School of Visual Arts
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CFA AR 531: Advanced Projects in Photography
This course gives students the opportunity to create and develop an extensive body of images. Students will work independently on projects with a range of critical and technical approaches that may include analog or digital and span subject matter from the personal to the more abstract. Student work will be discussed in formal critiques and informal work shares. Assigned readings, guest artists, and visits to area museums and archives will be chosen based upon the students's research focus. -
CFA AR 532: Word And Image
This studio course focuses on the interplay of word and image in contemporary visual art practice. There is an extensive history of the relationship between text and visuals, ranging from the Dada movement to contemporary social media platforms. Throughout this course, we will utilize observational methods and visual concepts that are fundamental to describing, analyzing and manipulating two-dimensional imagery through various mediums, including drawing, printmaking, photography, bookmaking, and sculpture. You will explore the elements of visual language, including typography, photography and graphic production in the creation of meaningful artworks that touch on the fundamentals of your studio practice. Through readings, discussions, written presentations, critiques and studio projects, you will investigate the structure of visual and written language. -
CFA AR 533: The Photograph as Story
This course explores the different ways in which a story can be told through the medium of photography. Through collaborative and personal lens-based projects students will consider a range of storytelling practices from linear to nonlinear and fiction versus nonfiction. Issues related to photography and narrative will also be addressed, including myth and fantasy, archetypes and typologies and the constructed image as well as documentary photographic essays and the artist book. Materials will be presented through lectures, readings, technical demonstrations, guest artists, group discussions, and visits to area museums and archives. Student work will be discussed in formal critiques and informal work shares. -
CFA AR 535: Special Topics: Visual Arts
SP TPS: VIS ART -
CFA AR 540: Relief Printmaking
Relief, one of the most basic and oldest of printmaking techniques, is the first step in building a deep understanding of what the medium has to offer. This course is designed to introduce those who are new to relief printmaking the techniques necessary to master it, while at the same time offering intensive conceptual rigor in exploring the artists individual ideas and conceptual content. This course will include working from rubber, linoleum, wood and include colograph techniques using textural found objects. Exploration of various papers, registration techniques, chine colle' and multi-block color printing is also covered. -
CFA AR 545: Performative Text and Design
Intersections of text, design, performance, publishing, and activism. Examinations of techniques, forms, media, and theoretical ideas--asking about the political potential of such practices. Students develop an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about the form a text might take as a spatial appearance (page or environment), through materials (costume, flags) or how it might be used as a performative object. Themes include: labour, liveness and documentation, ephemeral vs. permanent, alternative publishing, activist archiving. Lectures, project based, field trips, and studio visits. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Creativity/Innovation. -
CFA AR 547: Principles of Painting Techniques 1 credit Fall term
Lectures, studio demonstrations, and workshops concerning materials and techniques for oil painting: selection of tools and studio equipment; preparation of traditional and modern supports and grounds; principles of oil and alkyd painting; properties and interactions of pigments, binding oils, solvents, and protective coatings; paint-making and tubing procedures, toxicity of materials, safety issues and precautions; introduction to a variety of direct and indirect techniques; presentation of completed artwork, including photographing and framing completed artwork. -
CFA AR 548: Principles of Painting Techniques 2 credits Spring term
Lectures, studio demonstrations, and workshops concerning materials and techniques for painting: selection of tools and studio equipment; preparation of supports and grounds; principles of egg tempera, distemper, encaustic, watercolor, gouache, buon fresco, acrylic polymer, PVA, and vinyl painting; properties and interactions of pigments, binders, solvents, and protective coatings; paint-making procedures; toxicity of materials, safety issues and precautions; introduction to a variety of direct and indirect painting techniques; introduction to water gilding; presentation of completed artwork, including matting, photographing, and framing. -
CFA AR 554: Art Education Seminar: Curriculum and Instruction 2
The Art Education seminar accompanies students through their second semester of practicum in a PreK- 12 school, providing community, structure, and opportunities for growth and reflection during their final semester in school. It is aimed at guiding students' understanding of educational philosophy, facilitating the setting of goals, and increasing skills and strategies for best practice in the art classroom. Students further develop their understanding of the visual art curriculum and its design as a vertical and horizontal sequence of learning established from a philosophical base. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Writing-Intensive Course. -
CFA AR 557: Practicum
Corequisite: CFAAR554 - The practicum course serves to ground the theory and knowledge acquired in previous coursework to practical field application within the art classroom in a PreK-12 school, at Elementary or at Secondary level. The practicum course provides pre-service candidates with experience in planning, implementing and assessing art experiences for children and youth, while developing classroom management skills and a reflective practice, as they work alongside a licensed art teacher/supervising practitioner. With their mentors' guidance, students develop and teach art lessons, completing a minimum of 300 hours of internship in the art classroom of which 100 are in full responsibility of the class. The practicum is overseen by a program supervisor who observes the teaching practice of the candidate, advising and reporting on the candidate's progress. A successful practicum culminates with an endorsement for an initial license in the teaching of visual arts (preK-8 or 5-12 depending on the practicum placement) as established by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This course is taken concurrently with CFA AR 554: Art Education Seminar: Curriculum and Instruction. -
CFA AR 558: Contemporary Issues in Art Education (4 credits; fall semester)
This is an arts-based research course that allows students to explore and respond to course content through reflective artmaking, as well as traditional research. The course surveys the 20th century roots of contemporary art and pedagogical practices and the shift to the condition of postmodernism, with a focus on the impact of influential theories, trends, and events on art education. A deep-dive investigation of the mask as a universal, complex, and powerful cultural phenomenon serves as a model for examining thematic curriculum design practices that incorporate pressing issues and opportunities that are part of the twenty- first century art classroom and other learning environments. With an interdisciplinary, global art focus, emphasis is placed on developing strategies for the inclusion of African contemporary artists and African masking within a broad, transnational context. Students create a final project that takes on the complexities of appropriation, othering, and ahistoricism in a multi-cultural and global curriculum. Students enrolled in the Art Education BFA or Masters will also complete a gateway assessment that prepares them to enroll in pre-practicum courses during CFA AR 559. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CFA AR 560: Applied Studio
Applied Studio is designed for pre-service and current art educators to experience meaningful engagement with materials and processes in studio areas, such as ceramics, printmaking, and fiber arts. In the course, which focuses on settings such as preK-12 schools, museums, and community centers, students explore various art forms through the lens of art education. Designed to accompany a pre-practicum fieldwork experience in the schools, the course provides experiences that students can draw upon in their own teaching and curriculum design. The course emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching art by integrating other subject matter, like science, language and literacy, and social studies, into their lessons. Techniques for applying STEAM are modeled by highlighting opportunities to integrate science, technology, engineering, and math with the arts. Throughout the course, students engage in documentation and reflection practices. Designing and presenting a final lesson plan allows students to apply their understanding of both art concepts and the Arts Integration approach. -
CFA AR 565: Art, Access, and Inclusion
The class is designed to help prepare pre-service art educators to work with all students by addressing some of the individual needs for modifications and accommodations that students bring to the classroom: neurological, cognitive, physical, emotional, and linguistic. The course focuses on the social model of disability and students investigate the complexity of individual students' lives, strengths, and challenges, through an intersectional lens. It specifically addresses some of the needs of learners that are related to disability, mental health history, and/or English language skills. -
CFA AR 569: Art, Community, and Social Engagement
What is community art? How is it different from socially engaged art, street art, and participatory art? What are the goals of these forms of engagement? For whom are they created? What and whose values, and ethical principles must I consider, and what do I need to know before designing a community project? A fundamental aspiration of the course is grounded in the belief that art can facilitate positive social change and enhance community well being. Whether you are curious about or already convinced of this claim, the course will provide you with the tools to clarify assumptions about community art and social engagement practices, and recognize the various historical contexts at the root of artistic and engagement practices in the US and abroad since the 1960s. Through discussions, guest lectures, written reflections, and fieldwork, you will have the opportunity to develop the cultural competency necessary to examine and clarify your own worldviews and beliefs, as you take part in diverse community activities in the city and region. As final project, you will be able to demonstrate the refinement of your newly developed concepts and experience by conducting the necessary research to complete the presentation of an execution-ready community-based project proposal designed in collaboration with members of a community and peers. 2 cr -
CFA AR 570: Software Lab
The use of new software plays an important role in expanding our visual vocabulary and ideas, creating more opportunities in graphic design. "Software Lab" is an experimental laboratory that explores the potential of various digital applications. this course consists of several small workshops designed to help students explore diverse programs, as well as three main projects. Students are encouraged to play, take risks, and experiment boldly with newly learned tools as they discover and develop their own design approaches. -
CFA AR 571: Exhibition Design
Projects, lectures and field trips are ways in which students will investigate the topic of exhibit design. Projects include the experience of designing an exhibit. A curatorial point of view is the concept driving the design. Students will explore the design holistically, from a prototype of the physical space, to a form for presenting objects, media and information, exhibit signage, wayfinding and promotion. Critiques will emphasize how fluidly the graphic and material form relates to the curatorial concept. Lectures focus on defining contemporary exhibit design in the context of a more expectant and informed public. The changing role museums, galleries and project spaces play in the dissemination of curated objects/ideas/media will be a common theme. Field trips will be used as a tool to teach students about the exhibit experience, from the standpoint of a designer and visitor. 2 cr. -
CFA AR 572: Internship
This course is for juniors and seniors pursuing an internship for college credit. Internship hours range from 80-150 hours during the course of 6-14 weeks. Students meet in consultation with an Internship and Faculty advisor for critiques of internship work. A final presentation of work is required at the end of the semester. 2.0 credits. -
CFA AR 576: Motion Graphics
Introduction to methods and processes of creating motion graphics for broadcast and cinema. The focus is on story-telling in a time-based context through ambient and linear narratives. Students will consider how design elements--such as type, image, framing, pacing, rhythm, sequencing and sound--influence time-based narratives. Students will broaden their individual aesthetic by exploring a variety of mediums from analog to digital formats and animate with Flash and After Effects. -
CFA AR 577: Editorial Publication
This is a hands-on, project-based introduction to editorial and publication design. Both form and content, with emphasis on use of the grid as an organizing creative principle will be utilized. Typography and image will be discussed as students design, print, and bind their own books. Students may select a topic of personal interest and explore various materials and methodologies. -
CFA AR 580: History of Graphic Design
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Course (CAS WR 120 or equivalent) - This foundational course presents a chronological and thematic survey of graphic design and design culture from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Through slide lecture, reading and writing assignments, and discussion groups, students actively investigate how graphic design responded to and influenced the social, political and technological world around it. While, emphasis had been on European and American design histories, as well as major movements in Russia and the East this course will implement a plural pedagogy as a method to include more multicultural voices. Particular effort will be made toward showing, discussing, and including artists, designers, and writers who represent people, cultures, and aesthetics historically excluded from Eurocentric narratives about art and design. Comparative and symbiotic relationships between graphic design and other visual arts and design disciplines such as architecture and industrial design will be analyzed. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
