Courses

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Visual & Performing Arts (FSVP), AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Explores materials, methods, and concepts in drawing with an emphasis on observational practice. Fundamental skills and knowledge required for further study within the field as well as insight into the realm of drawing at a general and theoretical level. Studio work is supplemented by lectures, presentations, seminar discussions, and museum visits.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Introduction to the practice of painting with emphasis on fundamental painting modes: perceptual/representational, conceptual/abstract, and process/system-based. Emphasizes working understanding of methods and materials of oil and/or water-based painting while investigating basic aspects of visual perception, historical precedent, contemporary culture, and critical assessment of subject, form, and content in a work of art.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Introduction to basic three-dimensional design and contemporary sculptural practices. Fundamental skills and knowledge required for further study within the field as well as insight into the realm of sculpture at a general and theoretical level. Through hands-on studio assignments, lectures, presentations, seminar discussions, and museum visits, students gain technical and conceptual skills applicable to art, architecture, and all other forms of three-dimensional design and sculpture.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Explores formal and conceptual problems through printmaking exercises. Understanding of the potential of graphic media and introduction to new imaging methods and concepts, including experimentation with scale, sequencing, and multi-technique works.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Explores historical and contemporary film photography as a means of achieving a working knowledge of experimental darkroom methods and processing techniques. Develops an understanding of photography as art through lectures, presentations, critiques, and assignments that encourage creation and interpretation.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP), IF-Embodied Communication (IFEB)

Introduction to film, sound and video production within the context of contemporary art. Uses readings, screenings, workshops, and hands-on assignments, to gain the technical and conceptual skills required to produce resolved independent projects in 16mm film, digital video, and analog/digital sound. By foregrounding the distinct features of these media, this course also illustrates their many similarities and differences – from the technical and perceptual to the historical, cultural, and socio-political. Production of independent work that explores creative approaches to film, sound and video production that fall beyond the aesthetic and cultural norms of mainstream media.

Units: 1

One of two foundation-level classes required for all Visual and Media Arts Practice majors and minors. Serves as a prerequisite for all intermediate and advanced level courses in the curriculum. Explores the fundamentals of drawing, painting, and sculpture in three distinct modules. In addition to producing artwork, introduces the history and theory surrounding these media as well as their significance within contemporary art practice. Each module will educate students on health and safety issues and procedures that are applicable to these media and our facilities.

Units: 1

One of two foundation-level classes required for all Visual and Media Arts Practice majors and minors. Serves as a prerequisite for all intermediate and advanced level courses in the curriculum. Explores the fundamentals of printmaking, photography, and time-based media production in three distinct modules. In addition to producing artwork, students are introduced to the history and theory surrounding these media as well as their significance within contemporary art practice. Each module will educate students on health and safety issues and procedures that are applicable to these media and our facilities.

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Builds upon the concepts, techniques and media introduced in the two foundation-level classes and introduces drawing as a vehicle of creative visual thought, a tool for observing and recording the world around us, and a versatile medium that extends into media such as printmaking, sculptural installation and animation, for example. Projects in charcoal, pencil, ink, acrylic, collage on paper, and alternative surfaces.

 

VMAP 112 or VMAP 211

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Advances understanding and skill in drawing the human figure with emphasis on interpreting formal aspects of proportion, surface anatomy, volume, and composition. Projects range from rigorous academic, observational studies to independent, interpretive projects. Students draw directly from live models using a variety of drawing media such as graphite, charcoal, ink, color pastel, and watercolor. Explores the human figure through aesthetic, conceptual and historical contexts that inform representations of the figure in past and contemporary cultures.

 

VMAP 112 or VMAP 211

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Emphasizes observational skills and the conventions of representational art while exploring the human figure and its contextual spaces as subjects. Develops methods of oil and/or water-based painting and how to assess subject, form and content in a work of art. Begins with traditional academic methods for representing the figure working directly from live model before exploring a series of independent approaches to the figure. Includes historical and contemporary contexts for interpreting the human figure.

 

VMAP 113 or VMAP 211

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Emphasizes interpretive and independent based studies while exploring abstract, conceptual, and process/system-based painting. Variety of paint media (ex. oil, water-based, non-traditional, etc.) and surfaces/supports (ex. canvas, various papers, polypropylene, wood panel, patterned fabrics, ephemeral supports, non-traditional, etc.) used to investigate historical, contemporary and experimental methods of painting. Refines critical skills in examining painted content, including its forms, concepts, and contexts.

 

VMAP 113 or VMAP 211

Units: 1

Intermediate-level course engaging students in the material exploration of a variety of sculptural media and processes within the context of contemporary art. Emphasis upon wood fabrication, metal fabrication, mold making and casting, and mixed-media objects and installation. Lectures, presentations, and critiques that address problems dealing with perception, the conceptualization of space, and objects in space.

 

VMAP 114 or VMAP 211

Units: 1

Intermediate-level course in the exploration of computer modeling techniques within the context of contemporary sculptural practice. Emphasis is upon using 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC routing to fabricate three-dimensional forms, multiples, and installations. Students participate in lectures, presentations, and critiques that address current issues in the field of sculpture and technology-based production, as well as problems dealing with perception, the conceptualization of space, and objects in space.

 

VMAP 114 or VMAP 211 and VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Builds upon the concepts, techniques and media introduced in the two foundation-level classes and introduces printmaking in the context of creative graphic arts as well as an image/multiple image-making tool in media such as installation, sculpture and graphic design. Work in woodcut, intaglio, screenprint and lithography on paper and alternative surfaces. Explores digital image making and printing methods as well as multi-color printing, postprinting interventions, and printmaking applications beyond the paper surface.

 

VMAP 115 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Introduction to bookbinding (Western and non-Western), material and digital printing techniques, and typesetting skills through work on individual and collaborative studio projects. Explores concepts such as sequencing, text and image, and content and structure relationships. Study of the evolution of the artist’s book and contemporary practice in this medium, basic bookbinding and printing skills, and creation of artist books using woodcut, photopolymer etching, digital text and imaging tools, and collage and extended media.

 

VMAP 211 and VMAP 212

Units: 1

Introduction to the fundamental, technical, and aesthetic issues of black and white photography with an emphasis on using the medium for personal expression. Students confront a series of problems that are designed to increase their understanding of basic camera operation, darkroom techniques, and art making strategies. The history of photography is covered through the study of historical and contemporary works and different styles of photography are explored through lectures, presentations, critiques, and assignments.

 

VMAP 116 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Introduction to the field of digital photography and digital imaging within the context of contemporary art. Production of original works of art while studying the impact of technology upon human perception, visual art, and contemporary culture. Emphasis upon the ways in which digital technologies have transformed our understanding of traditional photographic media.

 

VMAP 116 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Film studies course (FMST), AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Intermediate-level course in the study and production of sound and video within the context of contemporary art. Each year, the thematic focus of this course will change based upon current trends in the field. Possible topics may address methods of production (audio/video synthesis, online broadcasting, or multimedia performance and installation), genres significant to the field of contemporary art (appropriation, performance, documentary, narrative), or broader themes that have sustained lasting interest and significance (landscape and the environment, protest and social practice, media criticism, gender and identity politics). In addition to learning production and postproduction techniques, students participate in seminar discussions and presentations that seek to expand our understandings of the theme and/or mode of production in question. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP 117, VMAP 212, or FMST 202

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE)

Introduction to all aspects of researching, curating, promoting and presenting public programs of independent film and video art. Research on and participation in seminar discussions, presentations, and readings pertaining to the field prior to developing a curatorial theme or framework for a screening series, festival and/or gallery exhibition. Once determined, students preview works from the collections of international film and video art distributors, resulting in a curated program of works to be presented publicly at the close of the semester. In addition to programming, students are responsible for writing curatorial program descriptions, film and video synopses, and designing program brochures, posters, and websites. Through this process, students are exposed to contemporary trends in the field of independent film and video art while developing skills in graphic design, comparative analysis, writing about art and media, and presenting challenging work to a captive audience.

 

VMAP 211 and VMAP 212; or VMAP 117 or FMST 202

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): American studies electives (AMER)

Focuses on internet history and corresponding internet and digital arts practices. Students also edit and publish the online journal Digital America as they study and curate submissions throughout the semester. Students work as editors, curators, and contributors to the journal while developing a context for digital scholarship and art through readings and discussions.

 

VMAP 211 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Focuses on online content and editorial production within the arts and beyond by examining UX/UI design, digital platforms, and production practices. Students will focus on producing the bi-yearly issue of the journal, which includes reviewing and curating submissions, redesigning the website, reviewing and updating our outreach practices, and more.

Units: 1

Examples of past courses include: printmaking and cross-cultural communication, figure and narrative, and comic books and zines. May be repeated for credit if topics differ.

 

VMAP 211 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Examine the role of print in the public space, civic discussion and social protest and challenges students to create public works of their own, individually or collaboratively. The class will study historical examples of prints in the public space, such as Northern Renaissance monumental prints, Russian revolutionary posters and the traditions of graphic political art in Eastern Europe, United States and Latin America and will also create works for two projects that will be installed in public spaces around campus and the city of Richmond.

 

VMAP 115 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP)

Intermediate, studio-based course in animation, motion graphics, and sequential media. Creative work begins with traditional methods such as flipbooks, cutouts, and cel animation before moving onto mixed-media stopmotion and multi-plane animation, digital 2D animation, and motion graphic work using Adobe AfterEffects. Studio practice is developed by learning through process and experimentation and is contextualized within the history of animation, contemporary art, and experimental media via supplemental readings, screenings, workshops, and seminar discussions. All genres and styles of animation are within the scope of this course and relationships between animation and drawing, film, painting, photography, sculpture, sound, and video will be explored.

 

Any 100 level VMAP course, VMAP 211, or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE)

This intermediate-level course provides a constructive and critical framework for the development of independently conceived projects in Video Art and Alternative Media. Course readings and screenings provide insight into the radical nature of this field, which embraces marginalized voices and perspectives, interdisciplinary methods and research, alternative production and distribution, and experimental and activist media. Students expand their visual literacy through creative work that considers one’s own subjectivity and agency within a dominant cultural ideology that promotes consumption, familiarity and stasis over diversity, creativity, and innovation.

 

VMAP 117 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Studio-intensive course providing students with the opportunity to independently conceive and develop projects that expand their prior knowledge of drawing-based media. Emphasis is placed upon developing a personal voice while exploring various techniques and advanced concepts in drawing. Projects that integrate or extend into media such as painting, printmaking, sculpture, and video, are supported. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis-levels of our curriculum where working across media is encouraged. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP 112, VMAP 211, VMAP 250, VMAP 251, or VMAP 256

Units: 1

Productive and critical framework for creating independently conceived painting projects within a broad array of painting media, multimedia, and interdisciplinary contexts. Emphasis will shift between highly focused and exploratory processes as each student develops coherence between paint’s materiality, supports, concepts, and context. Encourages historical and experimental methods and includes painting’s extension into other media such as photography, printmaking, film, video, and sculpture. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis-levels of our curriculum where working across media is encouraged. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP 113, VMAP 211, VMAP 252, or VMAP 253

Units: 1

Constructive and critical framework to develop independently conceived projects in a wide spectrum of sculptural media. Emphasis on the production of works that bridge material processes in wood, metal, and various forms of casting with contemporary tools such as 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC routing. The production of multi-media installations that incorporate or extend into areas such as painting, printmaking, photography, and digital or electronic media is both supported and encouraged. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis levels of our curriculum where working across media is common practice. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP 211 or VMAP 114

Units: 1

Studio-intensive course providing a constructive and critical framework to develop independently conceived projects across a variety of printmaking media. Emphasis on the exploration of advanced processes and concepts while deepening student’s appreciation for printmaking, broadening their knowledge of the history of print-media, and developing an understanding of contemporary printmaking practices. Projects that integrate or extend into areas such as painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed-media installation, are supported. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis-levels of the curriculum where working across media is common practice. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP 112, VMAP 115, VMAP 116, VMAP 212, VMAP 250, VMAP 251, VMAP 256, or VMAP 257

Units: 1

ndependent conception and development of projects that expand prior knowledge of digital and/or darkroom photography, image post-production, and printing techniques. Photo-based projects that integrate or extend into other media such as painting, printmaking, film, and video, are supported. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis-levels of the curriculum where working across media is encouraged. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP212, VMAP116, VMAP258, or VMAP259

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Film studies course (FMST)

Critical framework to develop independently conceived projects in a variety of media. Production of electronic time-based works that integrate animation, film, sound, video and performance into interactive, mixed-media installations that may also incorporate other art making processes such painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. A variety of electronic tools (analog and digital) that expand or augment more traditional forms of time-based media are developed and explored. Prepares students for the advanced and thesis-levels of the curriculum where working across media is encouraged. May be repeated for credit.

 

VMAP117, or VMAP212, or VMAP260, or VMAP261, or FMST 202

Units: 1

Introduction to international contemporary art, theory, and criticism with the purpose of increasing critical aptitude and deepening understanding of art and visual culture. Examines the lasting impact of avant-garde practices as well as current trends in the visual arts. Research contemporary art practices through intensive reading, writing, and seminar discussions. Junior-level requirement for all VMAP majors.

 

VMAP 211 or VMAP 212

Units: 1

Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP), IF-Embodied Communication (IFEB)

This advanced-level course provides a constructive and critical framework for the development of creative projects in film and video that explore non-traditional, unconventional, or experimental approaches to narrative. In conjunction with studio practice, students study texts and art media and participate in regular seminar discussions and group critiques.

 

VMAP 117, VMAP 212, VMAP 260, VMAP 261, VMAP 262, VMAP 279, VMAP 295, VMAP 296, or VMAP 310

Units: 0.25-1.5

Supervised work experience at approved artist's studio, museum, or gallery. No more than 1.5 units of internship in any one department and 3.5 units of internship overall may be counted toward required degree units.

Units: 0.25-1

Individually designed program under faculty supervision. Independent studies cannot be substituted for required courses in the Studio Art major.

 

Approval by a faculty mentor.

Units: 0

Documentation of the work of students who receive summer fellowships to conduct research [or produce a creative arts project] in the summer. The work must take place over a minimum of 6 weeks, the student must engage in the project full-time (at least 40 hours per week) during this period, and the student must be the recipient of a fellowship through the university. Graded S/U.

 

Approval by a faculty mentor.

Units: 1

Senior-level open studio course. Students propose an independently conceived body of work in any medium or media of their choice. Emphasis ion the development and completion of a cohesive body of work grounded in independent research and supported by resolved written statements. Provides students with the opportunity to develop a sustainable studio practice that embodies rigorous research, conceptual problem solving, and an in-depth understanding of how their practice exists within field of contemporary art. Work presented in the form of critiques as well as more formal presentations to the Department of Art and Art History faculty. Following a successful final review, the Studio Art faculty grant acceptance into ARTS 466: Senior Thesis Exhibition.

 

VMAP211, VMAP212, and VMAP351. Special Note: For Seniors Only -to be taken in Fall of Senior Year.

Units: 1

Graduating Studio Art majors are granted acceptance into this course based upon a successful review of their performance in ARTS 465: Advanced Studio Seminar. In addition to preparing their work for exhibition, students write thesis papers to support their research and creative work and learn practical skills for developing careers as professional artists. This course concludes with a thesis exhibition in the Harnett Museum of Art, where students publicly present their work in the form of a gallery talk, and an off-campus group exhibition that is organized, installed, and promoted as a collaborative class effort.

 

VMAP 365 and permission of the Department. Special Note: For Seniors Only - to be taken in Spring of Senior Year.