Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CFA AR 636: Anatomy and Figure Drawing
  Drawing analysis of the human figure with emphasis on anatomical structure; study of the skeleton and muscle groups as they affect volume and surface definition. Drawing from the living model, prepared skeleton, and anatomical casts; as well as compositional work from memory. 4 cr
• CFA AR 638: Drawing Concepts
  Discussion of a broad range of drawing issues, including drawing from memory, and from secondary sources. Introduction of subjects explored in non-representational drawing traditions. Drawing process will be emphasized through a study of drawing media- such as water-based inks and paints, collage, and pastel- to address both aesthetic and technical concerns. 4 cr
• CFA AR 639: Figure Drawing
  The focus of this class will be to teach students to think and understand the principles of drawing as a visual language. Class will involve an in-depth study of the human figure. Students will make a series of drawings and sketches in a variety of mediums, including graphite, charcoal, conte, ink, etc. Students will study from a live model, and will use the human figure as a vehicle to better understand the fundamentals of organic form, proportion, and balance. 4 cr
• CFA AR 655: Elmthd Art Ed
  
• CFA AR 656: Elem Pre-Pra
  
• CFA AR 660: Secmthdarted
  
• CFA AR 662: Sec Pre-Pra
  
• CFA AR 670: Advocacy & Policy in Arts Education (4 credits)
  This course introduces issues of policy and advocacy that are relevant to arts education practitioners. We explore the nexus between problems in arts education and the systems that influence schools, cultural organizations, and society. We identify and analyze policies that shape our own professional settings as well as the agencies and partners involved. We research stakeholders, socio-political contexts, resources, and strategies for improving arts education with culturally relevant advocacy. The course centers on drafting a policy proposal and advocacy plan that empowers artist-teachers to take stock of their own leadership skills and apply them to contemporary issues.
• CFA AR 680: Insightful and Creative Leadership in Arts Education (4 credits)
  This course is designed to acquaint and prepare in service art teachers with the basic skills and organizational strategies of leadership and management that are needed to serve within school systems and arts educational organizations. Our goal is to prepare in-service art teachers for insightful and strategic leadership within arts educational settings and to be effective agents of change along with being effective teachers and researchers. The course is grounded in theory as well as practice and brings together a community of art educators who will come together ' virtually' through collaborative exercises as well as will have opportunities to work with their own school leadership teams. This course will also bring in guest speakers, exemplary practitioners, researchers and policy makers from academia, public schools and school districts, charter schools and education management organizations, private and independent schools, business, and other organizations to share their experience, research, and insights about effective leadership practices.
• CFA AR 690: History of Art Education (4 credits)
  This course is intended to enrich art educators' understanding of the Western origins and on-going development of Visual Arts education in the United States, along with Invisible histories and Non-Western influences. It will acquaint students with the rich histories of their field through discussion, practical application, research and writing a historical paper. Beginning with the emergence of art education through an early apprenticeship model and progressing through the centuries to a post-modern understanding of what Visual Art Education means and is, grounds the content of this course.
• CFA AR 747: Advanced Printmaking (Variable credit)
  This course offers intensive professional study in printmaking techniques to students who wish to focus on the print as they expand their personal visual statement, through workshop practice, critique and the refinement of critical thinking. Students may also add basic techniques to their vocabulary. Experimentation is encouraged while students develop technical skill and independent problem solving through print. In addition to demonstrations and hands-on guidance, the opportunity to combine printing applications and experimental media will be an option, as well as the opportunity to print at large scale. The class will be introduced to contemporary artists engaged in print practice through presentations, field trips to exhibitions and visiting artists.
• CFA AR 748: Advanced Printmaking
  Prereq: CFA AR 451, 452, or equivalent. Open to graduate students and qualified undergraduates with consent of instuctor. Printmaking workshop for intensive professional study of printmaking processes. Emphasis on development of individual methods and projects. 4 cr, each semester.
• CFA AR 765: Practicum PreK-8
  Graduate studio teaching majors complete student teaching at the pre-K - grade 8 levels. The student intern, who is supervised by art education faculty in collaboration with the cooperating teacher, completes an eight-week practicum. A preliminary visit by the supervising faculty member occurs during the first two weeks and is followed by three announced formal observations recurring on a two-week cycle during which the student assumes responsibilities for one-third, two-thirds, and the full cooperating teacher's duties.
• CFA AR 766: Practicum 5-12
  Graduate studio teaching majors complete student teaching at the preK -- grade 8 levels. The student intern, who is supervised by art education faculty in collaboration with the cooperating teacher, completes an eight-week practicum. A preliminary visit by the supervising faculty member occurs during the first two weeks and is followed by three announced formal observations recurring on a two-week cycle during which the student assumes responsibilities for one-third, two-thirds, and the full cooperating teacher's duties.
• CFA AR 770: Ceramics 1
  Introduction to methods and strategies for using ceramics as a sculptural medium. The course initiates the students to the process, vocabulary and techniques involved in all the steps of hand-building, glazing and firing. Students explore traditional and experimental techniques: coiling, slabbing, imprints, and molds, extruding, altered throwing, glazing and staining. The class includes experimentation with surface treatments and initiation to glaze chemistry. Lectures, museum visits and research on historical and contemporary ceramics sustain the studio work and provide context. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Creativity/Innovation
• CFA AR 781: Post-Bac Graphic Design 1
  In this course, structured for students with little prior course work in graphic design, students develop visual literacy, and learn a design process and design vocabulary through challenging studio based coursework. Coursework includes foundational exercises in form making and typography as well as comprehensive exercises in graphic design leading to the solution of advanced visual problems through a structured curriculum of both theoretical and practical studies. In addition to computer-aided graphic design, traditional methods, such as letterpress and photography are emphasized. The program is conceived to enable graduates to function in a constantly changing and expanding field.
• CFA AR 782: Post-Bac Graphic Design 2
  A continuation of CFA AR 781. Coursework includes foundational exercises in form making and typography as well as comprehensive exercises in graphic design leading to the solution of advanced visual problems through a structured curriculum of both theoretical and practical studies. In addition to computer-aided graphic design, traditional methods, such as letterpress and photography are emphasized. The program is conceived to enable graduates to function in a constantly changing and expanding field. At the end of this intensive year, students may be considered for matriculation into the two-year MFA program alongside incoming two-year MFA students.
• CFA AR 821: Graduate Sculpture 1
  Concentration on the development of a personal mode of sculptural expression. Students will work on an individual body of work and research materials and their practical application.
• CFA AR 822: Graduate Sculpture 1
  A continuation of CFA AR821. Concentration on the development of a personal mode of sculptural expression. Students will work on an individual body of work and research materials and their practical application.
• CFA AR 823: Graduate Sculpture 2
  Further concentration on developing a personal direction in sculpture. Students will work to prepare an individual body of work in preparation for the thesis exhibition at the end of the year.

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