approach, the course introduces students to the moving 

image as a language system, cultural object (reflecting both aesthetics and ideology), and 

tool for self-expression. 

Animation 1: Techniques & 

Sound 


Joel Frenzer 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B113 

Through in-class exercises, demos, screenings, and visiting artists, you will learn various 

techniques of animating, and how to record and mix a soundtrack for animation. The three 

techniques we cover are Drawn, Cut-Out, and Stop-Motion Animation. This class is also 

designed to give you a deeper understanding of Animation as an art form of personal 

expression, and the various ways Animation is both viewed and used throughout the world; 

traditional narratives to poetic/abstract non-narratives to interaction to installation. Most 

assignments will be worked on in class using both film and computer-video equipment. No 

previous experience required, just an open mind. 

Animation 2: The Completed 

Short 


Joel Frenzer 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B113 

Animation 2 offers a more in-depth study into animation techniques, principles of animation, 

ways of generating ideas, and directing for animation. These skills are strengthened 

through in-class exercises, screenings, visiting artists, and discussions. In addition, each 

student will design, animate, and provide a soundtrack for their own independent project. 

Most of this work will be done outside of class, with a weekly one-on-one meeting with the 

instructor and teaching assistant. Students in this class are also eligible to attend the Ottawa 

International Animation Festival in the Fall Semester, and a field trip to a local studio in the 

Spring Semester. Prerequisite: Animation 1 FLM 1070.


19 

Film 2: Sound and Image 


TBA 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B015 

This course goes deeper into the development of skills in Super-8 by introducing l6mm and 

focusing on sound and sound/image relations. We demonstrate relevant technical processes 

such as the Bolex, Steenbeck, and l6mm cutting, sound recording, microphones, four-track 

mixing, and Pro Tools digital software. Screenings and analysis of important historical and 

contemporary films are part of the class, along with reading assignments, discussion of issues 

of aesthetic and critical interest, visiting artists, and field trips. Students are encouraged to 

develop skills in three assignments as well as complete an individual project. Prerequisite: 

Film I (FLM 1024) or its equivalent. 

Film 3: Cinematic Strategies 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B015 

Through a collaborative group project determined by the students we will examine cinematic 

strategies in Fiction or Non-fiction Narrative with an eye to alternative structures in this 

intermediate/advanced production course. The goal is to produce a finished film by the end 

of the semester. The class is structured in three phases; Pre Production, Production, and 

Postproduction to resemble a film construction process as much as possible. Students will 

be encouraged to discuss important experimental fiction and non -fiction work to focus our 

analysis and inspire our practice. Students will develop professional skills by taking on both 

production and postproduction roles and collaborating as a group. This class always meets on 

the scheduled day for production meetings, script development, technical rehearsals, shoot 

preparation, etc. Shooting on location, usually on weekends, is an important component of the 

course. Students will need to make themselves available for all production days. The technical 

processes demonstrated will pertain to the film project chosen. These may include; the Bolex, 

the synchronous Arriflex SR camera, The Panasonic 24P digital camera or 24P HD camera, 

Marantz Audio Disc recording, advanced microphones and the quarter-inch reel-to-reel sync 

Nagra, as well as digital sound and picture editing (Avid or Final Cut). Students move to a 

more advanced level of image/sound making, emphasizing personal expression with in the 

context of a collaborative project while building relationships and teamwork. Emphasis will 

be on the narrative genre, fiction or documentary. Other important components of the course 

are assignments in pre-production such as research, location scouting and prop creation. 

Post-production expectations are, involvement in class discussions, editing, sound design, 

sound mixing, test screenings and critiques. Limited to fifteen students. Prerequisites: Film 

2, Video 2 or Sound 2. 

Critical Screening: Cinema and 

The Senses 


TBA 

T 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B113 

This Critical Screenings course will focus on physiological and phenomenological modes 

of perception and how they relate to the cinematic experience. We will look at a variety 

of narrative, documentary and experimental films that probe and activate the senses, and 

together with related readings, will discuss the techniques and methods with which these 

works transmit knowledge, meaning, and emotion through the corporeal and intellectual 

experiences of the viewer. Cinema works certainly privilege the the visual & aural senses 

above others and so much attention will be placed upon the eyes and the ears. But we 

will also attempt to embrace and understand how the other senses might be rendered and 

embodied in the viewer in their absence using only optic and sonic receptors. Grads will be 

required to write 5-8 page paper in order to get grad credit. All will need to be present, on time 

and contribute to the discussion while making regular presentations of readings to the class. 

Animation 3: Advanced 

Projects 


Julie Miller 

R 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B113 

Animation 3 continues the study of animation as an art form of personal expression, and 

highlights the skills and new techniques you will need as an animator out in the world, 

independently and commercially. Through short in-class workshops, demos, screenings, and 

visiting artists, we will cover creative ways of generating ideas, maintaining momentum with 

your animated projects, new computer applications and techniques, and ways of marketing 

yourself through film festivals, websites, and portfolios. In addition, each student will design, 

animate, and provide a soundtrack for their own independent project. Most of this work will 

be done outside of class, with a weekly one-on-one meeting with the instructor and teaching 

assistant. Students in this class are also eligible to attend the Ottawa International Animation 

Festival in the Fall Semester, and a field trip to a local studio in the Spring Semester. 

Prerequisite: Animation 2 FLM 2006.


20 

Editing and Post Production 

Strategies 


Jane Gillooly 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B031, B015 

This course focuses on editing: theory, philosophy, practice and strategy. You will learn to 

set up and structure an editing project. To organize film and video material - create reel and 

tape inventories, footage logs, work with transcripts and make paper edits. To make montage 

sequences, assembly, rough and fine cuts. Learn the specifics of sound and dialogue editing, 

preparing sound for export, and creating cue sheets for sound design or music cues. We 

will cover montage theory and the basics of non-linear/digital editing (Avid or Final Cut). You 

will be encouraged to think creatively, experiment, and to apply ideas in a comprehensive 

but unique approach. Through the process of this course you will understand the Post- 

Production sequence, design an edit path for your particular project, and learn postproduction 

vocabulary. Through screenings, visiting editors, and field trips to post production facilities 

students are exposed to a wide range of editing styles and approaches. Students will be 

expected to screen and discuss their films often in class and with guest editors, to complete 

edit assignments and be prepared to edit their own work. Students should bring film or video 

work in process or finished work the first day of class. Open to all makers of moving pictures. 

Prerequisite: Film 1, Video 1, or Animation 1 or equivalent. 

Directing and Acting 


Gregory Mahoney 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B015 

In this course we will explore the relationship between “Director” and “Actor” through a 

series of exercises, rehearsals, castings, shoots, and screenings. All students enrolled in 

the course will direct and act at various stages through the course to gain confidence and 

deeper insight into this complex relationship As a class, we’ll explore a range of directing/ 

acting methods within the context of the moving image (with and without cameras) that will 

touch upon on choreography, gesture, authenticity and artifice. 

Film 1: Vision and 

Construction 


Jane Gillooly 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B015 

We introduce students to the practical and philosophical aspects of making media using 

Super-8 film. The class views and analyzes important historical and contemporary films, 

discusses and critiques students’ work, and completes assigned readings from history and 

theory of cinema. Students develop skills in four assignments and produce an individual 

semester project. We demonstrate relevant technical processes in film, including the camera, 

composition, strategies for choreographing action, structuring time, lighting, and editing. 

Through a hands-on workshop approach, the course introduces students to the moving 

image as a language system, cultural object (reflecting both aesthetics and ideology), and 

tool for self-expression. 

Animation 1: Techniques and 

Sound 


Joel Frenzer 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B113 

Through in-class exercises, demos, screenings, and visiting artists, you will learn various 

techniques of animating, and how to record and mix a soundtrack for animation. The three 

techniques we cover are Drawn, Cut-Out, and Stop-Motion Animation. This class is also 

designed to give you a deeper understanding of Animation as an art form of personal 

expression, and the various ways Animation is both viewed and used throughout the world; 

traditional narratives to poetic/abstract non-narratives to interaction to installation. Most 

assignments will be worked on in class using both film and computer-video equipment. No 

previous experience required, just an open mind.


21 

First Year Program 

FYP 1000 01 (2 Credits) 

Hilary Binda 

F 

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

ALFOND 

Is your artwork energized by self-expression, political ideology, aesthetic pleasure, spiritual 

inspiration, or something entirely different? In one sense, this hardly matters so long as you 

are making art! In another sense, however, art is an intellectual discourse, one with a long 

and rich history, some knowledge of which is valuable for artists today – both those working 

within and those working outside of “the art world.” In this 4 credit course, we will revisit some 

of the ways previous thinkers have theorized the relationship between the image and reality 

while we simultaneously think and talk about our own artwork and art practices. Beginning 

with Plato’s theory of images as “ideal forms,” a theory that informed medieval ideas about 

the divine meaning of images, we will turn next to the new ideas about images that fueled 

the destruction of so much art during the Renaissance. How did the iconoclasts come to view 

images as dangerous portals of the devil? Building on this historical perspective, we will 

study the gradual reimagining of the image and its relationship to “reality” as shaped by the 

Romantic poets and then by the emergence of modernism, as seen in the work of Gertrude 

Stein, Pablo Picasso, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Walter Benjamin. This historical approach 

will provide the ground for our on-going exploration of “postmodern” ideas about images and 

reality that will begin early in the term with Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” and 

continue throughout the semester by incorporating short stories and poetry that resonate 

with the philosophical texts. Drawing on work by contemporary philosophers of the image 

such as W.E.B. Dubois, Jean Baudrillard, W.J.T. Mitchell, Judith Butler, and José Muñoz, 

among others, this course will encourage students to bring the histories of the image to 

bear on ideas about race, sexuality, and nationality, ideas that shape and are shaped by our 

own creative endeavors. With rigorous reading assignments, required weekly attendance 

at lectures and section meetings, the expectation of regular participation in discussions, and 

the timely completion of weekly writing projects, this course is designed to help students 

consider not only how art and meaning have been understood by others but also how these 

histories shape our own definitions of our roles as artists and thinkers in an increasingly 

global and increasingly local society. Co-Requisite: FYP 1010 (any section) 

First Year Program Discussion 

Group 


Hilary Binda 

F 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 

G39 

Is your artwork energized by self-expression, political ideology, aesthetic pleasure, spiritual 

inspiration, or something entirely different? In one sense, this hardly matters so long as 

you are making art! In another sense, however, art is an intellectual discourse, one with 

a long and rich history, some knowledge of which is valuable for artists today - both those 

working within and those working outside of “the art world.” In this 2 credit course, we will 

revisit some of the ways previous thinkers have theorized the relationship between the 

image and reality while we simultaneously think and talk about our own artwork and art 

practices. Beginning with Plato’s theory of images as “ideal forms,” a theory that informed 

medieval ideas about the divine meaning of images, we will turn next to the new ideas 

about images that fueled the destruction of so much art during the Renaissance. How did 

the iconoclasts come to view images as dangerous portals of the devil? Building on this 

historical perspective, we will study the gradual reimagining of the image and its relationship 

to “reality” as shaped by the Romantic poets and then by the emergence of modernism, 

as seen in the work of Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Walter 

Benjamin. This historical approach will provide the ground for our on-going exploration of 

“postmodern” ideas about images and reality that will begin early in the term with Raymond 

Carver’s short story “Cathedral” and continue throughout the semester by incorporating 

short stories and poetry that resonate with the philosophical texts. Drawing on work by 

contemporary philosophers of the image such as W.E.B. Dubois, Jean Baudrillard, W.J.T. 

Mitchell, Judith Butler, and José Muñoz, among others, this course will encourage students 

to bring the histories of the image to bear on ideas about race, sexuality, and nationality, 

ideas that shape and are shaped by our own creative endeavors. With rigorous reading 

assignments, required weekly attendance at lectures and section meetings, the expectation 

of regular participation in discussions, and the timely completion of weekly writing projects, 

this course is designed to help students consider not only how art and meaning have been 

understood by others but also how these histories shape our own definitions of our roles as 

artists and thinkers in an increasingly global and increasingly local society.


22 


Group 


TBA 

F 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 

A207 

This course has a co-requisite: FYP 10000-01 First Year Program Lecture. 

The discussion groups are one hour discussions that immediately follow the Friday lecture 

series where students will engage in thoughtful discussion for groups of 14 students, led by 

an SMFA Post Graduate Teaching Fellow. 


Group 


TBA 

F 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 

A210 






Group 


TBA 

F 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 

B305 






Group 


TBA 

F 

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 

A206 






Group 


TBA 

F 

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

A207 






Group 


TBA 

F 

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

A210 




an SMFA Post Graduate Teaching Fellow.


23 


Group 


TBA 

F 

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

B305 






Group 


TBA 

F 

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

B307 






Group 


TBA 

F 

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 

A208 




an SMFA Post Graduate Teaching Fellow.\ 

Pictograph and Symbol 

Drawing 

GRA 1005 01 (2 Credits) 

Joseph Landry 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A206 

Pictographic symbols of animals and other natural subjects are as old as art history. In our 

time, the task of creating such symbols often falls to graphic designers. The ability to create 

pictographs and abstract symbols is one of the fundamental skills of the graphic designer, 

a skill that is not always covered in a specialized way by traditional drawing classes. This 

new course functions as a drawing course in expressive abstraction with weekly drawing 

assignments during class. Many of the finest pictograph and symbol drawings-as diverse 

as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Inuit prints-were designed before the European convention 

of perceptual realism, or by artists not exposed to this tradition. The MFA is, of course, a 

treasure house of such art. Along with class work, this new course utilizes this extraordinary 

resource with additional weekly (nonclass time) Museum study and drawing assignments. 

These include drawing from such abstracted pictorial subjects as Japanese sword guard 

decoration and ancient Iranian seals. Students work in the class with traditional tools to 

create final pieces and/or work to be scanned for further development in Adobe Illustrator. 

Type as Image 



M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A207, B211B 

This class is designed for artists from various disciplines who use text in their work. It questions 

the use of type in art making and challenges students to look at typography as mark making. 

Slide lectures and project assignments will encourage students to work with self-generated 

expressive text. Students will work on several main ideas during the semester. Projects 

assignments will provide a structure for each student’s interest toward typography and text 

based artwork and will focus on visual aspects of typography. We will study the vernacular 

type and the historical development of typographic styles. Students will develop a series 

of compositions using expressive typography. We will explore the relationship between 

type to architecture, type to the body, and type to sound. The computer will be our primary 

tool but not the only one. You are encouraged to bring in skills in calligraphy, photography, 

and drawing. During the course of this class we will use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and 

Fontographer as the main software applications. A basic course for all designers and all 

graphic artists using text.


24 

Illustration 


Joseph Landry 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A206 

This intensive course in pictorial communication emphasizes idea and visual metaphor 

development, and the development of personal style through weekly homework assignments 

and in-class critiques. Slide lectures on idea generation, design and color theory, and the 

work of illustrators as well as painters and sculptors of interest to illustrators, are a regular 

part of the course. Class projects include theoretical assignments and the illustration of 

editorials, short stories, book jackets, posters, and a children’s book. Students may also 

bring their personal projects to the course. 

Remade, Recycled, 

Reconfigured 


Jesseca Ferguson 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A206 

This mixed media studio class will explore collage in its many potential configurations: as visual 

poetry, as conjunction/disjunction, as narrative, as social commentary, as recycling - a perfect 

vehicle for combining text, image, and object. Whether generated digitally in PhotoShop, in 

a traditional studio space with glue, brushes, and paper, or some combination of the two, 

collage has endless applications and enduring fascination for today’s artists. Workshops and 

assigned problems will expand collage options working with hands-on techniques, digital 

imaging, and the myriad potential interfaces between the two. Generating and maintaining 

an active dialogue between the hand-made and the digital image/object will be key to this 

course. Slide lectures, books and catalogues, videos, plus a relevant field trip or visiting 

artist, will expose students to art historical antecedents as well as to exciting examples of 

contemporary collage - both digital and hand-made. 

Print Matters 


Brian Reeves 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B211A, A207 

What do we think of when we think of publication – newspapers, books, posters, tumblr, 

text messages? Print Matters argues that these prior forms serve as only some possible 

tools, and not the end result, within the mechanism that is publication. Considering the 

conceptual, social, and mechanical aspects of publication, this course focuses on publication 

as, inherently, a means of public-making through discourse: a verb rather than a noun. 

Publication is a social act, inherently political, anarchic and nonhierarchical in form and 

function, highly volatile in nature, able to break off and create new formulations of itself at 

will. Looking into activist, communal, and quotidian histories, as well as the current mode of 

art making known as Social Practice, Print Matters utilizes the mechanism and concept of 

publication as a vehicle to discuss how and why we converge, and the uses of and tools for 

the formation of those convergences. In this course we will access production levels that 

we see every day and ask the class to collaboratively imagine and produce new models 

for their use out in the world. The class may focus on hand-drawn signs, photocopies, post 

cards, screen printing, off-set/newspaper printing, and any number of means of production 

that seem common place. We will work through these processes in traditional as well as 

contemporary fashion; the class will utilize aspects of Photoshop and InDesign, as well as 

web publishing tools of varying sorts (Dreamweaver, CSS coding, Word Press, etc…), to 

create work to disseminate publicly. 

Artists’ Books: An Introduction 


Anne Pelikan 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A206 

An introduction to the world of artists’ books both one of a kind and multiples; this course is 

for artists of any discipline who want to explore the book format. The class is hands on and 

students will learn many book structures including pamphlets, concertinas, multisignature, 

wire hinge, coptic, portfolios and boxes. We will also cover a variety of image and textmaking 

techniques. During open studio time students develop ideas and complete a book 

every other week, which may include edible books, recycled books, books made of natural 

materials visual books or books that tell stories. Field trips are planned to visit artist book 

collections. Each student will design and complete ‘an edition’ and the semester will end 

with a book exchange.


25 

Table of Contents 


Laura Blacklow 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A206 

Emphasizing history, theory, and meaning rather than the craft of artists’ books, this class 

is partly hands-on and mostly critiques. We produce collaborative and individual books on 

specific themes determined by the instructor and the class members, learn about sequencing 

(how pages influence each other and impact on a viewer/reader’s comprehension of the 

book work), pacing, and word-image relationships. We go over simple bookbinding methods, 

including a session on paper mechanics (pop-up structures), but the emphasis will be on 

how the format enhances the concept. Readings, field trips, books from the instructor’s 

extensive collection, slides, and visiting artists augment the class. 

Books, Zines, Posters and the 

Uses of Social Narratives 


TBA 

W 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A207 

This course will explore an expanded view of what we mean when we talk about publications. 

We will delve into history and the relationship between, and the role of, taverns, pamphleteering, 

and letter writing in pre-revolutionary America; the Liberation News Service (aka: the 

“Underground Associated Press”) and the papers it served; radical publications from the late 

19th and 20th century such as the news outlet of the Black Panther Party, the numerous 

and disparate zines which developed out of Olympia, Washington, Washington, D.C., and 

beyond, through the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s; as well as countless websites 

and blogs, such as aaaaarg.org, and its seeming opposite, Urban Honking. Readings, 

films, visits from makers of all sorts, and other class assignments will serve as a generator 

for lively class discussion on the history of social groupings in publication, how publication 

played a role in their formation and evolution, and what publication means today in the age 

of information abundance. 

Net Art 


Brian Reeves 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B211A 

Here you will learn how to make things work that shouldn’t, to make art using tools that 

weren’t designed for it, and to figure out technical issues on your own with “a spirit of playful 

cleverness.” We will use the internet as a tool for art - as a medium, a forum, a means, and 

a culture. Each student in this class uses their own web host and open-source tools like 

WordPress to create new media projects both on and offline, digital and analog, that strive 

to exist in broader culture. 

Art Commercial: Self-Serving 

Design for an Expanded 

Marketplace 


Brian Reeves 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B211A, B026 

This course will explore strategies of making work in response to and parallel with pop-culture 

and the everyday vernacular, through the use of commercial tactics including branding, writing 

ad copy and ad layout, utilizing a range of established systems. Technical demonstrations 

will focus on applying tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and inDesign to those problems, 

including tapping into industry resources such as cutting-die creation and printing services. 

We will produce logos, packaged goods, merchandising, press releases and ads to which 

students are asked to target a specific audience.. The course will also address public relations, 

publicity stunts and camouflage and will look at the work of individuals and collectives 

demonstrating compelling approaches to solving these problems, including the Yes Men, 

Thomas Kinkade and others. Some familiarity with above software applications is required. 

Graphic Design Studio 


Joseph Landry 

W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B211B 

This course, for students intending to enter the professional graphic design field, presents 

the subject as the art of designing for clients. The course operates as a small professional, 

free-lance design studio, with realistic graphic design assignments, and actual design projects, 

when available. Students will build their portfolios by following professional design procedure 

and business practice, learning how sound professional practice facilitates successful design. 

The course will include field trips to design studios. Portfolio presentation, and prospecting 

for free-lance work and studio employment will be discussed. Prerequisites: A beginning 

graphic design, or Mac-based TIA course, and comfortable Mac operating skills.


26 

Publish 



T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A207, B211B 

In the tradition of many activist artists we will infiltrate the publishing industry with ads, 

postcards and books. This class begins by introducing students to the basics of layout design. 

We focus on developing a personal voice using the medium. Various short assignments 

will help students learn technical and conceptual skills in combining image/text on a page, 

sequencing pages, effectively using typography and learning to design for the offset press. 

We will discuss various strategies on how to use found text, personal text, rewriting old text, 

editing, photographing and illustrating. A major project in this course is the complete design 

of an artists’ book which we will produce using a print on demand service. Photographers, 

painters, printmakers and drawers who are interested in adding text to their work are welcomed 

to join. Students are encouraged to concurrently enroll in Print Matters. 

Publish 



T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A207, B211B 

In the tradition of many activist artists we will infiltrate the publishing industry with ads, 

postcards and books. This class begins by introducing students to the basics of layout design. 

We focus on developing a personal voice using the medium. Various short assignments 

will help students learn technical and conceptual skills in combining image/text on a page, 

sequencing pages, effectively using typography and learning to design for the offset press. 

We will discuss various strategies on how to use found text, personal text, rewriting old text, 

editing, photographing and illustrating. A major project in this course is the complete design 

of an artists’ book which we will produce using a print on demand service. Photographers, 

painters, printmakers and drawers who are interested in adding text to their work are welcomed 

to join. Students are encouraged to concurrently enroll in Print Matters. 

Net Art 


Brian Reeves 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B211A 

Here you will learn how to make things work that shouldn’t, to make art using tools that 

weren’t designed for it, and to figure out technical issues on your own with “a spirit of playful 

cleverness.” We will use the internet as a tool for art - as a medium, a forum, a means, and 

a culture. Each student in this class uses their own web host and open-source tools like 

WordPress to create new media projects both on and offline, digital and analog, that strive 

to exist in broader culture. 

Grad CAP Seminar 

MFA 6100 01 (2 Credits) 

Marilyn Arsem 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C202 

Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) is a mandatory graduate seminar open only to first year 

Master of Fine Arts students. It is held in the fall semester and is taught by members of the 

graduate faculty. Topics will be announced. 



Jeannie Simms 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C112 



graduate faculty. Topics will be announced. 



Joseph Wolin 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C113 



graduate faculty. Topics will be announced.


27 

Grad Group Critique 


Patte Loper 

T 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C111 

This course is designed to build and develop the verbal and written articulation critique skills 

among the first and second year graduate students in a group setting facilitated by a faculty 

member. Critique is an essential skill for students to develop. Graduate Group Critique is a 

forum in which the capability of each student to identify and articulate the concerns, issues 

and motivations that form the basis of their research and practice expands. Through focusing 

on the ability to articulate the concerns investigated and addressed through each individual 

student’s art work, in whichever form that may take, this course assists students in both 

preparing for their review boards and preparing for the defense of their thesis. All first and 

second year Master of Fine Arts students are required to take this course each semester. 



Anthony Graves 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C112 












Bonnie Donohue 

W 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C202 












Kanishka Raja 

M 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C113 












Chris Nau 

M 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C112 









second year Master of Fine Arts students are required to take this course each semester.


28 



TBA 

T 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C112 










Individual Grad Critiques One 

to One 


Joseph Wolin 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C112 

This course invites second-year grad students to meet individually with faculty over the 

length of the semester. The one-on-one meetings will assist students in the development 

of their personal projects through a series of rigorous conversations scheduled according to 

the scope of the student’s needs. Students will take this course for credit as an alternative 

to the grad group critique. 

Individual Grad Critiques One 

to One 


Andrea Champlin 

R 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

C113 

This course invites second-year grad students to meet individually with faculty over the 

length of the semester. The one-on-one meetings will assist students in the development 

of their personal projects through a series of rigorous conversations scheduled according to 

the scope of the student’s needs. Students will take this course for credit as an alternative 

to the grad group critique. 

All About Metals 

MTL 1008 01 (2 Credits) 

Kendall Reiss 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A111 

All About Metals is an introductory course that will allow you to become familiar with a variety 

of basic metalworking methods and that is ideal for the student who is interested in learning 

how to create small sculptural objects or personal ornaments from non-ferrous metal. Brass, 

bronze, copper and silver are materials that have great expressive potential due to their 

aesthetic properties, malleability and durability. Those essential characteristics of non-ferrous 

metals are studied through a range of technical demonstrations, hands-on exercises and 

individual projects. After becoming familiar with the tools and equipment in the studio, you 

will learn all the skills that will allow you to cut, file, form, solder and fabricate metal objects. 

Demonstrations will include an introduction to cold connections, simple gravity casting and 

stone setting. Surface treatments such as hammer-worked textures and coloration will be 

introduced. You will view samples, discuss topics related to the field and work towards 

developing your own artistic projects. Regular attendance mandatory. 

Around the Ring 


Linda Priest 

T 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A111 

Rings are one of the most popular and meaningful forms of jewelry; highly visible, they can 

be symbols of commitment and belonging, indicators of power and status, expression of 

personal taste. These are just some of the reasons rings have been worn by many cultures 

across all periods. In this class we will research the history and explore contemporary 

adaptations of the ring, while learning basic skills that allow you to make rings. Students 

will conduct independent investigation, research and model making to explore function and 

scale of the ring and its relationship to the body. Through presentations, discussions and 

hands-on demonstrations students will acquire a solid set of tools to develop both concept as 

well as becoming competent with basic jewelry and metal working skills, including piercing, 

forming, soldering, polishing, casting, mold making and stone setting. Working in a variety of 

materials, precious and non-precious you will create a collection of rings utilizing techniques, 

ranging from traditional to alternative. “If you like it, you should put a ring on it” Beyonce


29 

Plastered, Melted, Burned 


Kendall Reiss 

R 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

A111 

Interested in sculpting wax and learning how to melt metal and cast? Investigate the creative 

potential of wax prototyping and metal casting. This course offers an in-depth exploration of 

the process of lost-wax casting. All aspects of this process, from creating small sculptural 

forms and personal ornament by modeling and carving wax, to simple molding techniques 

and centrifugal casting and will be taught. After exploring a wide variety of wax working 

techniques you will become comfortable in the use of the centrifugal casting machine and learn 

simple gravity pours such as sand casting. Aside from making one-of-a-kind objects you will 

be taught basic mold making and the preparation of models that are suited for reproduction 

through commercial casting companies. The development of your designs and concepts 

will be supported by visual presentations of examples of historic and contemporary work. 

You will receive feedback and constructive criticism throughout the semester, individually 

and in group setting. Completing this course will make you competent in all aspects of this 

exciting process. 

Hold/Contain/Suspend/Attach 


Kendall Reiss 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A111 

This course explores a variety of design approaches to refine students’ visual intelligence. 

Four essential topics in jewelry design: to hold, to contain, to suspend and to attach are 

explored in class through design exercises combined with short projects, experiments and 

discussions. Those projects are developed to encourage innovative problem solving skills and 

cultivate the ability to communicate meaning in ones work. In-class exercises will concentrate 

on promoting rigorous play and experimentation. Ongoing discussions will explore questions 

of value and preciousness, content and meaning, the role of transformation of materials and 

the importance of presentation. Suited for beginners who want to learn basic techniques 

and hone their problem solving skills as well as for advanced students who seek to intensify 

their study of jewelry design. By nature a more design oriented course, basic techniques 

like cutting, forming and soldering will be introduced. 

Straw Into Gold 


Mielle Harvey 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A111 

You start with nothing but your ideas and a lump of wax. With the help of a few dental tools 

and a small alcohol lamp, a whole world of small objects can be created. Utilizing the lost 

wax process, these objects are melted away, and replaced again by their exact likeness in 

metal. Students will be exposed to historic and contemporary examples of this process and 

learn how to develop their ideas from sketches into wax models suited for casting. We will 

start drawing inspiration from myth and nature and the rich array of objects at the MFA with 

a special focus on metalwork from the pre-Columbian Americas, but students are strongly 

encouraged to develop their own artistic interests through this medium. This course focuses 

on developing your ability to sculpt and carve 3-dimensional objects using soft and hard 

wax. You will become familiar with tools and the equipment and the casting process itself, 

using a centrifugal casting machine. A variety of finishing techniques will be demonstrated 

that enable you to polish and apply color and patinas to your cast pieces. 

Color as Content 


Mielle Harvey 

M 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

A111 

Color is a powerful means of expression for artists. This course, designed for beginning 

as well as advanced students, is an in-depth exploration of innovative options for the use 

of color within jewelry and metal working. Demonstrations will cover traditional surface 

treatments such as patinas, painting, enameling, stone setting and etching as well as the 

application of resins, rubber, acrylic and casting plastic. Basic metalworking techniques to 

accompany those methods will be instructed such as cutting, hydraulic forming and cold 

connecting. Class assignments encourage the development of a personal palette and its 

application to individual projects. Emphasis will be equally placed on technical proficiency 

and on individual experimentation. Upon completing this course, students will be able to 

create finished pieces of jewelry and objects that exhibit an understanding of materials and 

color and their application.


30 

Making in the Digital Age 


Jennaca Davies 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B211B, A111 

A rapidly growing number of industrial and mechanical processes are available that can be 

utilized by artists to produce work in and outside their studio. This course will provide you 

with many tools for art making in the 21st century. Learn how artists and designers employ 

various forms of computer related technology such as Rapid Prototyping and CAD/CAM to 

execute their concepts in combination with the input of the hand. Investigate the potential of 

new technolgy like laser cutting and 3-D printing. Whether you work with pencil and paper 

or create drawings on the computer, the tools of artists and designers are all means by 

which you can define an idea, create a model, and make a finished piece of artwork. This 

course begins with a series of design lectures, in-class workshops, and technical instruction 

in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator that teaches the fundamentals of image manipulation, 

illustration, vector graphics, layering, and graphic editing on the computer. Class time will 

be spent alternating between the computer lab, applying the technogy using laser cutter and 

3-D printer on campus facility and fabrication and handwork in the metals studio. Specific 

attention will be paid to the translation of computer imagery into full-scale form so the student 

begins to understand the transition between what can be produced on a computer and how 

it materialized into actual artwork. Special assignments will be given that ensure application 

of knowledge and encourage experimentation with materials and techniques. 

The Many Dimensions of 

Jewelry 


Linda Priest 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A111 

Metal is a wonderful versatile material-you can dome it, solder it into forms, set different 

materials into it, cast it, and sometimes even anodize it to achieve bright colors. This course 

presents interesting ways to create jewelry and small objects in nonferrous metal. We will 

hammer metal to make a domed bracelet, cut and bend a single piece of metal to fabricate 

a hollow constructed ring, and add a little sparkle to a piece by setting a faceted stone in a 

bezel setting. We will explore simple casting, fusing, and simple hinge making, as well as 

color reactive metals. We also will experiment with different material to emboss into metal 

and an even weave a chain. Exercises will be given to practice techniques, and you will be 

encouraged to creatively incorporate new information into projects. 

Up-Close and Personal 


Barbara Seidenath 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C112 

Personal and portable, close to body and the heart and with us since day one, jewelry 

and ornament are important communicators. This seminar course is designed to give 

you a deeper understanding of the jewelry traditions in non-western as well as western 

cultures. Lectures are thematically organized around the concept of placement of value 

within personal ornament and aim to examine historic and contemporary context through 

visual presentations, discussions and field trips. The goal is for the student to gain a solid 

foundation of the knowledge of the history of ornamentation and to deepen their understanding 

of wearable objects and their meanings and context in different cultures. A section of the 

class is dedicated towards developing professional research strategies and strengthening 

presentation and documentation skills through specifically designed assignments. The weekly 

lectures are complimented by fieldtrips to local research facilities and Museum collections 

and attendance of visiting artist lectures. Ongoing class discussions of reading materials 

that focus on related topics will promote critical thinking in the context of a contemporary 

art and metals practice. 

Objectives: 

—to gain a solid understanding of the jewelry traditions in non-western and western 

cultures 

—to develop professional research skills through the use of primarily library and local 

research facilities and in addition, the internet. 

—to strengthen professional presentation skills 

—to complete all relevant reading assignments that supplement the weekly lectures 

—to enable the students ability to think critically and to clearly articulate verbally through 

active participation in class discussion.


31 

All About Metals 


Kendall Reiss 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A111 

All About Metals is an introductory course that will allow you to become familiar with a variety 

of basic metalworking methods and that is ideal for the student who is interested in learning 

how to create small sculptural objects or personal ornaments from non-ferrous metal. Brass, 

bronze, copper and silver are materials that have great expressive potential due to their 

aesthetic properties, malleability and durability. Those essential characteristics of non-ferrous 

metals are studied through a range of technical demonstrations, hands-on exercises and 

individual projects. After becoming familiar with the tools and equipment in the studio, you 

will learn all the skills that will allow you to cut, file, form, solder and fabricate metal objects. 

Demonstrations will include an introduction to cold connections, simple gravity casting and 

stone setting. Surface treatments such as hammer-worked textures and coloration will be 

introduced. You will view samples, discuss topics related to the field and work towards 

developing your own artistic projects. 

Beginning Painting 

PAI 1009 01 (4 Credits) 

Ethan Murrow 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B307 

This course introduces practical information about the fundamentals of oil painting: color, 

shape, tone, edge, composition, perspective, and substance. While the primary focus of this 

course will be the depiction of objects in an observational mode, we will keep in mind the fact 

that we all see and interpret our visual environments somewhat differently. We will examine 

many kinds of precedents- by artists from historical to modern to contemporary. Ultimately 

this course will give you the grounding necessary to take more advanced painting courses. 

The course will include demonstrations of materials and techniques, slide presentations, 

assignments, work periods, group and individual critiques. The majority of our time will be 

spent in a studio/work mode. Attendance is required. Because this course is grounded 

in representation, it is recommended that students have taken a life drawing class or its 

equivalent in high school or at SMFA before, or concurrent with Beginning Painting. 

Observational Painting 


Patte Loper 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B307 

Our emphasis will be on basic skills in observational painting. Still life and the figure will 

provide the subject matter for observing light, form, color and space. We will explore the 

power and energy of composition and investigate the many painterly properties of oil paint. 

Through slide presentations and visits to local museums and galleries, you will extend your 

knowledge of historical and contemporary art based on observation. Attendance is mandatory. 

Basic Figure Painting 


TBA 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B307 

A course for students with some experience in drawing who would like to explore the basics 

of painting the figure. Using a range of traditional to contemporary approaches with focus 

on familiarizing students with basic painting concepts such as lean to fat, color mixing from 

observation, building volume with value, and brushstroke. 

Water, Color & Paper 


Erica H. Adams 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A316 

Transparent, fluid, and direct or opaque, dry, and layered - the uses and expressions of 

watercolor, guache, and inks on paper and other surfaces are as varied as the individual or the 

era that creates them. After pop art, the spontaneous and analytical qualities of water media 

combined with a renewed appreciation of for paper was evident from global conceptualism, to 

neo-expressionism, to minimalism, and art in general, in works by Bleckner, Bueys, Bourgeois, 

Clemente, cucci, Kiefer, Kapoor, Martin, Mardin, Merz, Polke, Rauschenberg, Salle, Smith, Le 

Witt, Tuttle, and Warhol. Explore new and traditional approaches to image making, materials, 

and painting by thinking through watercolor, guache, and inks. Beginning with the basic 

skills of water, color, and paper, students develop and focus their expressive/conceptual 

vision and intuitive working method. Later, students are encouraged to work independently 

in a self-chosen direction. Basic skills include watercolor and guache techniques, image 

development, color, scale, rhythm, and light. We work from observation, found images, 

photographs, and the imagination. Visiting artists and slide lectures, suggested readings, 

critiques, and field trips to museums when appropriate.


32 

Flatlands: Beginning 

Abstraction 


Angelina Gualdoni 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B309 

How does one begin an abstract painting? How does one choose colors, arrangement, 

or scale? In Flatlands, we will complete a series of projects exploring design principles as 

applied to non-objective artworks. Using acrylic paint, ink and collage, students will engage 

with tactics and strategies for utilizing non-objective imagery towards self-directed content. 

Each week will bring a new design problem, with lessons culminating in a small body of 

work on paper or canvas, exploring a theme of the students choice. Projects will emphasize 

brainstorming multiple answers to visual problems over selecting the first solution that comes 

to mind. We will examine examples of abstraction that span continents and centuries, 

including 20th century pop, minimal, ab-ex, and post-modern painting, but also non-western 

textiles and ceramics. Midterm and Final critiques will be devoted to evaluating a student’s 

ability to manipulate composition, shape, space, edge, color and form towards issues of their 

choosing. At the conclusion of the class, student should show ability to “speak graphically”, 

utilizing above topics to inform their decisions as they move further into painting, printmaking, 

or drawing. Please not we will not cover oil paint in this class. This course will focus on 

acquisition of basic 2d skills (color, line, shape, tone, etc.) that serve as a basis for making/ 

designing images across multiple media. While this class is housed in the painting area, 

techniques and principles are applicable to advanced drawing, printmaking, and collage 

strategies. Media used will include charcoal, diverse collage material, pigment, and acrylic 

paint. While the principles introduced carry into multiple media, most of the examples that 

we will examine will be abstract – in the broadest sense of the word, including Western and 

Non-Western paintings, textiles, ceramics, drawings, etc. As such, this class serves as an 

excellent entry point into considering meaning and form in contemporary abstraction. 

Intermediate Projects 



T 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

B309 

Moving from beginning courses (where work is made in response to assignments) to 

developing a body of work with personal vision and expression is an important step in 

developing as a student and artist. This one-period course prepares students to move into 

the intermediate and advanced levels of instruction where personal commitment, vision, and 

curiosity are driving the work. Slide lectures, readings, discussions, group and individual 

critiques help students identify subjects they care passionately about and want to explore 

through paint and related media. Class time is divided between these activities with emphasis 

on developing a strong working community through critique. Students should be prepared 

to spend a good deal of time working individually outside of class. It is strongly suggested 

that all students take this course at some point in their second year of study.Though this 

course is offered in the Painting Area, it is open to students wishing to work in other media 

as well. This class is generally not recommended for freshman, but open to all students who 

have achieved a level of comfort within the medium of their concentration (an introductory 

course AND an additional 1000 or 2000 level course before entering Intermediate Projects 

is required). 

Abstraction, Representation, 

Criticality 



W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B309 

This course will introduce students to the practical and historical dialog between 

representational and abstract modes of painting. A series of class projects lead students 

through a conversation between these two modes of painting, with the goal of examining 

their underlying assumptions, and complicating the categories of “representation” and 

“abstraction”. It has often been said “all painting is abstract and in that the artist chooses 

to emphasize some things over others”. Class projects distinguish between categories of 

“non-objective”, abstraction in the sense of emphasis or distortion, as well as the quality of 

abstraction inherent in conventional representation. Class concludes with several weeks 

of independent student work. Emphasis will be production of paintings, and talking about 

painting with informed intent. Students will leave this class able to understand and apply 

the basic techniques of representational painting (modeling to create form, atmospheric and 

linear perspective to create space, proportion and good composition), able to understand and 

apply basic techniques of abstraction (composition, materials, color, brushstroke, layering, 

transparency, abstraction from nature). Students should also be able to understand and 

discuss the historical roles abstraction and representation have played in painting history 

and how they apply to their own work. Attendance is required for this course. Some prior 

painting experience is required before taking this course. An introductory Painting course 

or permission of the instructor is a pre-requisite for Abstraction, Representation, Criticality.


33 

AbLab- Developing an Abstract 

Visual Language 


Julie Graham 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B305 

Abstract painting, once thought to be and exhausted language, is experiencing a profound 

resurgence in contemporary art making. Underlying this resurgence are questions about 

the possibility of self-expression, the politics of abstraction, and a return towards materiality, 

tactility, process and craft. This course will focus on developing a personally meaningful 

approach to abstraction in painting. We will work in several modes: abstraction as a translation 

of what is seen, abstraction as evidence of the unseen, and abstraction as a language. 

Contemporary and historical works will serve as a springboard to help students formulate 

their own abstract painting vocabulary. There will be material demonstrations, slide lectures, 

readings and critiques to supplement working-in-class time. Attendance is required for this 

class. Some prior painting experience is required before taking this course. An introductory 

painting course or permission of the instructor is a pre-requisite for AbLab. 

Technology & Painting 


Tom McGrath 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM / 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

B309 

This course is designed to introduce students to a range of possibilities for generating painting 

source material from technologies such as photography, video, film and digital images. 

This class will be 25% demo and slides, 75% studio. Students will be given a practical and 

critical overview of the relationships between traditional and new technologies. More and 

more painters are using photography, digital imaging, video and other new media to create 

interdisciplinary works or as a tool for representation of images. This has been going on in 

one way or another since Vermeer. This course will help students realize the potential of the 

tools at their disposal. Some painting students feel using certain technologies is cheating. 

The real question is which technologies are appropriate to which goal. The course will help 

students to judge which technologies are appropriate for their own visions. The course will 

examine ideological and formal rationales for using various technologies and further help 

students explore the complex relationships between content and process. Students will 

leave this class able to create and/or find technological source material, able to transfer 

images to painting surface using gridding, transfer methods, and projection, and be able to 

manipulate source material and paint to develop student’s painting proficiency and range 

of painterly expression. 

Figure Painting 


TBA 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B307 

Contemporary figuration makes renewed demands on the conceptual and theoretical tools 

of the painter as well as on execution skills. This course is shaped to challenge students 

to refine and amplify their painting competence in these areas. This course takes students 

beyond the reductive modernist approach to figure painting and provokes an in depth 

exploration of new possibilities. You will be working with rigor and precision toward acquiring 

skills in painting the figure from observation. You are expected to already have a level of 

proficiency in drawing from observation and be actively engaged in improvement of those 

skills. During the semester the setup and the pose will remain constant and the process 

will be labor intensive. Students are expected to arrive on time and to be fully engaged in 

the refinement of their skills. Students will learn to distinguish the descriptive and structural 

elements of an image, explore what their work says about the body and their experience, 

and examine the formal and conceptual roots of observation and mimesis. Painters will 

acquire skills in creating form, space and light. We will look critically at received ideas about 

paint, including the value of gesture and spontaneity. Attention and energy will be given to 

every aspect of the painting process including care in preparing grounds and mediums and 

students will be encouraged to develop organized methods in their practice and execution. 

We will look at the history of figurative painting from a critical perspective and students will be 

encouraged to energetically explore the lineage of artists who have developed the language 

of the practice and explore the singularities and ruptures in the practice including the impact 

of contemporary technologies. There will be no default assumptions about this practice. No 

default grounds, no default techniques...look forward to intense and serious investigation.


34 

Mapping: Drawing & Painting 


Heidi Whitman 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:15 PM 

A316 

Maps evoke images of journeys and unexplored places and have a universal graphic appeal 

and fascination. In this course you will create drawings, paintings, and collages inspired by 

maps - both as material and metaphor. Conceptual projects may include mapping aspects 

of neighborhoods, apartments, bodies, or daily life. You will use the language of cartography 

- the art of creating maps - and the re-imagining of map shapes to make work that may or 

may not look like maps! Throughout the course you will use drawing tools, water-based 

paint, and collage and experiment with different combinations of media to develop personal 

imagery. The course includes class discussions, critiques, and slide and digital presentations. 

Open to all levels and abilities. 

Realist Painting 


Christopher Chippendale 

S 

9:00 AM - 12:15 PM 

B307 

This multi-level course in realist painting requires no significant prior experience in this 

particular discipline, and invariably attracts new and returning students with a range of 

backgrounds and skill levels. We will focus on the means and language of direct painting 

techniques in the service of illusionism, as well as a broad and supple set of painting skills 

fundamental to observational painting (firm color mixing, synthetic ways of seeing and making, 

the material use of paint, and reading tone through color). Ancillary to our studio focus, we 

will examine modes and models of realist painting, past and present, from the standpoint 

of their painting language. There will be in-class observational painting from the model and 

the model in a larger environment (model sessions typically last three to four sessions). 




S 

1:00 PM - 4:15 PM 

B307 













S 

9:00 AM - 12:15 PM / 

1:00 PM - 4:15 PM 

B307 










Painting Space 


Tom McGrath 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B305 

This a studio class for advanced painting students. If you understand the evolving ways in 

which you work and think, it can be easier to encourage change and maturation formally and 

conceptually. As a result, the heart of this class deals with reflection and the ways in which 

you approach, consider, plan, proceed, experiment, alter, complete, present, defend and close 

the door on your creative endeavors. Each student will develop a cohesive series of paintings 

while constantly stepping back and pondering the ways in which you make and think about 

your objects. This is a studio painting class that is invested in a broad interpretation of what 

a painting can be. The content and direction of the work will be in your hands. Experimental 

approaches and crossover between media will be fully supported as long as you approach 

each and every step in the process responsibly and thoughtfully.


35 

Intermediate Seminar/Studio 

Workshop 


Gerry Bergstein 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B303 

Applicants to this course must be in their second or third year and full time. Admission is by 

permission of the painting area through an application containing images and a statement. 

The course serves as a bridge between project based basic courses and the independent 

work of Senior Projects. It is concerned with how painting practice evolves with each artist 

in every new generation by employing new technologies, ideologies and interfacing with 

new cultural realities. It will support each class member in exploring esthetic, technical, 

historical and other issues through the lenses of their own sensibilities and temperaments. 

Course time will be devoted to studio practice for 4 hours per day and seminar for 2 hours 

per day. Students are expected to put in several extra hours of independent work per week. 

Group Critique Class 


Gerry Bergstein 

W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B305 

This course is intended to provide consistent group critique opportunities for students to 

have their work critiqued by their peers, to engage in an active conversation around their 

work and others’, and to develop a sense of community and respectful, rigorous dialog in 

the studio environment. Led by a faculty member, students examine the artwork of their 

fellow classmates as a catalyst for critique. 

Advanced Seminar: 4 Painters 


Andrea Champlin 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C113 

This advanced seminar class is designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate 

students, and will include extensive readings and in depth critical discourse. Visiting artists 

lectures, critiques and discussions will focus on varying modes of contemporary practice 

and thought. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of approaches to being a committed 

artist in the early 21st century. 

Portrait Painting: Subject and 

Subjectivity 


Hannah Barrett 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B307 

Contemporary portraiture offers a platform for exploration of subject, (the persons pictured) 

and subjectivity (the feeling, read, or take of the painter). This painting class will situate 

portraiture within broad contemporary context, in which identity, style and expression have 

histories that are both cultural and aesthetic. Two independent projects will allow students 

to re-invent these legacies as they expreimant with style and subject. Model session will 

develop and challenge academic methods of lighting, color and human proportion, and 

students will self determine the set-up of a double session model scenario. Two classes 

will be spent on presentations, one on figurative painting, and the other on performance 

connecting the current practices and themes of these body centric media. 

Painting Today: The Narrative, 

The Techniques 


Kanishka Raja 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B305 

This class proposes an analytical approximation to contemporaries’ practices in painting. It 

combines hands-on process, viewing, reading, and discussing the body of work of artists 

whose practices have commanded a level of recognition in the local, national, and international 

scene. Discuss such practices along with students’ motivations for their body of work. We 

visit studios and exhibitions, and host a visiting artist.


36 

Advanced Painting 

Seminar:The Death of Painting 


Ron Rizzi 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C113 

Death of Painting: Explore the range of conventions used in representation and confront 

directly, in paint, the anxiety painters have about contemporary challenges to the sense 

of authenticity and validity of painting by new technologies and modes of representation. 

We pay attention to the intersection of multiple modes of seeing and production due to the 

impact of new technologies and how this alters the meaning and practice of painting from 

imagination, film, video, photographic, and digital materials. We discuss history and theories 

of representation and students develop a deeper understanding of the conventions they 

use and the immense power and possibilities in the act of painting. We engage in extensive 

readings in theory, including examinations of visual content, the spectacle, surveillance, 

embodiment, the impact of digital technologies on photography as well as painting, and 

the media languages of manipulation and control. Students acquire skills in the taking and 

editing of photographic information with particular attention to the use of digital cameras. At 

lunch we regularly and critically watch videos and films relevant to theoretical discussion. 

Expect an intense semester of painting, discussions, critiques, and more painting. Students 

are encouraged to bring ideas and resources including photographs, clippings, memories, 

fantasies, enthusiasms, gripes, and anxieties. For intermediate and advanced students. 

Observational Painting 


Patte Loper 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B307 

Our emphasis will be on basic skills in observational painting. Still life and the figure will 

provide the subject matter for observing light, form, color and space. We will explore the 

power and energy of composition and investigate the many painterly properties of oil paint. 

Through slide presentations and visits to local museums and galleries, you will extend your 

knowledge of historical and contemporary art based on observation. 

Abstraction, Representation, 

Criticality 



W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B309 

This course will introduce students to the practical and historical dialog between 

representational and abstract modes of painting. A series of class projects lead students 

through a conversation between these two modes of painting, with the goal of examining 

their underlying assumptions, and complicating the categories of “representation” and 

“abstraction”. It has often been said “all painting is abstract and in that the artist chooses 

to emphasize some things over others”. Class projects distinguish between categories of 

“non-objective”, abstraction in the sense of emphasis or distortion, as well as the quality of 

abstraction inherent in conventional representation. Class concludes with several weeks 

of independent student work. Emphasis will be production of paintings, and talking about 

painting with informed intent. Students will leave this class able to understand and apply 

the basic techniques of representational painting (modeling to create form, atmospheric and 

linear perspective to create space, proportion and good composition), able to understand and 

apply basic techniques of abstraction (composition, materials, color, brushstroke, layering, 

transparency, abstraction from nature). Students should also be able to understand and 

discuss the historical roles abstraction and representation have played in painting history 

and how they apply to their own work. 

Graduate Painting Studio 


Patte Loper 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

TBA 

Graduate Painting Studio is designed to assist graduate students with a range of studio 

issues related to painting. It is for both committed painters and those who are interested in 

integrating painting discourse and discipline into their practices, regardless of media. This 

class will hone and develop the skills of experienced painters and offer an introduction 

to painting for students new to the discipline. Equal emphasis will be given to technical, 

formal, and conceptual concerns. Focus in the class will be on individual studio work, with 

a secondary emphasis on group critique and discussion and can be taken for either one or 

two periods as needed.


37 

Graduate Painting & Drawing 

Studio/ Seminar 


Ethan Murrow 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

TBA 

Graduate Painting and Drawing Studio / Seminar is designed to assist graduate students with 

a range of studio issues related to painting drawing and the intersection and overlap between 

these two modes of working. It is for both committed students in painting and drawing and 

those who are interested in integrating these discourses and discipline into their practices, 

regardless of media. A discussion of drawing or painting in this class assumes the use of 

and interest in diverse tools and diverse outcomes from canvas and paper to digital and 

temporal to textual and referential. This class will assist in the advancement of skill building 

for artists already versed in painting and drawing and will also offer introductions to the media 

for those new to their use. Equal emphasis will be given to technical, formal and conceptual 

concerns. The class is split between individual meetings with the faculty regarding student’s 

independent projects and group discussions and critiques. 

Post Baccalaureate Seminar 

PBC 5002 01 (2 Credits) 

Mary Anderson 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

CGLRY 

The Seminar is a mandatory core component of the curriculum for post-baccalaureate 

students, who take it both fall and spring semesters. Content is determined by the needs of 

the class and changes from fall to spring. The seminar includes professional presentations, 

student presentations, directed group discussions and writing projects, critiques of work, 

and visits to museums, galleries, collections, and other sites. We discuss the work and 

ideas of class members in the context of broad issues such as the role and purpose of art 

making, the practice of art as a career, and the perspectives currently under discussion in 

art criticism and theory. Emphasis is on group collaboration and peer support for individual 

artistic development. To keep discussion groups small, faculty lead separate seminar 

sections. (These groups occasionally hold meetings together.) Be ready to talk at the first 

class about your ideas and needs in your artwork, school, and prospective career, so that 

we can plan the semester’s content. 

Post Baccalaureate Seminar 


David Davison 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C113 

The Seminar is a mandatory core component of the curriculum for post-baccalaureate 

students, who take it both fall and spring semesters. Content is determined by the needs of 

the class and changes from fall to spring. The seminar includes professional presentations, 

student presentations, directed group discussions and writing projects, critiques of work, 

and visits to museums, galleries, collections, and other sites. We discuss the work and 

ideas of class members in the context of broad issues such as the role and purpose of art 

making, the practice of art as a career, and the perspectives currently under discussion in 

art criticism and theory. Emphasis is on group collaboration and peer support for individual 

artistic development. To keep discussion groups small, faculty lead separate seminar 

sections. (These groups occasionally hold meetings together.) Be ready to talk at the first 

class about your ideas and needs in your artwork, school, and prospective career, so that 

we can plan the semester’s content. 

Post Baccalaureate 

Consultations 


David Davison 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C101 

Individual critique sessions promote and foster abundant work and rapid progress by helping 

you deepen an understanding of your art, creative process, and work methods through 

focused critical feedback at regular intervals. Students meet individually with the instructor 

several times during the semester for critiques, to present works in progress, and to discuss 

emerging issues of individual interest. These consultations support and complement the 

work in the Post-Baccalaureate Seminar. Nan Freeman is also available for meetings at 

other times during normal class weeks, and for informal and impromptu consultation with 

post-baccalaureate students. Post-baccalaureate students are expected to actively seek 

individual critiques and consultation from their assigned faculty advisors and from faculty 

members teaching studio courses in which they are working.


38 


Consultations 


Mary Anderson 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C110 










members teaching studio courses in which they are working. 


Consultations 


Mary Anderson 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

C101 










members teaching studio courses in which they are working. 

Beginning Performance 

Workshop 

PER 1010 01 (2 Credits) 

Mari Novotny-Jones 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B209 

Students with little or no experience in performance art examine the basics of performance 

art: use of time and space, the performer’s relationship to the audience, and the process 

of developing original material for performance. Class exercises help us explore the use of 

autobiographical material, dreams, text, and personas, as well as visual and sound elements. 

We present a public showing of work in progress at the end of the semester. No prerequisites. 

Beginning Performance 

Workshop 


Mari Novotny-Jones 

F 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B209 

Students with little or no experience in performance art examine the basics of performance 

art: use of time and space, the performer’s relationship to the audience, and the process 

of developing original material for performance. Class exercises help us explore the use of 

autobiographical material, dreams, text, and personas, as well as visual and sound elements. 

We present a public showing of work in progress at the end of the semester. No prerequisites. 

Actions as Art: Happenings 

and FLUXUS Events 


TBA 

T 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B209 

The roots of performance art as we know it today lie in the dematerialization of the art 

object, which was manifested through various art movements in the 60s and 70s, including 

Conceptualism and FLUXUS. This course will combine theory and practice. It will include 

discussion of readings of seminal texts that came out of these movements, more recent 

survey articles that consider the impact of this work on the broader art world, viewing 

documentation of artists’ work, and recreating some of the pieces themselves. In addition, 

students will be expected to make new work, either individually or collaboratively, in response 

to the concepts and events that they are learning about. In keeping with the spirit of the 

work, many of the class projects will occur unannounced, and take place in public sites 

throughout the city. Prerequisite for undergrads: 1 SMFA performance class OR installation 

class; open to grads and post-bacs


39 

Open Studios 


TBA 

MW 

6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 

B209 

Open Studios is an opportunity for students to develop the skills they have learned in other 

performance classes. Students will develop their own work, critique each other, assist each 

other with bigger projects, and work toward a public presentation of their work. We will focus 

on general performance practices including exercises dealing with specific topics, as well as 

coaching, and feedback on current work. Occasional workshops on specific topics will be 

given by visiting artists and graduate students working in performance. Periodically we will 

take field trips to attend performances or performance-related events. We will also schedule 

individual consultations as needed. Open Studios is designed for students already enrolled in 

another performance class. Preference will be given to students at the continuing, beginning, 

and intermediate levels. Prerequisite: Enrollment or completion of PER 1010 or PER 6400 

Performance Projects /Projects 

Incorporating Performance 


Tony Schwensen 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B209 

Written proposal and course authorization required. Email marilyn.arsem@smfa.edu for 

information on deadline and content of proposal. This course is for advanced students working 

in any media, who are using elements of performance in their work. This aspect of performance 

in their practice may be related to generating content for the production of paintings, video 

or photography, designing the public interface with installations or interventions, as well as 

directly engaging in public or private actions. Students are expected to show some facet of 

their project as scheduled, and are expected to make use of the class in order to experiment 

with and develop their work. This full day, all year class allows us to view work incorporating 

extended practices and to travel to site work. We focus equally on content, execution and 

public reception. Students are expected to write about both their own and the other students’ 

work. Weekly critical readings will be assigned to all for discussion. Attendance is required. 

Students must have a project in mind, in addition to a work plan. This course is approved 

as a graduate seminar. Signature required. 

Videoperformance 



R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B209 

Videoperformance offers a critical and specific focus upon the complex and ongoing interrelationship 

of performance and video. This course centers on the creation of performance 

specifically for lens based technological mediation. It is an investigation of performance as 

a conceptual and theoretical strategy for the creation of lens based work, an examination 

of the interrelation of active models of mediated performance and its ongoing life as video, 

web based, multimedia or photographic document. We will focus our attention on the 

relationships between the performative action and its lens based documentary result, with 

equal consideration to both, in accordance with the binary nature of the initial proposition, 

videoperformance. This will occur within a framework that understands and acknowledges 

contemporary art practice as an interdisciplinary construction that is incorporative, inquisitive, 

and adaptable. Students will make work that is self-reflexive, considered, historically and 

culturally aware, in an ongoing effort to actively and critically examine and understand the 

relationships that exist between performance and video and can be proposed and ext ended 

as videoperformance. 

Durational Performance 


Marilyn Arsem 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B209 

What happens when a performance extends over time, beyond the theatrical convention 

of an evening’s entertainment, into hours or days or even weeks? What is its effect on the 

artist? What is the impact on the audience? Often these performances result in real, physical 

change - to the artist, the environment and even the viewer. What are the ethical issues in 

this kind of work? What kinds of inquiry are best suited to this process? And how can the 

work be documented? Students will create and document their own durational performances. 

Each week we will also consider the work of a different artist who uses duration, by reading 

articles and viewing documentation. Prerequisite for undergrads: 1 SMFA performance class 

OR installation class; open to grads and post-bacs


40 

Research as Practice 



T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B209 

This seminar is intended to provide a forum in which research based practices are examined, 

investigated and developed enabling students to prepare to enter their thesis year. Research 

based practices attempt to answer research questions. Research is initiated in practice, 

where questions, problems, challenges are identified and formed by the needs of practice 

and practitioners. The research strategy is carried out through practice, using predominantly 

methodologies and specific methods familiar to practitioners in the visual arts. Practice-led 

research is just one of many approaches to research. Methodologies for research often cross 

over or combine. The approaches are united in the aims of presenting original knowledge 

through developing research methodologies. There is a responsibility to communicate 

clearly and explicitly about the artwork/process/research. Admission to the class is by 

submitting a research proposal and working bibliography of 10 information resources that 

are highly relevant to the research project you intend to address to tony.schwensen@smfa. 

edu. Be sure to clearly explain why each resource is both relevant to and appropriate for 

your research project. Submitting a proposal is not a guarantee of admission to the class. 

Signature Required. Attendance Required. 

Contemporary Performance 

Theory and the Practice of Art 


Marilyn Arsem 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B209 

This course builds on the Graduate CAP Seminar, “The Body in Art: Presence and 

Ephemerality.” In this class we will continue to examine, through practice, different approaches 

to incorporating bodies and live action into one’s practice. Students will explore the use of 

performance as both a tool and a product, be it in the context of performance, or installation, 

web-based events, photography, painting, etc. This approach considers the work to be 

inclusive of the site of production and the site of presentation, the act of making and the 

act of consumption, while recognizing the histories that inform the present moment of 

comprehension. Pre-Req: MFA 6100 01, Arsem, Graduate CAP Seminar “The Body in Art: 

Presence and Ephemerality” 

Photo 1 

PHT 1011 01 (4 Credits) 

Laura Blacklow 

TR 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

B010 

Students learn camera operation and develop skills with both analog and digital cameras 

and outputs. (SLR Cameras, wet lab printing, DSLR’s: Digital Canon Rebel Cameras, Epson 

Archival printers, flatbed and film scanners.) How to produce a correct exposure for negatives 

and prints is emphasized as well as optimum digital capture. Photography/image ideas and 

history are introduced as well as art history; related media image history, photojournalism, 

activism, appropriation, advertising, photo archives, the internet and new media. There 

is a strong emphasis on the interpretation of images, developing a vocabulary to discuss 

issues, ideas, and critical thought. Students develop their own individual ideas and interests 

for creative and cultural production while actively engaging with image history. Field trips to 

exhibitions and archives. Introduction to ideas from photo media through readings from art/ 

photo/media history and the contemporary mass media. Students with some high school 

photography should begin with Photo 1. 

Photo 1 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B010, B019 


and outputs. (SLR Cameras, wet lab printing, DSLR’s: Digital Canon Rebel Cameras, 

Epson Archival printers, flatbed and film scanners.) How to produce a correct exposure 

for negatives and prints is emphasized as well as optimum digital capture. Photography/ 

image ideas and history are introduced as well as art history; related media image history, 

photojournalism, activism, appropriation, advertising, photo archives, the internet and 

new media. There is a strong emphasis on the interpretation of images, developing a 

vocabulary to discuss issues, ideas, and critical thought. Students develop their own 

individual ideas and interests for creative and cultural production while actively engaging 

with image history. Field trips to exhibitions and archives. Introduction to ideas from photo 

media through readings from art/photo/media history and the contemporary mass media. 

Students with some high school photography should begin with Photo 1.


41 

Photo 1 


David Mussina 

W 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM / 6:00 PM - 

9:00 PM 

B008 


and outputs. (SLR Cameras, wet lab printing, DSLR’s: Digital Canon Rebel Cameras, Epson 

Archival printers, flatbed and film scanners.) How to produce a correct exposure for negatives 

and prints is emphasized as well as optimum digital capture. Photography/image ideas and 

history are introduced as well as art history; related media image history, photojournalism, 

activism, appropriation, advertising, photo archives, the internet and new media. There 

is a strong emphasis on the interpretation of images, developing a vocabulary to discuss 

issues, ideas, and critical thought. Students develop their own individual ideas and interests 

for creative and cultural production while actively engaging with image history. Field trips to 

exhibitions and archives. Introduction to ideas from photo media through readings from art/ 

photo/media history and the contemporary mass media. Students with some high school 

photography should begin with Photo 1. 

Making a Picture (Instead of 

Taking One) 


Sandra Stark 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C203 

This course is open to beginning and advanced students in all disciplines. Students need 

not be photo majors, they can use commercially printed images in their works. Several 

assignments will be given at the beginning of the semsester along with some slide talks. This 

class is directed to students who are creating things to be photographed, whether it is still life, 

studio constructions or portraits. It is about making a picture instead of taking one. We will 

also look at ways photography can extend beyond the frame and how photography can be 

an element in a larger sculptural piece. We will look and talk about how photography creates 

its own unique description of space and how contemporary artists are using photography in 

their works. We will look at work of Annette Messenger, Starn Twins, Anne Rowland, Joel 

Peter, Helen Chadwick, James Casebere, Alfredo Jaar, Cindy Sherman, etc. 

Photo 2 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B019, B010 

Students will continue to strengthen their technical skills in photography using both digital and 

analog tools. Medium format cameras, basic lighting (including strobes), metering and analog 

color will be introduced. Most importantly, students will be encouraged to start thinking about 

specific projects they would like to work on. An emphasis will be placed on thinking outside 

the box and coming up with new ways to use the medium while continuing to explore more 

traditional modes of photographic expression. The course will include group discussions of 

work produced, slide lectures, and field trips to museums and galleries. Prerequisite: PHT 

1011 or equivalent. 

The Photographic Object: 

Black and White Print 


Bill Burke 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B011B 

This course will introduce a variety of technical skills necessary to making exhibition-grade 

black-and-white gelatin silver prints. We demonstrate the qualities of various papers, 

developers, and toners to build your individual repertoire for making “The Fine Print.” 

Increasing skills and knowledge of technical choices will build the visual vocabulary and 

offer a wider range of options to the photographic artist. This is not a remedial class but one 

for expanding basic competence with the medium. Competence with basic black-and-white 

printing technique will be verified at registration. 

Intermediate Seminar: Locating 

Yourself in Contemporary 

Photograph 


Claire Beckett 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C110 

Acting as both artists and investigators we will study and deconstruct the landscape of 

contemporary photography on a local, national and international scale. We will analyze 

museums, galleries, non-profit organizations, websites, print media, artists, curators, writers, 

photo editors and other people of influence. Students will come away from the course with a 

firm understanding of the dynamics of contemporary photography and how they can relate to 

it. A portion of the course will be dedicated to critiquing student work and students’ individual 

research about the connections between their studio practice and other contemporary 

artists. The first period of this course will be devoted to instructor-led seminar and critique, 

the second period will be reserved for work time and field trips. Prerequisite: PHT 1011.


42 

Intermediate Digital Printing 


TBA 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B019 

Intermediate Digital Printing is designed to teach students how to produce excellent prints 

from both digital files and from scanned negatives. Students who successfully complete this 

class will be well prepared to enroll in Hybrid Photography: Advanced Digital Printing where 

they will learn to produce exhibition quality prints. This an assignment–based class engaging 

effective technical uses of color photography, where techniques are presented in a simple, 

logical manner. During the semester we will investigate the fundamentals of color theory 

though a digital workflow – from exposure to final print. Students will become acquainted with 

the historical development of color photography through current trends in color photography 

in contemporary art. This course prepares students for advanced printing techniques while 

investigating the aesthetic and sensory perceptions of light and color. Demonstrations will 

cover proper exposure and scanning techniques of different color films, advanced functions 

of digital cameras, Photoshop as means for advanced color correction, the variety of digital 

output options through various printers, and preparing your images for the web. The course 

will feature regular in-class critiques of student work. Pre-requisite: PHT 1011 

Landscape as Concept 

Experience and Image 


David Mussina 

MT 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B008 

This course will form a framework for students to discover, question, and explore how 

they choose to view and present the land as a photographic image. Through exercises, 

assignments, readings, class critiques, and the examination of contemporary and historic 

work, we will investigate various ways of experiencing and photographing our environment. 

Field trips to a spectrum of terrain (urban and natural), relevant exhibitions, collections 

and installations will form a basis to explore landscape from western, eastern, indigenous 

and personal perspectives. The use of various camera formats, film emulsions and photo 

papers will be discussed. Students interested in landscape who are working in film, digital, 

light sensitive materials, as well as other media are encouraged to take this course. Each 

student is expected to examine their interest with landscape in terms of a relevant body of 

work. Prerequisite: PHT 1011 or equivalent. 

Basic Lighting for Still and 

Moving Image 


Matthew Gamber 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B010 

Learning how to control and manipulate light is a fundamental creative tool for any professional 

or fine arts photographer. This hands-on course explores basic lighting techniques ranging 

from the use of sunlight, flash, and multiple flash, to tungsten lights, Tota-lights, and strobes. 

To help you develop your own distinctive style of lighting your subject, we will explore 

inexpensive, homemade lighting options as well as more complicated setups with studio 

light kits. Lighting demos, group critiques of work, slide lectures, discussions, and occasional 

collaborative projects will ensure that you learn effective lighting techniques- whether you 

are a photographer or work in video and film. Students may work in their choice of formats, 

35mm to 4x5 producing analog prints or digital display. Prerequisite: Photo I. ATTENDANCE 

IS REQUIRED. 

Int/Adv Group Critique for 

Photographers 


Sandra Stark 

R 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C203 

A one period class open to students who are evolving a serious project and would like probing 

and challenging critiques about their work. Students are required to bring work weekly and 

participate in critiquing other students work. Each student will be required to create a larger 

context for their ideas, talking about visual and historical influences, keeping a visual journal 

specific to this class and doing a presentation on an artist of their choosing. We will start 

to create artist statements, go on gallery visits and discuss different modes to present your 

work. Darkroom and Digital work is done outside of class although there will be plenty of in 

class technical help. Attendance is required.


43 

Queer Visualities, Aesthetics, 

and Insights 


Jeannie Simms 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C101, C112 

This course fosters the production of studio-based work in dialogue with the evolving arena 

of Queer discourse, theory, studies and aesthetics, focusing on visual issues; art and visual 

culture. Emerging in the early 1970’s Queer Studies emerged out of a need to analyze 

and research an important arena of modern life otherwise overlooked by the academy and 

larger culture. The arts took up this dialogue and made significant contributions to the visual 

aspects of Queer studies and discourse with important exhibitions taking place in the past 

30 years and artists engaging directly or indirectly with these issues. Current debates on 

the national political stage about gay marriage, adoption and immigration demonstrate the 

larger legal issues at stake to the populations of the United States under which many artists 

and thinkers are working today. With rich art historical, popular culture and visual studies 

to draw from students will gain perspective on the evolution of queer visual discourse and 

produce work engaged with these aesthetics and areas of inquiry and history. Readings will 

draw from art history, cultural studies, the humanities at large, with an emphasis on mediabased 

art including photography, video, film and installation. This course will also intersect 

with race, gender, diasporic and transnational discourses. Students working in a variety of 

media may participate in the class. 

Photo 3: Project Development 



W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

B008 

Investigate topical issues in contemporary photography. Readings on important evolutions in 

photography and contemporary arts practice, a range of national and international practitioners 

or movements are studied in depth. Students work on conceptually based assignments 

developing a unique body of work and some semesters will include a collaborative project. 

A range of activities to connect students to contemporary art culture will include: talks 

with curators, studio visits with artists, portfolio reviews by arts professionals, field trips to 

exhibitions, visits to important non-art world cultural institutions. Students are encouraged 

to examine their own practice within a broad range of interdisciplinary tactics and to look 

beyond the art world for sites of interrogation. Weekend intensives may replace some class 

time. Medium format cameras, Digital SLR’s, Studio lighting. 

Large Format Photography 


Claire Beckett 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B010 

We introduce students to large-format, or view cameras, and work with four-by-five-inch film, 

with the opportunity for work on eight-by-ten-inch film. Class thoroughly covers technical 

strategies, basic lighting, and contemporary explorations of the view camera. Students have 

reserved access to rail and field photography. Prerequisite: One semester of Intermediate 

Photography 

Advanced Seminar:Four 

Photographers 



R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B010 

This advanced seminar class is designed for graduate students, Post-baccalaureate students, 

and advanced undergraduates in their fourth year. The course will include readings, lectures, 

and in-depth critical discourse in conjunction with four public presentations a semester by 

professional artists and curators who utilize lens-based apparatus within their own practice. 

It provides a forum within the classroom for students to develop public presentations of their 

own work. Visiting artist lectures, discussions, and critiques are part of the class, and students 

will be provided with a social opportunity whenever possible to engage with visiting artists 

in a more casual and intimate setting. This course is approved for graduate seminar credit, 

and graduate students have extra responsibilities for seminar credit. Post-baccalaureate and 

advanced undergraduates who are committed to their work, who are developing independent 

projects, and who are looking for a forum to investigate, understand, and discuss photography 

in a contemporary context are welcome on an as-available basis. You do not have to identify 

as a photographer to be in this class. The schedule varies from time to time, with 4 noontime 

lectures and 4 evening events per semester. Permission required below fourth year.


44 

Basic Lighting for Still and 

Moving Images 


Matthew Gamber 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B010 

Learning how to control and manipulate light is a fundamental creative tool for any professional 

or fine arts photographer. This hands-on course explores basic lighting techniques ranging 

from the use of sunlight, flash, and multiple flash, to tungsten lights, Tota-lights, and strobes. 

To help you develop your own distinctive style of lighting your subject, we will explore 

inexpensive, homemade lighting options as well as more complicated setups with studio 

light kits. Lighting demos, group critiques of work, slide lectures, discussions, and occasional 

collaborative projects will ensure that you learn effective lighting techniques- whether you 

are a photographer or work in video and film. Students may work in their choice of formats, 

35mm to 4x5 producing analog prints or digital display. Prerequisite: Photo I 

Introduction to Printmaking 

PRT 1003 01 (4 Credits) 

Rhoda Rosenberg 

TR 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A104 

For beginning students who want a hands-on introduction to a full range of print media, this 

course will present a broad menu of print and paper techniques and investigate the variety 

they offer students to expand and extend their artwork. Over a 3 semester rotation, this 

course will cover all of the traditional print and paper processes: papermaking and sheet 

forming, etching and intaglio printing, lithography, approaches to monoprinting, relief printing, 

screen-printing, and a variety of digital applications. This is an intensive daylong studio course 

that will demand full attendance. In addition to the studio work, the syllabus will include 

technical demonstrations, regularly scheduled critiques, presentations and workshops by 

outside faculty, and visits to the print collection at the MFA. Priority for this course is given 

to entering and first year students. 

Papermaking: Series and Sets 


Michelle Samour 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A108 

The action of pulling a papermaking mould through a vat of water and fiber to form a sheet, of 

building layer upon layer of wet sheets interspersed with felts into a ‘post’, pressing them in a 

press, and drying them in layers in a drying box, is by its very nature repetitive and serial. In 

this class we will use paper pulp painting and drawing, stenciling, and image transfer among 

other processes to transform traditional sheets of newly formed paper into contemporary 

works that are greater than the sum of their parts. Referencing work by other artists who 

work in series as well as class exchanges with Peter Madden’s class, Artists’ Books: a 

Hybrid, will be important components of this class and offer yet another way of considering 

the nature of serials and the relationship between the book, installation, and the multiple. 

The afternoon section of the course will be an open workshop with a Post Graduate Teaching 

Fellow. No previous papermaking experience required. 

Screenprinting A-Z 


TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A203 

Students will acquaint themselves with a wide range of screenprinting approaches using 

hand-drawn, photographic, and digital stencil techniques. We will emphasize the use of the 

computer as a means to filter and manipulate images in order to create color separations for 

screenprinting. Through the discussion of the history of print media, production and popular 

culture, we will conceptually explore a variety of approaches and formats for translating our 

ideas through screenprinting--- while thinking about the role of “multiples”. Experimentation 

and an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking are encouraged. 



TBA 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A203 







and an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking are encouraged.


45 

2D Or Not 2D: Interm 

Sculpture/Interm Printmaking 


Peter Scott 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104, A210 

The objective of this course is to dispel the concept of the art piece (print or sculpture) as a 

static object and to explore the process of destruction as transformation. Individual course 

projects will evolve out of a program of class assignments that will take students work from 

the wood shop to the print shop and back again. Initial assignments will involve simple 3D 

wire “drawings” that are crushed and printed and then reconstructed in 3D from the print. 

Additional projects can involve pattern design that can be printed as “kits”, cut out and 

assembled into paper constructions, and the use of printed color and patterns for covering 

constructions to camouflage their shape and surface as with WW1 “Dazzle” techniques. 

Students will take their project through multiple destructions/transformations back and forth 

between 3D and 2D, challenging the concept of sculptural space and image making in both 

arenas.. Transformation procedures, whether destructive, deconstructive or reconstructive, 

are not seen as programmatic. Students will be introduced to exercises in orthographic 

projection, how to enlarge mechanically, pattern design, die cutting, various relief, intaglio 

and stencil printing procedures, as well as basic wood & print shop procedures and safety 

practices. 

Lithography: Nuts and Bolts 


TBA 

M 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A106 

Printmaking, as a process, allows an artist to explore an image in depth through multiple 

reworkings. The artist can work and then rework an image almost indefinitely, all while keeping 

the history of past impressions. This class will focus on the concept of the progressive proof, 

allowing you to develop an image or concept over the semester and to really examine all 

the variations possible. We will focus on lithography, in editions and as singular monoprints. 

Nitty Gritty of Carborundum: 

Monoprinting with Collagraphs 


Rhoda Rosenberg 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104 

A collagraph is a print made from a collage glued on to a plate using a wide variety of textured 

surfaces and materials. Collagraph plates can also be made by mixing carborundum (a 

material used to grind down litho stones) with a glue or paste medium. When printed, these 

plates will produce the most luscious surfaces. This class will teach the many methods of 

making collagraph plates and combining these plates with a variety of inking methods. Multiple 

color plate printing will be taught as well as chine collé. Emphasis will be on experimentation 

with process as well as investigation of personal imagery. 

Drawn to Print 


Robert Siegelman 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A104 

This course explores printmaking as a drawing medium. Rather than emphasizing the 

technical, we will utilize simple approaches so that content can be the focus of the work. To 

this end, a figure model will be available for each class. The figure will be used as both a focus 

and as a point of departure. Representational, abstract and conceptual approaches will be 

discussed, and students will be encouraged to find their own ways of working. Experimenting 

while working directly on plates and prints will be stressed. No experience in printmaking, 

figurative work or drawing is necessary. This will be an intensive and fun class, open to 

those at any level who want to expand their possibilities for image making in a challenging 

and supportive environment. Feedback and critique will be frequent. 

Etching and Intaglio Printing 


Peter Scott 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104 

This is a course for beginning students seeking thorough exposure to intaglio printmaking 

and for intermediate/advanced students who wish to explore the medium in greater depth. In 

addition to etching basics -- hard ground, soft ground, and aquatint -- there will be on-going 

demonstrations more advanced techniques; sugar lift, white ground, chine collé, multipleplate 

color printing and registration, color viscosity printing, photo etching, relief etching, etc. 

The course is not limited to etching techniques: in the context of student work-in-progress, 

we will also explore monoprint, collage and collograph techniques along with the printing of 

found objects. Students are expected to incorporate imagery and ideas they are exploring 

in their other classes. Studio work outside of class time is to be expected.


46 

Screenprinting: The Whole 

Story 


Michael Hecht 

M 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A203 

This course enables students to explore some of the most current and innovative technology 

within the world of printmaking and screenprinting. Color separations, large format printmaking 

and the use of computer applications in the screenprinting process will form the heart of 

the course, which is devoted to exploring the breadth of screenprinting opportunities. We 

also will examine traditional screenprinting techniques in order to provide students with an 

understanding of the full spectrum of approaches. No printmaking or computer experience 

is required. 

Lithography 


TBA 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A106 

This course is designed to allow an in depth study of the varied methods and techniques 

of fine-art lithography. This course covers fundamental concepts and techniques of black 

and white lithography from stone and aluminum plates. While the demonstrations focus 

on traditional techniques, color printing, photo manipulation, and transfer methods will be 

discussed. Each class includes demonstrations, hands-on instruction, and lectures on 

historical and contemporary artists using lithography. Students are encouraged to experiment 

and incorporate other mediums as they create and develop their work. 

Drawing/Prints: Prints/Drawing 


John Schulz 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A204, A104 

This class will explore the dialogue between the direct mark of the drawn and the indirect 

mark of the print -- the two inform each other endlessly. We will focus on the directness of 

the process of drawing in facilitating and simplifying visual concepts for making prints, and 

draw on the indirect methods of printmaking to move toward new ways of thinking about 

making drawings. Various approaches to direct drawing, collage, frottage, woodcut and 

relief, collagraph, photocopy, and waterless lithography will be utilized. The aim of this class 

is an open-ended, continuous process of exploration. There will be extensive emphasis 

on experimental techniques in various media or whatever it takes to help your developing 

visual ideas. If what you ultimately produce is neither clearly definable as a drawing or print, 

so be it. In this view, there is potential for the print matrix to become an endpoint, a part of 

the drawing itself. Group critiques and individual consultations with both instructors will be 

ongoing throughout the semester. Contemporary and historical examples of the overlap 

and relationship of prints and drawings will be explored. This course can also be found listed 

under DRW 2027. Students must register for this class under Print and Paper: PRT 2064-01 

Special Projects in Print: 

Inside Out 


TBA 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A203 

We will explore the multitude of ways in which printed ephemera can be used to disseminate 

ideas and offer inter-play with the public as a cheap and efficient method of reproducing 

imagery. Projects that utilize printmaking as a means for creating installations, animations, 

zines, posters, and clothing will be the focus of the curriculum, and will be introduced through 

slide lectures and readings. Writing a project proposal, researching methods of production 

and materials, as well as locating an exhibition venue will be a requirement of the course. 

Students must complete all course requirements, attend all classes, and be ready to actively 

engage in discussion. Prior printmaking experience and self-motivation are necessary for 

enrollment. 

Hybrids: From Sculpture to 

Drawing 


Michelle Samour 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A108 

In this class, students will move between drawing and sculpture, as they explore a range of 

Eastern and Western fibers and hand papermaking processes and techniques. Assignments 

will be given that build upon students’ understanding of the properties of paper/pulp and 

how it can be used by itself or in conjunction with other materials to realize and support the 

conceptual underpinnings of their work. During the course of the semester our technical 

focus will be on working with armatures, casting with pulp and making large-scale sheets. 

Students will draw with pulp and mixed media on handmade and commercial papers, as a 

response to their 3-D work. Sculpture will inform the drawing and drawing, the sculpture. 

Viewing contemporary work being done in paper and drawing today, as well as videos and 

images of traditional Eastern and Western papermaking, will be an integral part of the class. 

Assignments will be given, and students will be expected to work in the studio outside of 

class. This class is open to students who have completed at least one year at Museum 

School or the equivalent. No previous papermaking experience is required.


47 

Open Print Workshop 


John Schulz 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104 

This class is intended to provide an opportunity for students working in Woodcut/Relief, 

Intaglio, Lithography, and/or any print-related medium to devote significant time to exploring 

individual interests and the direction of their work. Experience in printmaking is expected, 

and students must be able to work independently both in and out of class. Students are 

encouraged to enroll who are taking other classes in printmaking who wish to spend additional 

time exploring that medium in depth. Students should be prepared to propose a course of 

investigation as a starting point for the semester. Regular individual and group critiques 

will be ongoing. Critical readings and topics in the history of prints, discussion of work by 

contemporary artists, field trips, and visiting artists will be scheduled according to the needs 

and interests of the class. 

Etching & Intaglio Printing 


Peter Scott 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104 

This is a course for beginning students seeking thorough exposure to intaglio printmaking 

and for intermediate/advanced students who wish to explore the medium in greater depth. In 

addition to etching basics -- hard ground, soft ground, and aquatint -- there will be on-going 

demonstrations more advanced techniques; sugar lift, white ground, chine collé, multipleplate 

color printing and registration, color viscosity printing, photo etching, relief etching, etc. 

The course is not limited to etching techniques: in the context of student work-in-progress, 

we will also explore monoprint, collage and collograph techniques along with the printing of 

found objects. Students are expected to incorporate imagery and ideas they are exploring 

in their other classes. Studio work outside of class time is to be expected. 



TBA 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A203 







and an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking are encouraged. 

Sculpture One: Design 

Strategies 

SCP 1010 01 (2 Credits) 

Fritz Buehner 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A208 

This is a beginning class where students will focus on the development of their designs and 

ideas. We will use design studio strategies, like building quick mock-ups in cardboard, collage 

and creating prototypes for new ideas. In one project we will transform a found object; changing 

both its form and its function; deconstructing it, adding fabricated elements to it, considering 

and discussing it at various stages. We will be looking at contemporary sculpture and design 

for historical reference and inspiration. We will watch videos by sculptors and interviews with 

them. Some entry-level readings will be assigned. Technical instruction will include low-tech 

means of construction. Model-making, mechanical fasteners such as screws, grommets, 

rivets, bolts, hinges, wheels and handles will be demonstrated as well as a wide selection 

of adhesives to connect disparate materials. We will not be using the heavy power tools, but 

hand drills, and saber saws will be taught. The Down, Dirty and Dimensional course is not a 

pre-requisite, but would be an excellent companion to this course. All students are required 

to complete three projects: THE PROTOTYPE, THE FOUND OBJECT TRANSFORMED, 

and MAKING IT MOBILE. Field trips, discussions and critiques are held frequently as part 

of the class. Attendance is mandatory. 

Down, Dirty and Dimensional 


Ken Hruby 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A002, A011, A205 

This all-day, one-semester course is absolutely essential to anyone interested in learning 

how to make sculpture. Students divide into three groups and rotate through three important 

technical processes every sculptor needs to know: basic welding, basic woodworking, 

and plaster mold-making and casting. Each group spends four weeks with each process, 

concentrating on acquiring technical skills as well as learning how to make materials speak 

a sculptural language of form, volume, mass, surface, and line. Attendance is mandatory 

because of the wide array of technical processes.


48 

Guitar and Dulcimer Design 

and Construction 


Walter Stanul 

W 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A210 

This course is designed to develop fine woodworking skills and gives a solid foundation 

for building your own stringed musical instrument. You will start by designing and building 

a uniquely American instrument: the Appalachian, or mountain, dulcimer. This beautiful 

instrument is relatively easy to both build and play. Even those with little or no woodworking 

background will be able to complete a dulcimer. Students who finish in time may start a 

travel, or “back pack,” guitar. This popular instrument is light and easier to make than a 

full-size guitar. Both projects involve shaping, bending and joining wood into delicate yet 

amazingly strong structures—skills that can be applied to a wide range of other fabrications 

and sculptures. Please note: Completing a dulcimer and a guitar will likely require shop time 

outside of class. 

Sculptural Fiber 


Samantha Fields 

R 

6:30 PM - 9:45 PM 

A208 

In this course you will learn a different fiber-related technique each week, including knitting, 

crocheting, dying, weaving, flexible structures, felting and sewing by hand and machine. We 

also will explore the history of these processes and their uses in contemporary art and you 

will gain a basic understanding of each technique by focusing on their sculptural capabilities. 

There will be demonstrations during each class meeting and time will be provided to work 

toward mastering different techniques. This course is structured for beginner as well as 

more advanced students. 

Digital Modeling I 


Ken Hruby 

M 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A208 

Digital Modeling is an essential skill for Sculptors and other artists for developing and 

producing their ideas as they move forward in their work. 3-D digital modeling has applications 

in all facets of the visual arts: sculptors can create objects and manipulate form and scale, 

place digital works in existing public space, explore natural light and shadow over annual 

cycles, generate rapid prototypes for further analysis or production, and to generate animated 

walk-thrus for proposal presentations; painters and printmakers can explore perspective 

imagery; video, film and animation artist can create scenes, objects, and explore both indoor 

and natural lighting alternative and generate animations. Possible output options include 

laser cutting of a variety of materials, from paper to plastics, rapid prototyping through 3D 

printing and the generation of 2-D patterns from unfolded 3D digital objects. 

Ephemeral Object 


Megan McMillan 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A210 

The Ephemeral Object is an intermediate-level studio course that examines the impermanent, 

the durational and the temporary aspects of sculpture. In this course we’ll explore sculpture 

that resists its history as a permanent monument and embraces its fleeting nature, like Janine 

Antoni’s chocolate busts or Martin Klimas’ shattering figurines or Berndnaut Smilde’s indoor 

clouds. This studio course will employ a wide range of material and media and will consist of 

a series of projects, critiques, readings, discussions, field trips and introduction to the work 

of contemporary artists in the field. The Ephemeral Object meets for two periods. The first 

half of the class is a seminar dedicated to discussions of readings and presentations. The 

second half of each class is studio-oriented. 

Object a Week 


Mags Harries 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A212 

Each week, students will be given the same object as a catalyst for ideas that can be 

translated into any medium. The objects chosen will take the student through a range of 

responses and the class will help generate approaches that can expand their art-making 

process. Attention in critiques will be given to content, achieving the intention in the work, 

choice of materials, manner in which it is expressed, and how to develop these ideas into 

the future. Morning class will be critiques based on projects made outside of class. In the 

afternoon, a new object will be given and students will be given short response times to 

intuitively develop ideas. We will use drawing as a tool to become more intimate with the 

object and to generate ideas more physically. We will collectively share information based on 

experience and factual information from the library and Internet to broaden our information 

base. It is my hope that each student will leave the course filled with ideas and energy to 

expand into other areas of the School.


49 

Intermediate Sculpture 


Fritz Buehner 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A208 

In Intermediate Sculpture, we will explore how ideas and material meet and create meaning 

in artwork. This studio and seminar course will consist of four self-directed projects, critiques, 

readings, discussions, field trips and introduction to the work of contemporary working 

artists in the field — like Isa Genzken, Gabriel Orozco, Phoebe Washburn, Elliot Hundley, 

Rob Fischer, and others. This course includes a cross-section of sculptural investigations, 

techniques and tools from a concept-driven perspective. Each of the four projects will 

begin with a project proposal, and will include a written, narrative self-assessment of the 

development of the project through its completion. The first period of the class is a seminar 

dedicated to discussions of readings and presentations. The second period is studio-oriented. 

Consistent attendance, participation in class discussion, and the completion of every project 

are mandatory to receive credit for this course. 

Relationship Object & 

Environment 


Megan McMillan 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A210 

Relationship, Object and Environment is an advanced level, cross-disciplinary course 

that is an investigation of the intersections within our environment that create intentional 

and unintentional narratives. From social sculpture and artistic interventions to graffiti and 

impromptu roadside shrines to the omnipresence of print (and increasingly digital) advertising 

embellishing our public spaces, our environment is constantly layered and mediated by 

text and objects orchestrated by others. Do these elements become infused with a kind 

of collective meaning? How can artists investigate these intersections and develop work 

that responds to the world around us and in cooperation (or conflict) with our known and 

unknown collaborators? This studio and seminar course will consist of collaborative projects, 

critiques, readings, discussions, field trips and introduction to the work of contemporary 

working artists in the field. 

4 Sculptors 


Mags Harries 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

C112 

This two-period seminar/studio course is for graduate students and advanced undergraduates 

who are committed to their work, who are developing independent projects, and who are 

looking for a forum to investigate, understand, and discuss sculpture and its possible 

meanings. We provide up-close and personal opportunities with eight professional sculptors. 

The seminar poses the question, “How do artists speak about their work?” The goal is for you 

to strengthen the way you articulate your own work and the work of classmates. We host 

a visiting artist every three weeks. After lecturing on their work to a large, public audience 

at the school, they will meet with just our class as a group, for questions, answers, and 

discussion. Students will also meet with the artist for one-on-one studio visits. The course 

consists of readings, research, assignments, student led critiques, and open studio work. 

Object a Week 


Mags Harries 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A212 

Each week, students will be given the same object as a catalyst for ideas that can be 

translated into any medium. The objects chosen will take the student through a range of 

responses and the class will help generate approaches that can expand their art-making 

process. Attention in critiques will be given to content, achieving the intention in the work, 

choice of materials, manner in which it is expressed, and how to develop these ideas into 

the future. Morning class will be critiques based on projects made outside of class. In the 

afternoon, a new object will be given and students will be given short response times to 

intuitively develop ideas. We will use drawing as a tool to become more intimate with the 

object and to generate ideas more physically. We will collectively share information based on 

experience and factual information from the library and Internet to broaden our information 

base. It is my hope that each student will leave the course filled with ideas and energy to 

expand into other areas of the School.


50 

2D Or Not 2D: Interm 

Sculpture/Interm Printmaking 


Peter Scott 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A104, A210 

The objective of this course is to dispel the concept of the art piece (print or sculpture) as a 

static object and to explore the process of destruction as transformation. Individual course 

projects will evolve out of a program of class assignments that will take students work from 

the wood shop to the print shop and back again. Initial assignments will involve simple 3D 

wire “drawings” that are crushed and printed and then reconstructed in 3D from the print. 

Additional projects can involve pattern design that can be printed as “kits”, cut out and 

assembled into paper constructions, and the use of printed color and patterns for covering 

constructions to camouflage their shape and surface as with WW1 “Dazzle” techniques. 

Students will take their project through multiple destructions/transformations back and forth 

between 3D and 2D, challenging the concept of sculptural space and image making in both 

arenas.. Transformation procedures, whether destructive, deconstructive or reconstructive, 

are not seen as programmatic. Students will be introduced to exercises in orthographic 

projection, how to enlarge mechanically, pattern design, die cutting, various relief, intaglio 

and stencil printing procedures, as well as basic wood & print shop procedures and safety 

practices. 

Down, Dirty and Dimensional 


Ken Hruby 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A002, A011, A205 

This all-day, one-semester course is absolutely essential to anyone interested in learning 

how to make sculpture. Students divide into three groups and rotate through three important 

technical processes every sculptor needs to know: basic welding, basic woodworking, 

and plaster mold-making and casting. Each group spends four weeks with each process, 

concentrating on acquiring technical skills as well as learning how to make materials speak 

a sculptural language of form, volume, mass, surface, and line. Attendance is mandatory 

because of the wide array of technical processes. 

Introduction to Sound 

SND 1039 01 (4 Credits) 

Nate Harrison 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A201A 

This beginning course explores the medium of sound and the ways in which visual artists 

have incorporated it into their practice. While covering separate “sound art” categories 

and then creating 3 assignments from them, you will explore basic audio principles, sound 

hardware, digital recording and mixing in ProTools and Live environments. Class is divided 

between lecture/discussion/presentation, and technical instruction and lab time. Through 

the course of the class, you will gain a solid foundation in the understanding of sound and 

a contemporary context for the field of sonic arts while developing a strong tool set for 

working within the medium. For individuals involved in multimedia work who desire a basic 

knowledge of working with audio. No experience is necessary. 

Silence 


Seth Kim-Cohen 

F 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A201A 

Silence, the course, interrogates silence the thing. Except that silence is not a thing. A 

sound is a sonic thing. Silence is no thing, which is to say, nothing. So, silence, the course, 

interrogates nothing. Which isn’t to say we don’t interrogate anything. We interrogate silence. 

As anyone who works with sound knows, the spaces, the pauses, the negative spaces, are 

crucial to the composition of sound. These silences, rests, and nothings, it could be argued, 

are as or more important than the sounds, notes, and noises. John Cage – arguably the 

most important sonic practitioner and theorist of the 20th century, made works of silence 

and wrote a book called Silence which we will read in this course called “Silence.” Silence, 

the course, will ask if there is such a thing as a good silence or a bad silence. We will also 

ask if silence means something or if it means nothing. Then we will ask if something that 

means nothing, actually means something.


51 

History of Sonic Art 


Nate Harrison 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A201A 

A History of Sonic Art examines the historical, theoretical and aesthetic bases of sound, 

noise and music in modernity. The course will take as its point of departure the development 

of mechanical media following the stages of industrialization in the early twentieth century. 

Roughly chronological, the course will trace the early European Avant-Garde through to postwar 

experimentation, and then onto postmodern sampling, laptop culture, and the acceptance 

and expansion of “sound art” within the institution of art. While following a timeline, topics, 

issues and theories presented will nonetheless often be transhistorical and interdisciplinary, 

addressing concerns that have persisted within the production of culture since the fundamental 

change to it through the development of recording technologies. Parts music history, sociology 

and aesthetic theory, History of Sonic Art will provide students the historical context and 

conceptual framework from which to articulate their own practices. Regardless of whether or 

not a student works with sound, it will be a very thought provoking class. 

A Tree Falls In The Forest: 

Philosophy and Sound 



F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

A201A 

A Tree Falls In The Forest investigates the Continentsl philosophy as it relates to, informs, and 

describes artistic practice generally, and sound practice specifically. The age-old philosophical 

paradox asks “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one present to hear it, does it make a 

sound?” To answer the question we must first decide if we’re talking about sound as an ontological 

fact: something that exists in-itself regardless of its reception; or sound as an epistemological 

phenomenon: something that exists only as a result of reception. The artistic implications of such 

questions are immense. To grapple with them, we will dip into the history of Western aesthetics 

from Kant’s Critique of Judgment onward. We will think about Kant’s two categories of aesthetic 

experience: the beautiful and the sublime. We will investigate how more recent philosophers have 

rewritten Kant’s formulae to account for the art of the last fifty years. And we will look at and listen 

to examples of contemporary practice to see if philosophy can account for what’s happening 

today or if a new philosophical perspective must develop to match today’s art. 

Introduction to Sound 



R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

A201A 

This beginning course explores the medium of sound and the ways in which visual artists 

have incorporated it into their practice. While covering separate “sound art” categories 

and then creating 3 assignments from them, you will explore basic audio principles, sound 

hardware, digital recording and mixing in ProTools and Live environments. Class is divided 

between lecture/discussion/presentation, and technical instruction and lab time. Through 

the course of the class, you will gain a solid foundation in the understanding of sound and 

a contemporary context for the field of sonic arts while developing a strong tool set for 

working within the medium. For individuals involved in multimedia work who desire a basic 

knowledge of working with audio. No experience is necessary. 

Senior Thesis Program - First 

Semester 

STP 3101 01 (4 Credits) 

David Davison 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM / 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A310 

Senior Thesis is the culmination and transition between formal courses and assignments to 

a yearlong independent professional art practice. Students are given the time and support to 

explore personal, theoretical, or process-oriented themes, in the full richness and complexity 

of contemporary culture. The program is for students who are ready for an intensive, selfreflective 

year of research writing, art making, career building, and critques, with program 

faculty, visiting artists, and cultural art thinkers. vEach student participates in indiividual 

as well as group critiques, organized to foster community, dialogue, and collaboration. In 

addition to a rigorous critique schedule, students attend group meetings where benchmarks 

are set, ideas are exchanged, and students showcase their thesis proposals. Successful 

completion in the program requires continued progress with individual research, material 

explorations, attending group meetings, and critiques with Senior Thesis faculty. Students 

should be prepared to spend 15-20 hours a week working in their studios outside of the 

regular schedule. Senior Thesis Program Eligibility -- Students with 56 studio credits earned 

(BFA) or 84 studio credits earned (Studio Diploma). Complete the Senior Thesis Program 

application and obtain a signature from Senior Thesis Faculty prior to registration and in 

relationship to available space. It is highly recommended for students to also enroll in a 

3000 level seminar course of their choice. If students need assistance with advising they 

should contact Senior Thesis Faculty and an Academic Advisor in Academic Affairs.


52 

Senior Thesis Program - 

Second Semester 

STP 3201 01 (4 Credits) 

David Davison 

T 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM / 

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 

A310 

The second semester of Senior Thesis is the resolution of goals and research you uncovered 

about your emerging art practice from the first semester. Students continue a dialogue where 

research, art making, critique, and post-graduation artist strategies are emphasized with 

program faculty, visiting artists, and cultural art thinkers. Committees are formed and activated 

(curatorial, installation, fabrication, and publicity) as a real experience for understanding the 

many roles an artist navigates when converting a body of work into a final solo exhibition. 

Successful completion in the program requires the exhibition, publication, and professional 

documentation of your thesis work in the Senior Thesis Exhibition. Students enrolled should 

be prepared to spend an additional 15-20 hours a week working in their studios outside of 

the regular schedule. As well as contribute to the extra hours necessary for the installation 

and de-installation of the thesis exhibition. 

Intro Interdisciplinary Media 

Arts 

VID 1010 01 (4 Credits) 

Kurt Ralske 

R 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B115 

Introduction to Interdisciplinary Media Arts is focused on the concepts and practical techniques 

used in producing artwork in the digital domain. Problems that often arise in creating video, 

audio, and Internet work can be avoided by developing a deeper understanding of the 

under-the-hood workings of hardware and software. Students are provided with a skill set 

that is flexible, adaptable, and generalized: not just a mastery of the specific tools we have 

today, but an ability to translate their skills to the software and hardware that will exist in 

the future.Technical material covered will include file formats, binary representations, digital 

color, compositing modes, alpha channels, video compression, data rate, practical audio 

recording techniques, datamoshing, header munging, and principles of creative coding. 

We will also consider the larger critical concepts of encoded representations, sequential 

vs. random access, the increasing importance of quantification and intelligent algorithms, 

and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of analog vs. digital forms. The course does 

not require any prior experience with digital audio or video. 

Video I 


Barbara Bickart 

T 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B115 

Video I consists of a series of intensive workshops designed to give you the skills to become 

a technically proficient and thinking video maker. Students produce individual projects 

through hands-on instruction in camera composition, lighting, sound, and editing. We survey 

and analyze current trends in video and digital art practices through frequent screenings, 

readings, and discussions, and we explore a wide range of possibilities for video art production 

including single-channel, installation, performance, and Internet projects. We provide access to 

equipment such as mini DV cameras, microphones, lighting kits, and Final Cut Pro nonlinear 

editing systems, computers for multi-channel installation, video projectors and screens for 

image display, audio speakers for multi-channel and surround sound installation. 

Video II 


TBA 

F 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B115 

This course is for experienced video students to learn and improve upon skills useful for 

creating advanced video projects. The emphasis for the course will be the intersection of 

video art, motion graphic design, and music. Using HD cameras, including DSLR/hybrids, 

and software such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and other video and audio tools, 

students are encouraged to think of video as a plastic medium with a direct relationship 

to music, as well as other fine art mediums and graphic arts. Seminars will explore topics 

relevant to recent video art discourse including: the power of the image; the dialectic between 

commercial music video, vernacular video YouTube), and fine art.


53 

Media Arts Seminar 


Barbara Bickart 

M 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B115 

This course offers a theoretical and experiential introduction to making video projects in the 

context of Community-based Art practices, a form that brings artists together with people of 

a community of location, interest, or affinity to create work that is participatory and based 

in the life and issues of that community and in an ideology of social justice. Students will 

design Community-based Art projects exploring video in a range of forms (single-channel, 

installation, interdisciplinary, interactive, or online) that grow organically out of their own 

research and fieldwork. In their project designs, students will be asked to consider the 

roles and interests of participants, target audiences, arts organizations, funders, community 

stakeholders, as well as their own artistic goals within the context of using video to realize a 

community-based art project. By examining a range of community-based arts video projects 

and practices students will gain an understanding of this field of cultural development, its 

history and evolution. Exposure to the local and national landscape of community art will 

occur through readings, research, guest presenters, and field trips. Students will be asked 

to examine the meanings, uses, and efficacy of community-based art from a variety of 

perspectives and interests, especially with regard to neighborhood revitalization and poverty, 

civic engagement, pluralism, democracy, and community organizing. Coursework will cover 

theoretical models and approaches to community-based art and cultural development, offering 

students a range of lenses through which to apprehend concepts such as power-sharing, 

dialogue, group dynamics, community/organizational assets, and social change. It will also 

cover a range of practical skills necessary in making community-based video work, including 

research, collaborative art-making, business, and project management. 

Advanced Digital Imaging for 

Video and Installation 


Mary Ellen Strom 

W 

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

B115 

This studio course will offer technical workshops to produce video installations. Students 

will produce and install their final projects in a public gallery. The course is designed to 

support students who are ready and eager to produce and exhibit a video installation, 

especially undergrads preparing for their Senior Thesis and MFA candidates for their Graduate 

Thesis Exhibitions. The course will provide an atmosphere for bold experimentation, project 

development and detailed project actualization. From large-scale installations to intimate 

projects, we will work to understand the most effective strategy for student’s individual 

projects and meaning production. We will survey and analyze contemporary video installation 

practices. Through screenings, readings and discussions we will critically explore the 

politics of display. The course will examine immersive installations, constructed spectacles, 

architectural space and time and video as an element integrated into other disciplines At 

the conclusion of this course students will learn how to install their video installations in a 

professional, public context.

Fall 2013 Course Catalog - School of the Museum of Fine Arts

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