Course descriptions for Visual Public Art

Studies a particular topic in the visual and public art major. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Offered only as interest warrants.) (Credit/ No Credit Available)

Field Studies opportunities. Topics of study, as well as number of credits, arranged between student and faculty member. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Independent study opportunities. Topics of study, as well as number of credits, arranged between student and faculty member. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Loosely chronological in structure, this introductory course invites students to consider both the basic and the profound, in terms of the relationship between humanity and the visual arts. Examining individual and collaborative art-making, we will explore what we learn about ourselves, as humans, from the material cultures of other centuries, other societies, as well as that of our own.

Students will learn about graffiti art, murals, stencil art, political art and random posters. Students will do independent and small group "archeological" explorations into the surrounding Tri-County area as well as research the internet and if possible their home cities.

Students will learn about the artists and communities involved in Urban Art and Environmental Art. The class activities will include a critical examination of issues related to race, class, culture heritage, gender, physical mobility and ability, ethnic heritage, regional and national origins.

This class is designed to provide a critical exploration of contemporary ethics within the field of visual, media, and public arts. Students will be actively engaged in learning skills of visual literacy and media analysis applied to both public arts and popular media.

This ceremony is a community building practice that helps integrate the past histories with the present memories of the students and faculty involving student-made altars, Aztec dancers, musicians, and a candle light procession. (Offered fall semester.)

This course focuses on reading comprehension, writing, and oral communication skills within a framework of the visual arts. Students will consider the artist throughout history and across diverse cultures as a catalyst for social change and a standard bearer of new vision. We will examine art as a visual literacy and a voice of profound human expression. Through sound composition and comprehension practices, students will strengthen their own communication effectiveness.

Introduces entering students to the fundamentals of drawing, including line, perspective, composition, and beginning drawing skills. (Offered fall and spring semester.)

VPA 216 is a hybrid course. This means that the course combines regular in class meetings with online discussion boards, virtual meetings and assignments. iPods as an object are used in art for everything from museum narration to portfolio display. This course will be an exploration into the invisible power of digital and wireless technologies as tools for art. Learning experiences will include both collaborative and individual projects, class presentations and campus events.

One of the tap-roots of visual expression, color is both physical and psychological. How we perceive colors, value, chroma, and hue depends upon their relationship to each other, and with our own perceptions of their ÀtemperatureÀ and emotion. This course will explore both the scientific properties of optical perception of color, and practical application of its uses for a variety of effects.

Through a service-learning approach, introduces the museum's potential and ethical responsibility for representing history and culture in a way that shapes the public's concept of its values. Divides class time between university setting and internships in local museums where students learn basic operation skills, conservation application, exhibit content, design, and interpretation. Students can begin resum? development for the museum field. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Introduces the use of photography as a tool in reporting and interpreting news for print and digital media. Students will gain an understanding of the history of photojournalism and the impact of photographic imagery in communication ideas and narratives. (Offered spring semester.)

Studies a particular topic in the visual and public art major. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Offered only as interest warrants.) (Credit/ No Credit Available)

Introduction to the theories and models of the Visual and Public Art program and its Major Learning Outcomes. Through readings, lecture/discussions, history and research assignments, community arts projects, portfolio development, public art design, review and exhibition projects, introduces students to the field of public art. Provides insight and practices for careers in visual art, arts education, and museum management. (Offered fall semester.)

Students learn the fundamentals of drawing and painting including line, perspective, color theory, and beginning drawing skills. Students work individually and collaboratively, and participate in class critiques. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Students have opportunities to meet with visiting artists. Requires attending a minimum of three evening artist lectures, and developing artists' profiles and written summary essays. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Presents the fundamentals of construction using basic sculpture methods and materials. Introduces the concepts of installation. Students work individually toward a class-developed collaboration on a specific campus project. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Students study painting to develop individual portfolios, and team and large-scale collaborative class projects. Students work in a variety of materials and learn techniques for studio painting, murals, and other public art works. Contemporary issues in painting and site-specific art are discussed, and all students participate in the class critique process. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)Students study painting to develop individual portfolios, and team and large-scale collaborative class projects. Students work in a variety of materials and learn techniques for studio painting, murals, and other public art works. Contemporary issues in painting and site-specific art are discussed, and all students participate in the class critique process. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Students develop skills of media analysis. Emphasis placed on the analysis of media representations and ethical approaches to socio-media. Forms of media include digital advertising, Internet, music videos, and popular culture materials influencing perception and identity. Provides theoretical approaches to a hands-on model of analysis and media intervention.

Students work with a digital approach to public art project development including analysis of sites, conceptualization, and collaboration using current imaging and video software. Students work in collaboration with specific communities to develop digital images and/or short videos. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Provides examples of contemporary and historical art movements reflective of diverse world communities and cultures. Emphasizes the examination of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, and sexuality in contemporary art. Students learn new skills of "seeing," analyzing, and writing as they develop transferable knowledge, skills, and abilities that can be used in the understanding of their own ethnic or social culture, and the formation of cross-culture alliances.

Surveys the field of contemporary ethical theory in visual and public arts. Students follow controversial cases in public art. Uses guest artists, slide lectures, videos, and field trips as resources to understand and analyze cases. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Offers students a chance to learn skills in a variety of media that lead to the creation of final public art projects and capstone installations. Guest artists give demonstrations as well. (Offered spring semester.)

Provides beginning and intermediate drawing skills using media. Students work from models, still life, landscape/outdoor fieldwork, photographs, and mixed media collage. Students study techniques, proportion, composition, light/shadow, perspective, color, and scale, and do collaborative drawing projects. (Offered spring semester.)

"Books are portable magic". This course teaches students the studio practice of hand-made book arts. Examining visual and literary communication in various cultural contexts, students will learn to make book forms originating from both the East and West. The course will include some basic printmaking methods such as embossment, monotype, relief printing and image transfer as ways to convey meaning through imagery and color. Altered books and found objects will be considered for use.

Helps prepare teachers and others in the visual arts education field with lesson plans developed in conjunction with VPA projects, visiting artists, and museum arts education models. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

VPA 313 engages students in inquiry based learning as they investigate, analyze and describe, both in written and oral presentation format, the overlays of multiple cultures evidenced in early Central Coast art, 1875-1950. Based on the concept of cultural citizenship, the course examines both groups and individuals. While the content focus will be on the visual arts, the course will also examine literature and poetry as they serve to expand and enrich an understanding of regional expression.

Examines visual culture and its manifestations in art, architecture, media, and popular culture. Students work with text and visual materials applying theories of race and post-colonialism, semiotics, anthropology, gender construction, and feminism identity politics and cultural hybridity. Topics include histories of urban development, industrialization, world fairs and expositions, cultural appropriation, neo-colonialism and mass media spectacle. (Offered fall semester.)

Provides beginning and intermediate drawing skill development using media that focuses on the human figure. Students work from models to explore a range of techniques studying proportion, composition, light/shadow, anatomy, and use of color. Includes class critiques and student presentations. (Offered fall semester.)

Emphasizes photography as a means of artistic expression with a primary focus on photography as a means of image making much like other artistic mediums, e.g. painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. Students study the technical, compositional, and conceptual elements of photography as a visual language as well as gain an understanding of the history and uses of photography from the mid-19th century to contemporary photographic practice. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Students gain hands-on darkroom technique and practice through demonstrations and exercises on a weekly basis. Subject to applied lab fees for chemical and darkroom supply usage. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Digital Photography as Art I: Students study the technical, compositional, and conceptual elements of photography as a visual language as well as gain an understanding of the history and uses of photography from the mid-19th century to contemporary photographic practice. Assignments and class critiques encourage lively and thoughtful dialogue among class participants.

Through a service-learning approach, introduces the museum's potential and ethical responsibility for representing history and culture in a way that shapes the public's concept of its values. Divides class time between university setting and internships in local museums where students learn basic operation skills, conservation application, exhibit content, design, and interpretation. Students can begin resume development for the museum field. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Through experiential learning, students visit museums "behind the scenes," learning first-hand the practices from the inside out. Areas covered are exhibition design and fabrication, conservation, collections management, education, and museum finances. The weekend format of the course allows in depth visits to such sites as the Aquarium, the Monterey Museum of Art, Hearst Castle, the Oakland Conservation Lab, etc.

Through guest lectures by numerous scholars and museum professionals, this course offers students understanding of museum practices particularly in the areas of conservation and of collections management and display. The focus is on both art museums as well as museums of history and science.

Dedicated entirely to unconventional photographic processes, explores the photographic medium as a means for artistic expression. Includes non-silver printing techniques, polaroid manipulation, digital negatives, pinhole cameras, and liquid emulsions in the communication of ideas through visual imagery. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Students gain hands-on techniques and practice through demonstrations and exercises on a weekly basis. Subject to applied lab fees for chemical and darkroom supply usage. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Develops the ability to explore ceramic tile and mosaic for both individual works and collaborative projects. Students work with the medium through all the stages of the process: historical views, contemporary concepts, planning, experimentation, techniques of creation, proper studio practices and firing, use of equipment, mounting, and installation. (Offered spring semester.)

Examines feminisms across visual culture in art and popular media. Students work with text and visual materials, applying theories of feminism, gender construction, race, post-colonialism, anthropology, identity politics, and cultural hybridity. Topics include body and sexuality, community and activism, media representations, and domestic forms in the arts. Includes hands-on research, group and public presentations, and text-based activities. (Offered fall semester.)

Examines Chicana/Chicano and Black artists, art movements, and social histories. Students work with images and text, applying theories of multiculturalism, feminism, colonialism, and hybridity. Topics include familial and cultural legacies, aesthetics, media, and cultural nationalism. In this hands-on and theory course, students explore issues of self-identification, race, and cross-cultural solidarity. (Offered fall semester.)

Provides students with an opportunity to propose and implement individualized interdisciplinary learning activities. (Offered only as interests warrants.) (Credit/ No Credit Available)

Provides students opportunities for independent work in the field with professional artists and includes visiting artist projects. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Students pursue work in forms of public art including murals, installations, and performances, under the tutelage of practitioners in the field. Offers longterm project advisement and offsite project involvement. Note: students may enroll by faculty arrangement for critique or consultation on specified projects. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

An interdisciplinary course (art, theater, and music) that focuses on the use of site-specific and time-based work, light as art, interactive outdoor public art installations, and contemporary performance both on and off the CSUMB campus. Each semester brings new and exciting projects that utilize both individual and collaborative working methodologies.

Individual and team projects using wood, metal, light, and "found" materials. Examples from public art projects explore the relationship between materials, site, content, and audience. Refining technical skills and building portfolios, students explore the role of cultural heritage, social positioning, and autobiographical narrative in their work. Cross-disciplinary projects include functional art, solar design, lighting design, and interactive sculpture. (Offered fall or spring semester.)

Allows students to design, curate, and present their own senior exhibition/project as a display of their cumulative learning in the major. Exhibitions may take place in a community setting within their public art focus; two semester's required in major. (Offered fall and spring semesters.)

Specialized study for a particular topic in visual and public art. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Offered only as interest warrants.) (Credit/ No Credit Available)

Assessment study for student portfolio review, please contact the academic program office for further information. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Independent study in service learning to be determined by student in collaboration with the Institute of Visual and Public Art. Contact the academic program office for further information. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Independent studies in upper division level. Focus determined by student in collaboration with the Institute of Visual and Public Art. Contact the academic program office for further information. (Offered only as interest warrants.) (Credit/ No Credit Available)

Student and faculty member select advanced topic of field study and number of credits. Contact the academic program office for instructor signature, registration code, and schedule number. (Offered only as interest warrants.)

Students pursue work in forms of public art including murals, installations, and performances, under the tutelage of practitioners in the field. Offers longterm project advisement and offsite project involvement. Note: students may enroll by faculty arrangement for critique or consultation on specific projects. (Offered only as interest warrants.)