Provisionally approved 6/06/02
ENGAGING ART
LEVEL I
RATIONALE: The arts encompass a wide spectrum of traditional and emerging
disciplines in the literary, visual, musical, and performing realms. As a
College that values a vibrant, human-centered society, we recognize the significant
role the arts play--historically and in the present--in occasioning personal
delight and community celebration, and in repositing collective memory. Because
works of art can shape public imagination through resonant sounds, imagery,
and words they have added value to those committed to creating social change.
Because works of art can communicate the complexity of the differences in
perspective and experience that exist among individuals and/or communities,
developing a basic literacy in the language of the arts is important to those
who expect to participate in a multicultural world.
For professionals in fields of argument and advocacy, skills of persuasion and the ability to make an emotional connection to one’s audience, are as essential as logical reasoning and statistical support. Many aspects of an artist’s training--such as strategies to catch and focus public attention, the selection and arrangement of elements for visceral impact, and an appreciation of the historical resonance of imagery--offer qualitative researchers and advocates for social change important tools toward heightening the persuasive impact of their work.The arts competencies are designed to enable students to become more sophisticated participants in the global community conversation and local activities, of which the arts are an essential component, and to acquire tools that will sharpen their communication abilities. This competency introduces students to the arts through investigation of a particular discipline. From here student will be able to build on their knowledge, literacy and appreciation and advance their skills in a particular discipline as they increase their ability to enjoy and employ art with various communities.In this first arts competency, Engaging Art, students will become more aware --reading, looking, listening--to a body of art from a particular discipline. They will be able to link their personal response to an understanding of the elements of form used to create the artistic work and affect its meaning or impact.
COMPETENCY: Can respond to a body of art work with awareness of the values
and choices reflected therein.
CRITERIA:
1. Select a body of artistic work for consideration
2. Record your personal responses
3. Identify and define the major craft elements at play.
4. Demonstrate, either by application or analysis, an understanding of how those elements of form affect the meaning or impact of one significant piece or work of art work.
STANDARDS:
1. For Criterion 1, the body of artistic work may be from any traditional or emerging discipline of the literary, visual, musical, performing, or other arts. For students with proficiency in the discipline, a student’s own work could constitute the body of work. Student and evaluator must reach agreement as to what constitutes an acceptable body of artwork.
2. For Criterion 2, your responses may be visceral and intellectual. Cite your reactions and the reasons for them.
3. For Criterion 3, the craft elements that you identify and define must be important to that discipline, as commonly understood by professionals in that field, or as supported by clear argument. Students are expected to read texts approved by the evaluator that explain the interconnection between form and content in that artistic discipline.
4. For Criterion 4, demonstration of your understanding must be supported by specific examples or patterns from the art work. Where it serves clarity, the standard language of that artistic discipline should be used.
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATION:
1. Prior Learning. A student who has developed proficiency as an actor and has performed in a community theater production presents an evaluator with documentation of his performance. Through written and/or oral presentation, he conveys how the choices made for his character’s voice, gestures, physical presence, and movements on stage supported a given interpretation of the script; and he gives rationale for why these are key elements in an actor’s craft.
2. Independent Learning. With permission of an evaluator, a group of students, each of whom is a proficient writer of fiction, reads and discusses the short story collections of three authors. Each student keeps a journal about her/his response to the readings and writes and revises a short story of her/his own, focusing on character, setting, and dramatic tension.
3. Course. Complete a CPCS course addressing the competency or an appropriate transfer.
4. Field Project. A group of students assists a quiltmaker who is a public artist on a quiltmaking project with a group at a battered women’s shelter. Under the direction of the quiltmaker, the group examines various quilts, discusses what they want their quilt to express, selects a design, and makes a quilt about the shelter and the stories of the women who stay there. The student documents the experience and through written or oral explanation demonstrates fulfillment of the competency to the evaluator.