Liberal Arts

The liberal arts department provides a wide range of academic courses that complement the degree programs at the School. Writers, historians, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, and musicians all bring years of accomplishment and teaching experience in their respective fields to the classroom, providing courses that give students the historical and philosophical background necessary to be effective art makers and critical thinkers.

Undergraduate students begin with courses in composition, creative writing, and content-based writing courses. Essay Writing is the first required course, followed by a choice of Writing Workshop, Writing for the School Paper, or First Year Seminar. These seminars, which continue to focus on the development of students' writing skills, center on issues found in a particular discipline. Examples of current seminars include The Artist as Outsider, The Problem of Evil, The Gothic, The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, and The American Wild. Students needing preliminary work before taking these courses enter on of the department's special programs: English as a Second Language or the First Year Access Program.

After successfully completing six credits of English, students choose courses in the humanities, social science, and natural sciences. Courses in the humanities—literature, music history, philosophy, and cultural studies—include Advanced Poetry/Fiction Workshop, The Beat Poets, Music of Asia and the Pacific, and The Philosophy of Art. Courses in the social sciences—history, economics, psychology, anthropology, and social studies—include Contemporary Latin America: Myth and Reality; Madness; From Civil War to Civil Rights; Capitalism, Socialism, and the Future; and Visual Anthropology. Courses in the natural sciences—mathematics, physics, earth sciences, chemistry and materials sciences, and biology—include Oceanography, Astronomy, Sensation and Perception, Botany, Animal Form and Function, and Calculus. The department also offers courses in Spanish and French.

Many of the courses combine specialized knowledge with specific art topics, allowing students to apply knowledge in a discipline to their studio work. For example, Chemistry of Dyes and Fibers deals with the chemical aspects of creating color in textiles, Geometry in Art and Nature introduces the mathematics of patterns, Art and Economics examines market influences on the art world, and Acoustics presents the physics of sound.