Learning Goals and Assessment
Learning Goals:
UMF students graduating with a degree in art will:
- Be able to create a dynamic and intellectually sound body of work within their chosen medium that demonstrates a high skill level and functions both conceptually and technically
- Be able to express the context of their work orally, in writing, and through research
- Be able to prepare appropriate packages to send out to galleries, graduate schools and/or potential employers
- Understand the conceptual and technical aspects inherent in a given medium
- Be able to find a context for their work and ideas in contemporary art and art history
- Be able to construct meaning that is relevant to the contemporary art dialogue as well as art history
- Be able to formulate content for their work that is both relevant and complex
- Be able to identify their own perspective, community, and role in the world
- Be prepared to approach a variety of opportunities and connections in the real world
- Be able to identify their relevance as artists and makers in a wider context
- Be able to evaluate and critique the communicative and conceptual strength of their own work as well as the work of their peers
- Be able to continue to develop problem-solving skills (both technical and conceptual) within a given medium
New Media and Graphic Design
New Media is the study of art making processes that were invented after 1950. In our program instruction centers around digital tools such as video, animation, and print. Graphic Design is often thought of as a discipline that describes the ideas of others, and that the designer is only a tool for creating consumer desire. This is not historically the role of design, and we embrace it’s power to communicate as well as critique.
Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of new media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.
Sculpture and Painting
Many changes have taken place in traditional media over the last 100 years. Students will engage the disciplines of Painting and Sculpture by investigating its complex history and experimenting with new and exciting ways of working that employs new tools and practices and develops new ideas, in order to create new meaning in our contemporary dialog.
Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of 3D and 2D media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.
Socially Engaged Art
Foregrounding social issues, activism and community collaborations, Socially Engaged Art is art that acts as a catalyst for social change.
Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of live/performance art to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.
Integrated Arts
In this concentration students begin with the idea and investigate the material and mediums that best represent the idea to their audience. Skills are learned in service to the idea and working across the concentrations is essential to creating a meaningful and successful body of work.
Students will be able to use the formal, technical and conceptual aspects of a variety of media to approach concepts, construct meaning and take part in the contemporary dialog.
Visual Culture
Visual Culture is the study of images and media, their meaning and their impact on society and culture. This concentration is designed for students interested in cultural studies, writing, history, and curating as well as artmaking. Students will be able to demonstrate scholarly knowledge and critical understanding of art history and visual culture including architecture and historical and media images as texts, as cultural constructions.
Students will also be able to demonstrate the ability to write and speak persuasively on complex ideas in art history, visual culture, and related disciplines.
