All Courses and Workshops

An introduction to the basic glassblowing techniques used to make vessels and sculptural forms. Throughout the course, progressively more difficult assignments teach new concepts and develop students’ skills. Group glassblowing clinics encourage teamwork. Historical and contemporary glass techniques, designs, and applications are discussed and incorporated into student work. No previous … Read more

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Working from personally selected still life objects, students will learn techniques to capture the object’s form, value structure, and temperature shifts using built up layers of conte crayon. Students will complete two still lifes, the first using naturalistic colors. For the second still life students will choose to either exaggerate … Read more

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Interactions are a core part of our everyday experiences. We interact with the world, each other, and with dynamic systems. This class explores the design process, prototyping, and evaluation of interactive experiences. Through project-based curriculum, students are exposed to various dimensions in design of interactive experiences, including user experience, information … Read more

Pack your bag with a sketchbook and pencils, sandwich and beverage and grab a folding stool to explore and draw the environment of your choosing. Whether you’re in downtown Boston, pastoral Vermont or anywhere in-between, there is something for everybody. Walk the ‘Freedom Trail’ of Boston recording historic Federalist architecture … Read more

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This course will provide a solid foundation in the digital skills used in the fashion industry to create the “fashion plates” that introduce a line or collection. Through hands-on projects, students learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to design presentation boards and fashion collections in flats. This is the … Read more

Digital Illustration is an introduction to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator with a focus on building digital images. We will explore useful techniques in these software programs specifically geared to visual communication in the form of illustration. Through the use of scanners, drawing tablets, digital cameras and traditional mediums, we will … Read more

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This course introduces illustration methods for the fashion designer and creative professional.  Demonstrations and exercises cover basic anatomy to the analysis of fashion figures.  Stylized drawing skills, composition layout techniques and industry flat sketches are taught, along with methods of critique and the editing process of designer collections. Students illustrate … Read more

Screen printing is an old and versatile process with many modern uses. We present a variety of techniques and contemporary fine art applications of silkscreen printing. Students are guided through the transformation of an idea to printed image and encouraged to take a creative approach. The emphasis is on experimentation, … Read more

Violence and horror inherently deal with disturbing subject matter and taboo. This discussion/lecture/research/screening class investigates the interrelations between cinematic violence/horror and its socio-cultural contexts, including social anxiety and viewing pleasure. Through a look at a history (histories) of horror, studies on narrative and performance, psychoanalytical criticism and ideological critique we … Read more

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Students will learn how to construct a basic pair of pants from measurements to muslin. We will also build sampler file with seam techniques, pockets, fly finishes, and a style library. Prerequisite: Completion of a basic sewing course or equivalent.

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Public Art: Ideas to Action Lecture/discussions and Practicum to offer students the tools to bring public art ideas to life. Course description: this series of workshops will explore the processes of creating public artwork. Students will learn the basics of concept development, art administration and logistical considerations, community engagement, funding, … Read more

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This course provides an introduction to natural variation of biological forms of plants and animals through art and direct observation. Through careful examination, illustration, microscopy, and some photography, we will examine anatomical, behavioral, and ecological similarities and differences between species. We will utilize various media but will focus on classical … Read more

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This course is an exploration of how typographic techniques and principles are used for effective visual communications through professional typesetting, typographic layout, and expressive use of type. Students build skills for creating cohesive typographic systems, information hierarchy, and typographic grids. Prerequisites: working knowledge of Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. For Graphic … Read more

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Discover the synergy between Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign with course work based on a real-life project. Each program is approached as a specialized tool: Illustrator for digital illustrations and web graphics; Photoshop for editing images and creating special effects for web, broadcast, or print design; InDesign as a desktop … Read more

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This course includes an introduction to the laws of linear perspective, an exploration of how three-dimensional reality is depicted on a two-dimensional surface. Additional course content includes tools of the trade, various techniques for producing technical illustrations, informational art and instructional illustrations in sequential series.

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Through a series of collaborative and individual exercises, students explore the entire process of making a book, including inspiration for initial ideas, writing effective stories, character development, sequential flow, constructing the book, and researching potential markets. All course lectures and exercises apply to children’s books, graphic novels, animations and other … Read more

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Students apply skills for concept development, visual design, and user-centered thinking to design projects of moderate complexity for both print and interactive media. Prerequisites: Graphic Design 1, Intermediate Typography; students should also have completed Interaction Design (or be taking it at the same time) or have some background in User … Read more

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In this studio shop course, students initiate and are guided through a hands-on design/build project based on fundamental tenets of furniture design. The course begins with a review of design fundamentals and the concept design process. Concepts are refined through additional drawings and maquette model making as preparation for completion … Read more

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Are you tired of a long winter and staying indoors? Let’s get outside and see our beautiful city with fresh eyes! Let’s sketch whatever catches our eyes: buildings, intricate architectural details, trees, flowers, street lamps, road signs, bus stops, trains, people walking, running, having a good time in the cafes, … Read more

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Students explore the cultural and artistic responses to the major modern, social, and political revolutions between the end of the 18th and 20th centuries. The focus is on rarely covered artistic responses to political, social, and religious revolutions of the 20th century. Historical, political, philosophical currents and their impact on … Read more

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In this course, we analyze several individual practices and group movements from 1945 to the present. Instead of adhering to the distilled summaries of a textbook, we engage art of this period at less of a remove. Students come to comprehend the difficulty and subjectivity involved in formulating a history … Read more

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Through the study of some of the representative works from World Literature we will take a panoramic look at the development of Civilization from its earliest beginnings. Through creation myths, stories of epic battles, and stories of love, we will learn more about who we are as part of the … Read more

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This course focuses on the study of the stories a society cannot forget. These timeless stories have endured throughout the ages because of something within that is changeless and part of the human condition. From ancient texts to contemporary literary works, this course explores some of these major mythological themes … Read more

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We round up the usual suspects: the appalling and tragic monster and his equally tragic and appalling creator; the charismatic vampire and his bevy of vamps; the traveling salesman who finds himself transformed into a giant dung-beetle. More broadly, the course studies the idea of monstrosity and the ways in … Read more

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This course focuses on the diverse traditions of supernatural and horror literature in different cultures. The course gives particular attention to the social, cultural and “spiritual” traditions of different nations as expressed through their “dark tales.” We will also think and write about the themes, forms, conventions, and styles that … Read more

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This class offers students a chance to ground their own artistic and academic projects in a working theoretical and practical knowledge of the discipline of Queer Studies; both the historiography and current work being done in the field. Our goal is to establish a classroom environment of mutual respect where … Read more

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Eating and the Environment focuses on the impact that our daily food purchases and consumption make on the environment and our health.  In the class, we will examine major themes related to both industrialized and sustainable agriculture, including: soil resources and pollution; water and air pollution; pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; … Read more

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This course is a geologic and environmental treatment of the materials artists use. Students will investigate how materials are obtained from Earth, how they are mined and processed, what the sustainability impacts are, how much energy is involved, what human health and environmental impacts occur from using these materials, and … Read more

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Why Beethoven? will examine “the man who freed music” through the evolution of Beethoven iconography – from painting, sculpture and freeze, to film, cartoon and anime – and how this singular figure transformed not only musical composition but visions of social equality, liberty, and fraternity into spiritual prophecies and potent realities.  … Read more

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Students are introduced to visual principles, as the basis of graphic design communication, and elements and issues of visual language. The course covers the manipulation of graphic form to convey meaning, strategies for idea generation and development of unique concepts, and the designer’s role as visual storyteller. Prerequisites: drawing skills, … Read more

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Students bring advanced skills for concept, design, and design thinking to planning, designing and prototyping dynamic screen-based interactive experiences. We investigate complex systems of information emphasizing organization, navigation and usability. We focus on designing a valuable experience for the user while creating portfolio-quality prototypes for the web. Prerequisites: Interaction Design … Read more

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This course introduces a variety of concepts and techniques used in contemporary ceramic object-making. Demonstrations and studio activities include hand building, mold making and wheel working. Each student researches and designs a series of pieces which reflect their personal interests. Projects may include work in tableware, sculpture, or designed objects. … Read more

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Good drawing skills and painting go hand-in-hand. This sequential course begins by covering basic drawing principles with an eye towards creating successful underdrawings and compositions. Using still life as subject matter, we will then explore aspects of the indirect painting method based on Flemish painting techniques. Discussions, examples, and demos … Read more

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Finding out and pursuing one’s own creative way is enhanced by learning all one can about the ways others have found. And autobiographies, memoirs and letters give us clues on the creative practices of others. They are the physical records on approaches to curiosity that fuel the use of imagination. … Read more

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Which media are you using in your own work? Have you ever wondered how to combine different media to better express your style? In this workshop let’s experiment with watercolor, acrylics, gouache, cut paper, ink and colored pencils to find the best solution for your work!   Please bring media … Read more

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One of the most emotive forms of intaglio printmaking is drypoint, which allows for direct and uniquely personal markmaking. This course is designed for beginners looking to explore this technique but don’t have access to a studio, press or expensive materials. We will focus on methods that can be safely … Read more

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This course is a condensed and comprehensive introduction to the history of Western art from prehistorical times to the twenty-first century. The basic purpose of the course is three-fold: to examine a selection of the most significant monuments of creative endeavor which constitute the canon of Western art; to contextualize … Read more

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Students examine building cultures from different periods and places, from pre-history until the dawn of modernity. Emphasis is given to different aspects of the built domain: the symbolic significance, layouts, spatial organization, construction, building materials and technologies, the building site, and city plans within the broader urban and cultural landscapes.

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The course explores the art and composition of the graphic novel and examines its many sub-genres, from superhero tales to memoirs to manga. The textbook is Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. Other texts include Watchmen, Contract With God, Sandman, Maus, and Persepolis. For the final project, students create and make preliminary sketches for an original graphic novel.

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How might advertising be Art? How is art ideology? This online seminar course will share journal assignments and respond to each other during one class time and meet as a class for discussion via video conference once each week through “Google Meet.” Students will use critical thinking strategies to study advertising and … Read more

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Have you ever noticed that when you look at the night sky and gaze at all those mesmerizing stars, you’re actually looking back in time? Did you know that Andromeda, the nearest galaxy to Milky Way, is 2.5 million light years away from us? This means that when you look … Read more

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This class offers a cross-cultural survey of black literature in the 20th-Century. It explores the ways black writers from Africa, Europe, and the Americas share a globalized perspective that is not distinctly African, European, or American but rather a multicultural perspective that historian Paul Gilroy has called the culture of … Read more

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This is a project development course for students working in Digital Lens-Based Media, including Photography, Digital Collage and Digital Time-Based Media. Through one on one work sessions, technical demos, and group critiques, students develop and technically refine a personal project or body of images, with the guidance of the instructor and … Read more

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Design and fabricate individualized place settings, serving dishes, teapots, and vases. Employing hand-building, the potter’s wheel, plaster molds, and various kiln-firing techniques (stoneware, soda, low-fire) students are able to create pottery that is useful as well as personally expressive. Frequent demonstrations, lectures, and dialogue with the instructor enable beginners as … Read more

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Metalshop 1 is a comprehensive introduction to steel fabrication techniques and processes. It includes various welding processes, such as the venerable oxy-fuel process, the lost art of “stick” welding, and an emphasis on MIG welding, better known as the “hot glue gun for steel” (just point and shoot!). The more precision oriented TIG welding process is … Read more

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Drawing, painting, and sculpting using found objects, appropriated images, letterforms, texts, and personal memorabilia. Slide lectures and class discussions concern the history of collage and assemblage.   MassArt BFA students. This course is a Drawing Projects foundation year equivalent. Contact Academic Resources for more information. ARC@massart.edu

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For students who want an intensive day-long studio experience that provides individual instruction. Students work within a continuum from realism to abstraction, and formal concerns are emphasized and tied to personal expression. Includes use of the model. Class critiques, slide talks and field trips enrich the painting experience. Some painting … Read more

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For students who want an intensive day-long studio experience that provides individual instruction. Students work within a continuum from realism to abstraction, and formal concerns are emphasized and tied to personal expression. Includes use of the model. Class critiques, slide talks and field trips enrich the painting experience. Some painting … Read more

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For students who want an intensive day-long studio experience that provides individual instruction. Students work within a continuum from realism to abstraction, and formal concerns are emphasized and tied to personal expression. Includes use of the model. Class critiques, slide talks and field trips enrich the painting experience. Some painting … Read more

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The documentation and communication of ideas require fluency with symbolic and illustrative methods; a language. This course develops and refines the basis of this language, the “alphabet and grammar” used to communicate the characteristic of objects and systems. Through the exploration of various media using architectural or industrial design contexts, … Read more

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This course provides an introduction to architectural design as a social art that emphasizes form relevant to use, and design with an appreciation of site, landscape, and materials. The course is foundational, using observation of existing built environments to support basic design skills through families of form, attending to the … Read more

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Students are introduced to 2D/3D drawing and modeling software, with an emphasis on architectural design in digital space. In-class demonstrations occur throughout the course and address how to use digital tools at various stages of the design process at various scales. Students apply skills taught in class to small design … Read more

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This writing course focuses on skills for thinking and writing about artwork. Writing helps to develop the ability to reflect on creative processes. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach—crossing boundaries and integrating insights from visual art, writing, library science and other disciplines— for research.  Students learn to tell the story … Read more

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What is Sound Art? Imagine mind-bending sound pieces created with a piano filled with nails/bolts/nuts/screws, a floor tiled with LPs, a secret tone playing underneath a grate in New York City for 30 years, or nothing but the echo of a space. The course will provide a solid knowledge of … Read more

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Exploring changing conceptions of the individual in modern society. Topics include gender, race, ethnicity, and ideas concerning society, culture, work, and leisure. Readings are selected from psychology, sociology, Buddhism, existentialism, linguistics, anthropology, and popular literature. While we focus on the experiences in and of the modern West (including the implications … Read more

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Traditionally, watercolor is a light-to-dark medium. Light washes are built up gradually in order to achieve rich tones. The focus of this course is to explain that when beginning a painting with the application of pre-mixed, middle value, transparent wet-on-wet watercolor washes, artists can create images that exude “instant” atmosphere, … Read more

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Students are introduced to construction at a domestic scale through lectures, slides, and field trips. Structural calculations include safe selection of building parts by stress analysis, beam equations, and column computations. Students learn sufficient wood and masonry building techniques to design a small wood frame building. Assignments include structural models … Read more

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In this course we trace the physical, physiological, and psychological investigations of experimental filmmakers over the last seventy years. Studying these three trajectories-matter, body, and mind-reveals “film” to be a complex interplay between what Paul Sharits described in 1969 as “celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets … Read more

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Students are immersed in the nuts and bolts of architectural craft and construction technology practice. Through design sketch problems, hands-on demonstrations, and readings, students focus on the most common methods of constructing building systems in wood, masonry, steel, and concrete. Constructing a full-scale model of a wood-framed structure brings the … Read more

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Join TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) this summer for a week-long workshop to develop, enrich and expand practice. TAB is a student-centered pedagogy centered on the idea that students are artists and the classroom is their studio. In this workshop, teachers will learn through the lens of the theme “Healing … Read more

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What is placemaking? If you’ve ever worked on a community art project, thought about how to make your streets safer, or wondered about how cities can be improved by better design, you’ve been involved in placemaking. This course will use the city of Boston, past, present, future, as a case … Read more

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This course explores your personal stories in a variety of media with a particular focus on the elements of time.  Students will be guided to identify, develop, and create narrative works on themes and issues that they choose.  Students will develop an understanding of temporal concerns across a wide range … Read more

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Discover the possibilities of working with dry and water-based materials. Dry media includes pencil, colored pencils, China marker. For wet media we use:  watercolor, gouache, acrylics, etc. as well as interesting mediums such as Pe masking fluid and gesso. Gain skills in a variety of techniques, then experiment with mixing mediums in non-traditional … Read more

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By examining the varied traditions in portraiture, through the lens of time and culture, this course will investigate a rich diversity of expression, spanning the frescos of Rome, the psychology of Alice Neal, the beauty of Leonardo, the technique of Ingres and the vulnerability of Vincent Van Gogh. We will … Read more

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In this workshop students learn to build handmade books from pages to cover, experimenting with a variety of book structures. No experience is required; we will start off with simpler structures and work up to ones that are more complex. Students will learn about books based on the fold, starting … Read more

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Explore several traditional and non-traditional, dye-resist techniques including Japanese Shibori stitch resist, folding and clamping, as well as pole wrapping etc. Students use basic procedures involved in low immersion dyeing, direct application and over-dyeing on cotton, and play with several of these techniques to achieve various exciting visual textures on … Read more

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This course focuses on diverse manifestations of crime and deviant behavior over the past few centuries as expressed through works of literature.  The course gives particular attention to the sociological and psychoanalytical underpinnings of these different expressions of deviance by looking at several classical texts by thinkers in these two … Read more

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This course explores the multifaceted nature of working with moving images beyond the Hollywood understanding of a ‘movie’. Students will be encouraged to take an experimental approach to recording their own videos, animating short sequences, capturing audio, and editing it all together as they create unique time-based artwork. This course … Read more

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This course will explore the transition from modernist thought as exemplified by the Abstract Expressionist movement to such postmodern notions of appropriation, parody, and fragmentation as they manifest themselves in the art of the 1970s and beyond. We will focus on such concepts and genres as minimalism, performance, video, installation … Read more

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This course will trace how American musical theater mirrors U.S. history through the evolution of its founding,  authentic genre, the Broadway musical. Descended from its “rebel” English ancestors, the ballad (John Gay, the beggar’s Opera) 1728) and operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan in the 19th century), its composers cater to popular rather … Read more

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An introduction to various genres of folklore and the methods of studying them. Students learn about how folklore exists or existed as a dynamic part of everyday life -aesthetically, behaviorally, politically, socially, and more. We consider such diverse forms of expressions as Indonesian Cinderella tales, Italian American festivals, Irish supernatural … Read more

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This Summative Elective course seeks to build a bridge between the artistic aesthetics in Cinema and the scientific rigor of naturally plausible phenomena. In doing so, and through analyses of scientific foundations of scenarios portrayed in different genres of cinema, including but not limited to sci-fi and superhero, students will … Read more

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An exploration of traditional and non-traditional methods of form-making using a variety of flexible, soft, or fibrous materials. Projects explore both technical and conceptual possibilities. Students investigate materials for their potential as sculptural, architectural, functional objects and as mixed-media installations and site-specific environments. We will explore various off-loom textile construction … Read more

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Explore the art of personal expression through landscape photography. Tsar Fedorsky, a fine arts photographer whose own work draws on images found near home, will encourage students to discover their own visual voice by choosing to take landscape photographs close to home. Nature is all around us. You don’t need … Read more

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An intensive workshop in Adobe Lightroom and digital photography post-production that introduces a streamlined, professional workflow for taking images from camera to finished product. Learn the basics and beyond of this powerful, industry standard software, from file management to creative editing techniques. Topics covered include navigating the Lightroom interface, creating … Read more

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Learn to understand digital concepts and build patches (self-contained programs) using Cycling 74’s Max from the ground up, while designing a portfolio of sound controllers, sequencers, synthesizers, samplers, and a wide array of sound processors, all of which can be used in live performance. Patches will reflect your own interests, tastes, … Read more

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This is an advanced sound course utilizing Cycling 74’s Max (MaxMSPJitter). Topics will include algorithmic composition, generative music, advanced sequencing, live sampling, granular synthesis, tracking amplitude and frequency, effects using fast Fourier transform (pitch shift, vocoder), mapping MIDI to MSP, creating MIDI and OSC interfaces, and basic color processing and … Read more

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Everyone knows that accessories make the outfit and constitute a major part of the fashion industry. Explore handbag design as a specialization. Topics and projects include a brief history of the handbag, researching present trends, and creating designs. Using industry standards, students design and construct a clutch, soft shoulder, and … Read more

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Join TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) this summer for a week-long workshop to develop, enrich and expand practice. TAB is a student-centered pedagogy centered on the idea that students are artists and the classroom is their studio. In this workshop, teachers will learn through the lens of the theme “Healing … Read more

register

This course introduces illustration methods for the fashion designer and creative professional.  Demonstrations and exercises cover basic anatomy to the analysis of fashion figures.  Stylized drawing skills, composition layout techniques and industry flat sketches are taught, along with methods of critique and the editing process of designer collections. Students illustrate … Read more

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Thinking about a career in graphic design? Do you currently “dabble” in graphic design for personal projects? Have you found yourself designing flyers, webpages, brochures or other graphic design work professionally without any design training? This one-day workshop is specifically targeted for those with no graphic design background, to understand what makes a design “work” visually … Read more

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This workshop takes a close look into artists’ working processes in the realm of sketch booking. We’ll look at examples of contemporary artists sketchbooks and traditional books, and analyze styles and working methods. Each week, we’ll have a new topic that will inform and inspire your sketchbook skills, to help … Read more

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Individual attention in a supportive environment is the focus of this comprehensive figure drawing course designed for students of all levels. We will examine the works of historic and contemporary artists to understand the common principals of sound figure drawing. The foundations of gesture, proportions, and anatomical structures will be … Read more

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In this class, you’ll be introduced to the basics of an industry-standard user experience (UI) design tool from the ground up. We’ll work on a web-site and/or Ap, from concept through wireframes, prototype and presentation. Learn how to work smart and be savvy. Our focus here will be on understanding … Read more

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This course is designed to de-mystify abstract art through a series of exercises and projects that focus on line, shape, color, and texture. Abstract drawing and painting represent a shift from recording the visible to expressing our impressions of what we see. The possibilities of finding inspiration for abstract works … Read more

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In this 3-hour workshop students will learn the basics of latch hook, draw out their own 20 in x 20 in designs and begin filling their grids with yarn. Students may choose to depict a representational image or work more abstractly, learning basic color techniques along the way including optical … Read more

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Learn how to use hand tools to uncover form in wood. Begin with texture and low-relief carvings before moving on to small in-the-round sculptures. Safe and comfortable practices, tool selection, and tool care will be emphasized throughout to establish sustainable woodworking practices. All levels welcome.

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