The art department has restructured its fine arts undergraduate and
graduate programs and has renumbered its courses. The new course numbers are now in use for both graduate and undergraduate students. For those making the transition from one set of numbers to another, we provide keys for both undergraduate and graduate courses. Beginning in the fall semester 2006, undergraduates declaring fine arts as their major will complete the program under the revised rules for undergraduates. Graduate students entering the program in the fall 2006 will be given the opportunity to choose between old and new rules. Students currently enrolled complete their degrees by fulfilling the requirements listed in the University Bulletin issued the year they declared their major or began study as graduate students.
For both undergraduates and graduates, the restructuring creates an interdisciplinary approach that promotes the crossing of conventional visual, technical, and conceptual boundaries, while maintaining more traditional areas of in-depth study of one medium. This direction, anchored by the department’s programs of Drawing/Painting, Photography, and Sculpture/Ceramics, will be complemented by our recently developed New Media program. The curricular changes will allow each student to develop a unique balance of traditional and contemporary. By encouraging a dialogue among the programs, and recognizing their shared affinities, students will gain a deeper understanding of the creative process and its place in the greater cultural context.
The new curriculum challenges students by combining traditional production-based courses that teach technical and conceptual skills with art history lectures and studio critiques. Students receive ongoing feedback on their work from the permanent staff, as well as visiting artists and critics. The visiting artist program brings local and internationally recognized artists to campus, where they lecture, make individual studio visits and give group critiques. The new curriculum will create a dynamic learning environment that more closely mirrors the realities of the larger art world, where artists regularly work across a variety of media. Students who graduate from GW will leave with a strong aesthetic sensibility, firm control of their chosen medium/a, and a deeper understanding of the historical and theoretical issues that shape contemporary artistic practice.
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