An introductory course using visual materials with emphasis on methods and motivations that generate the visual experience, both past and present. Art practices from around the world are examined for form and content. Emphasis will be on Western Art.

Course Outcomes:
1. Articulate verbally and in writing a general understanding of the significance of visual art in a wide variety of culture and media.
2. Create a personal work of art. Articulate verbally and in writing the form and content of the piece, along with information about significant artists and art works relative to the created artwork, and to visual art.
3. Articulate verbally and in writing appropriate art vocabulary, and art evaluation concepts, when viewing visual art.

Develop a passion for visual communication and learn new skills! In Two-Dimensional Design students of all abilities will master the fundamentals of visual composition, and the various ways artists and designers use visual language. Through the study of the elements and principals of design students will develop technical proficiency in a range of art media and find creative confidence in the expression of visual communication. This course approach fosters creativity through one-one-one instruction during time, written feedback, and group critiques.

Develop a passion for visual communication and learn new skills! In Three-Dimensional Design students of all abilities will master the fundamentals of visual composition, and the various ways artists and designers use visual language. Through the study of the elements and principals of design students will develop technical proficiency in a range of art media and find creative confidence in the expression of visual communication. This course approach fosters creativity through one-one-one instruction during time, written feedback, and group critiques.

This art history video discussion examines Jackson Pollock's "One: Number 31", 1950, Oil and enamel paint on unprimed canvas, 1950 (MoMA).

This course asks students to consider the ways in which social theorists, institutional reformers, and political revolutionaries in the 17th through 19th centuries seized upon insights developed in the natural sciences and mathematics to change themselves and the society in which they lived. Students study trials, art, literature and music to understand developments in Europe and its colonies in these two centuries. Covers works by Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx, and Darwin.

In this art history video discussion Beth Harris and Steven Zucker look at Albrecht Durer's "Self-Portrait, 1500." (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

In this art history video discussion Beth Harris and Steven Zucker examine Albrecht Altdorfer's "The Battle of Issus," 1529, oil on panel. Alte Pinokothek, Munich.

Students apply the analytical skills that they use when reading literature to an exploration of the underlying meaning and symbolism in Hieronymous Bosch's early Renaissance painting "Death and the Miser".

This art history video discussion examines Antoine or Louis Le Nain's "Peasant Family in an Interior", 2nd quarter of the 17th century, oil on canvas (Musee du Louvre, Paris).

This class investigates the theory, method, and form of collage. It studies not only the historical precedents for collage and their physical attributes, but the psychology and process that plays a part in the making of them. The class was broken into three parts, changing scales and methods each time, to introduce and study the rigor by which decisions were made in relation to the collage. The class was less about the making of art than the study of the processes by which art is made.

Art 200 is an introductory course that chronicles the major developments in art that span from the Upper Paleolithic Period through the Fourteenth Century. This broad, comprehensive survey details this time period’s diverse range of artistic output while identifying the wider contexts (historical, social, cultural, religious) that affected the characteristics and motivations of early art production.

This course is particularly focused on helping you develop visual literacy skills, but all the college courses you take are to some degree about information literacy. Visual literacy is really just a specialized type of information literacy. The skills you acquire in this course will help you become an effective researcher in other fields, as well.

The Art Appreciation course explores the world’s visual arts, focusing on the development of visual awareness, assessment, and appreciation by examining a variety of styles from various periods and cultures while emphasizing the development of a common visual language. The materials are meant to foster a broader understanding of the role of visual art in human culture and experience from the prehistoric through the contemporary.

This is an Open Educational Resource (OER), an openly licensed educational material designed to replace a traditional textbook. The course materials consist of 24 lessons each with a presentation, reading list, and/or sample assignment. For ease of adapting, materials are available as PDFs and Microsoft PowerPoint or Word documents.

The history of Art is long and varied, spanning tens of thousands of years from ancient paintings on the walls of caves
to the glow of computer-generated images on the screens of the 21st century.

This is a popular website/resource that describes itself as "fair use". It has many lists and categories of art and artists with some biographical material and images. It is useful for looking up basic information on a wide variety of artists and subjects. It is not suitable for an entire course.

Art museums are powerful and contested institutions. They are also innovative sites of architectural and artistic practice. From the exhibitionary complex of the nineteenth century to the experiential complex of today, this course investigates the art museum from historical and contemporary perspectives, striking a balance between theoretical investigation and case studies of recent exhibitions and museum buildings. Where and why did the concept of the public art museum emerge, and how have its functions changed over time? How do art museums continue to shape our definitions of what art is? How have they responded to recent critiques of the self-described ‘universal’ museum and to claims for the ethical display of ill-gotten artifacts or the restitution of such objects as Greek vases and bronzes looted from Benin? And why is the Euro-American art museum so compelling a model that it has spread around the globe?
To address these and other questions, we will also go behind the scenes. Visits to local museums and discussions with curators are an essential component of the course.

Artists are often particularly keen observers and precise recorders of the physical conditions of the natural world. As a result, paintings can be good resources for learning about ecology. Teachers can use this lesson to examine with students the interrelationship of geography, natural resources, and climate and their effects on daily life. It also addresses the roles students can take in caring for the environment. Students will look at paintings that represent cool temperate, warm temperate, and tropical climates.
In this lesson students will: Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards; Identify natural resources found in particular geographic areas; Discuss ways in which climate, natural resources, and geography affect daily life; Apply critical-thinking skills to consider the various choices artists have made in their representations of the natural world; Make personal connections to the theme by discussing ways they can be environmental stewards.

This site presents a program that places art in the context of people's lives so our students will understand how important and effective a tool art is in solving problems and overcoming adversity. The student will recognize that Africans sometimes face problems that are similar to his own, and while the solutions Africans create may look different than ours, they are logical and effective.

The visual narratives and abstractions of this preeminent African American artist explore the places where he lived and worked: the rural South, Pittsburgh, Harlem, and the Caribbean. Bearden's central themes: religion, jazz and blues, history, literature, and the realities of black life he endured throughout his remarkable career in watercolors, oils, and especially collages and photomontages from the 1940s through the 1980s.