Areas of Study

Visual Arts Minor | Art History/Visual Arts Joint Major | Course Atlas

Goals for Student Learning & Methods of Assessment

I. Goals for Student Learning

1) Students will acquire technical and conceptual skills necessary to undertake artistic practice in one or more of the media taught in the department—drawing, painting, photography, sculpture (including ceramics), video.

2) Students will be able to critically consider their own work and that of other artists, both in writing and orally.

3) Students will bring to realization one project of an exhibitable quality.

II. Methods of Assessment

Direct method: The work of graduating seniors will be critiqued by an outside professional in the field (an artist, a critic, a curator, a professor), together with the department faculty, in the presence of the group of graduating seniors. Outside critiques are standard in the field of contemporary art, and extremely useful for teachers and students alike.

Funds will have to be provided to pay the visiting critic for her or his work. Ideally this visitor should form part of a series of outside artists who visit the department for a day or two, give presentations on their own work and critique student work. Regular visits from outside artists are common in most departments. Currently the Visual Arts department receives no funding for such a program.

Indirect method: Graduating seniors will be asked to complete a survey asking the following questions:

1) Do you feel that you acquired the technical and conceptual skills necessary to undertake artistic practice in a meaningful way, including the ability to critically consider your own work and the work of other artists?

2) What aspects of your education in this department were most valuable, and why?

3) How might the department help future students learn more effectively? What changes would you recommend?

Use of Information The information from both the direct and indirect methods will be discussed at a designated faculty meeting early in the fall semester, as a way of setting target goals for classes during the coming year.

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Last updated: October 7, 2009