Visual Arts

Introduction to the Arts is an interdisciplinary study of the fine arts disciplines of music, theater, cinema, dance, and the visual arts. This course provides students the basic knowledge, perceptual and applied skills necessary for developing an appreciation for each of the fine arts disciplines, revealing both the interrelationships and the uniqueness of each art form. Students will experience the visual and performing arts through live performances, gallery and museum tours, doing creative projects in each subject area, and classroom demonstrations.

Content Objectives

• Perceive and describe the expressive and formal elements of the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance
• Analyze artistic works for their inherent meaning and the ways in which meaning is constructed
• Respond emotionally to the content of artistic works, and begin to understand the nature of their responses
• Recognize some major works and style periods in the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance
• Develop an appropriate vocabulary with which to speak about the visual arts, cinema, music, theater, and dance

Skill Objectives

• Identify the basic visual elements and design principles of selected masterworks
• Develop basic drawing skills through value studies, still life drawing, and color studies
• Understand the principles of photography through pin-hole camera photography projects
• Explore the color wheel and aspects of working in abstraction in a painting, collage, self-portrait project
• Delve into sculptural form with a reductive, full-round sculpture project
• Appreciate the responsibility and etiquette of being a good audience to the performing arts through attending live performances
• Develop the basic skills of acting/storytelling as an introduction to the nature of physical performance before an audience
• Understand and appreciate the nature of character, physical communication, dramatic conflict, and the nature of acting through directed improvisations
• Perceive the basic stylistic characteristics of classical ballet, folk, jazz, and modern dance
• Experience the sensual elements of organized dance through participation in movement classes
• Appreciate the rudiments of cinema by shooting and editing a stop-action photo project
• Hear the basic formal elements of music in a variety of musical styles
• Appreciate how music is created and the expressive potential of music by composing musical segments with specific musical software

Materials

• Episcopal High School Blackboard for arts vocabulary
• Videos
• Arts media

Methods of Evaluation

• Two tests on material in the text websites, lectures, handouts, videotapes, listening examples, and tours. Each is worth 20%.
• Averaged score for writing assignments, listening or skill quizzes (including suggested tours and evening outings). Forty percent total of final grade.
• Projects: creative project work, including producing drawings and photographs, assembling sculpture, making music, creative movement, writing and acting a theater piece, public speaking and acting, and producing a short film. Thirty percent total.
• Class participation is 10% of final grade.

Students who are invited to participate in Advanced Placement Studio Art will have three portfolio options: Drawing, 2-D Design, and 3-D Design. This is a yearlong course.

Drawing Portfolio addresses a very broad interpretation of drawing issues and media. Light and shade, line quality, rendering of form, composition, surface manipulation, and illusion of depth are drawing issues that can be addressed through a variety of means. Many works of painting, printmaking, and mixed media, as well as abstract, observational, and inventive works may qualify. The range of marks used to make drawings, the arrangements of those marks, and the materials used to make the marks are endless.

2-D Design Portfolio addresses a very broad interpretation of two-dimensional design issues. This type of design involves purposeful decision making about how to use the elements and principles of art in an integrative way. The elements of design (line, shape, illusion of space, illusion of motion, pattern, texture, value, and color) are like a palette of possibilities that artists use to express themselves. The principles of design help guide artists in making decisions about how to organize the elements on a picture plane in order to communicate content. These principles include unity/variety, balance, emphasis, rhythm, and proportion/scale.

3-D Design Portfolio addresses a broad interpretation of sculptural issues in depth and space. These may include mass, volume, form, plane, light, and texture. Such elements and concepts can be articulated through additive, subtractive, and/or fabrication processes. A variety of approaches to representation, abstraction, and expression may be part of the student’s portfolio. These might include, among others, traditional sculpture, architectural models, three-dimensional models, apparel, or ceramics.

Content Objectives

• Understand the process of conceiving and taking an idea to an end resolution
• Budget time
• Recognize the growth and change in work over the year
• Make reference to historical works of art and their sequence
• Tour DC-Metro museums and galleries

Skill Objectives

• Creation of a slide portfolio/body of work that demonstrates one year’s worth of work in a specific concentration
• Craftsmanship
• Originality
• Critical analysis of student work

Materials

As determined by specific area of study (drawing, 2-D, or 3-D)

Methods of Evaluation

• Completion of studio assignments
• Participation in evaluation of own and others’ work
• Graded art work
• Effort
• Craftsmanship
• Ability to manage, organize, and install an exhibition of work in the student art show
• Ability to meet deadlines as published by the College Board (due dates for slide portfolios, etc.)
• Attendance