Aesthetic Expression (AE)
These courses explore art forms or texts produced by individuals, groups of people, or cultures; these courses may involve performance and production. Students will learn how formal and thematic qualities create meaning, recognize the interplay of the creative impulse and trained discipline, and attend to the ways aesthetic expression communicates complex human experiences.

Rationale

Aesthetic expression takes many forms and provides profound insights into the thoughts and emotions of individuals, societies, and cultures throughout recorded civilization. The study of aesthetic expression enables us to understand the complexity, beauty, and means of conveying a range of emotions and human experience.

Goals

The study of art and literature enriches our understanding of our own society as well as those societies of other times, places, and circumstances. The overall goal of any course in aesthetic expression is to help students become competent interpreters or readers of works of art. Achieving this goal involves developing skills in careful observation, reading, and formal analysis, understanding the contexts—for example, historical, social, cultural, economic, and technological—that shape works of art, and recognizing that there are different critical approaches in the study of art.

Explain how the course meets the goals of the Aesthetic Expression requirement.

Course Criteria

A course must meet the following criteria in order to be designated as fulfilling the Aesthetic Expression pillar.
  1. Courses must introduce students to a significant body of work in the arts, film, or literature (broadly defined) by surveying a period, geographical construct, or national identity or focusing on the production over time of a recognized master in the genre.

    Explain how the course meets this criterion.

  2. Courses must introduce students to relevant theories of aesthetic or artistic analysis, offering significant opportunities for students to develop proficiency in using these critical approaches and terminology through writing, discussion, or production.

    Explain how the course meets this criterion.

  3. Courses must require students to explore the historical and cultural contexts and the creative processes of the works being studied. Courses may involve creation, production or performance of original works.

    Explain how the course meets this criterion.

Learning Outcomes

Students will meet one or more of the following learning outcomes.
⛿ To include an outcome for this course, click the check box next to the number and then answer the question for that outcome.
  1. Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with a body of works by one or more artists or writers and be able to identify its distinctive features.

    Explain how the course meets this learning outcome.

  2. Students will be able to articulate the significance of a body of works by one or more artists or writers.

    Explain how the course meets this learning outcome.

  3. Students will be able to analyze works of artistic expression that typify the forms in the selected period, culture, or style. In doing so, they will be able to use appropriate terminology and critical approaches, and recognize the development of art forms, modes, and movements and their reception.

    Explain how the course meets this learning outcome.

  4. Student will be able to analyze the theory of artistic creation within these forms.

    Explain how the course meets this learning outcome.

  5. Students will be able to create a work of art.

    Explain how the course meets this learning outcome.

⛿ Be sure to complete the required information for each General Education requirement selected for this course, which are organized into separate tabs along the top of the page.