Fine Arts Learning Community

Being an artist means being a part of a special community.  The Fine Arts Learning Community allows first-year music and art majors to begin exploring how their talents make them creative and tolerant citizens who have an awareness of the relevance of music and art in our changing world.  This community will intentionally bring together these two unique majors and cultivate a collaborative, mutually beneficial learning experience. Students will work to develop a combination of knowledge, skills, values, motivation and self-awareness to help them foster their creativity!

Students in the Fine Arts LC will learn:

• how to further appreciate art and music from studying interdisciplinary environments

• how to strengthen their ability to analyze, reflect, and think critically about the world around them

• how to gain confidence in composition and communication skills

Fine Arts Previous Programs:

During the 2011-2012 academic year the Fine Arts LC attended many exclusive programs together. These programs were designed by the Fine Arts LC faculty to enhance their classroom curriculum. These programs were free to Fine Arts LC students. While these programs often change from year to year, this list of programs should give you a better idea of the kinds of events you can attend with your LC.

- Gallery Hop: attended three gallery openings in the St. Louis area
- Jillian Conrad, featured artist at the Hunt Gallery on campus
- "Red" at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis followed by dessert on campus
- Trip to the City Museum in downtown St. Louis

Fine Arts LC Courses:
Student in each learning community must take all of the courses in a cohort.

Art Cohort

FRSH 1200 Censored

This class examines censorship in the fine arts, media imagery, literature, film, and radio. We will explore aspects of stereotypes, free speech, and artistic freedom in the United States as well as around the globe. Focusing on the political and social ramifications of censoring speech and ideas, we will discuss the impact censorship has over our daily lives and what it means for the future.

ART 1010 Creative Strategies

This course teaches brainstorming techniques and other ways to maximize one’s creative potential. Students are exposed to a wide range of assignments that emphasize the importance of critical thinking, concept building, research, and personal reflection.

ARHS 2200 Current Art

This course will survey many of the dominant styles and theories of current art with special attention to the political and social constructs implicit in the creation of contemporary “avant-garde” art. Students will become aware of the nature of the “art-world” and the broader context in which recent art is situated.

Spring Semester

ART 1220 3D Design

This course emphasizes fundamental principles and elements of organization in the visual arts as they relate directly to volumetric and spatial forms.

Music Cohort

FRSH 1200 Our Lives in Pictures and Music

What do the pictures of us and our music preferences (as individuals and as a society) tell us about who we are and where we have come from? This seminar will dive into the world of personal and public pictures and music, and will dissect what we can learn about ourselves and the world around us by what pictures we choose to take and display, and what music we choose to represent us.

MUSC 1000 Fundamentals of Music

This course begins with a review of music fundamentals, including notation of pitch and rhythm, major and minor scales, key signatures, internals, and simple and compound meters. It continues with triads and seventh chords, diatonic chords in major and minor, beginning Roman numeral analysis, principles of voice leading, and basic harmonic progressions.

MUSC 1010 Music Theory I

This course will study music notation, major and minor scales and key signatures, internals, rhythmic notation, triad and seventh chords, elements of voice leading and analysis, and original composition.

Spring Semester

MUSC 1010 Music Theory II

This course will study music notation, major and minor scales and key signatures, internals, rhythmic notation, triad and seventh chords, elements of voice leading and analysis, and original composition.