Furniture Design MFA - Curriculum

This course explores the history of contemporary art and visual culture from postmodernism to the present. We will focus on major artistic movements such as Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Performance Art, and Relational Aesthetics. Along with and inseparable from aesthetics and media, we will chart the ways in which class, gender, race, and sexual inequality have figured into the major aesthetic movements of our time. By reading theory and criticism, discussing artworks across media forms, and researching artistic movements in context, students will examine art since the 1960s and its connections to cultural history. Graduate students will complete a research project and class presentation in addition to the writing assignments and discussion expected in the undergraduate section. Lecture 3 (Spring).

The course seeks to bridge the gap between studio practice and contemporary art history. Course content will explore current work and ask questions about what is art, who is the audience, what is “our” art making practice, and how does that fit within the larger context of the current state of the global art world. How do we measure success and artistic failure? The course emphasizes observation, critical analysis, and written interpretation. Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).

This course will provide students with an introduction to the scholarship of teaching and learning in the university environment. Students will explore a range of perspectives on pedagogical practice, curriculum development and the assessment of learning in a studio, lab and seminar based classroom. Additionally, students will focus on ways that students learn, how learning can be improved, and different methods of conducting research into teaching and learning. Students are expected to write critical papers and essays, develop curriculum resources, and to participate in weekly small and large format discussion groups. Online technology is utilized in addition to lectures, videos, and other forms of media. Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course explores the roles of contemporary, traditional, and alternative art spaces through curatorial studies, exhibition evaluation and criticism. Student will consider gallery administration roles and supporting operations, and undertake site visitations and gallery research. Students will organize and install a final exhibition project in an approved exhibition venue. (This class is restricted to degree-seeking graduate students or those with permission from instructor.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

This course will explore the role of the art exhibition and its effect on the discourse and practice of art. Course content will focus on: contemporary and historical exhibition studies, individual and group projects. Student will also conduct site visitations and evaluation, and critique work in the context of exhibition. (This class is restricted to degree-seeking graduate students or those with permission from instructor.) Lecture 3 (Fall).

Students will explore the process of critical analysis of studio work. Content will focus on the structure and form of the critique process. They will discuss, defend, and interpret existing studio work as they work towards their thesis. Faculty led critiques will include studio visits for in depth analysis of works in progress. (Prerequisites: This course is restricted to students in the FNAS-MFA or GLASS-MFA or METAL-MFA or CCER-MFA or WOOD-MFA programs.) Lecture 3 (Fall, Spring).