Art Studio (Florence)

6 units

Art Practice and Methods & Contexts are linked pedagogically and conceptually in the Sam Fox curriculum. In Florence, the 2 courses will be merged into a broader 6-credit art studio course. The city of Florence today serves as a living, breathing museum that offers a glimpse into the materials and methods of its past, while offering a fertile ground for contemporary art practices that focus on critical investigation. In this course, students will engage a diverse set of art practices that operate between past and present, between the technical and conceptual, exploring the relationship between the Renaissance's reinterpretation of classicism and its revolutionary spirit that sparked innovation in the arts, sciences and society in general. Six hundred plus years later, students will examine artistic/visual conventions of the Renaissance and re-contextualize them to twenty-first century ideas and issues. Students will also integrate and synthesize knowledge resulting from Art Practice. Supported by lectures, discussions and critiques, the course will foster a creative environment and critical discourse surrounding artistic practices. Students are guided through the art-making process, from conceptualization to resolution, emphasizing experimentation with various methods of production and distribution. Students will be challenged to contextualize their own artistic interests within the contemporary art field by promoting critical analysis skills necessary for initiating, interpreting and evaluating artistic production. The course will make use of these myriad opportunities through field trips or site visits, lectures, technical demonstrations and readings that will supplement these investigations.