FATE at CAA
College Art Conference
February 18-21, 2004
Seattle, Washington

"A Foundation for Foundations"
Chairs: Scott Betz, Weber State University and Steven Bleicher, Art Institute
of Fort Lauderdale

How well does the first year curriculum at a college, university or art
school prepare students and propel them forward? Are the students engaging in the
contemporary language of artistic thought and art making? With graduate
students and adjunct faculty teaching the majority of foundation classes at many
schools, what strategies can be implemented to insure a quality educational
experience and that all students have the necessary guidance and opportunity to
explore and discover intelligently and creatively? Additionally, in light of
recent world events, questions of how can students and faculty address these
challenges within their own aesthetic, cultural and political boundaries while still
making connections to new ways of working, other communities, and other
cultures are being asked.

These are some of the myriad of issues facing foundation education today. The
five participants in this session, A Foundation for Foundations, will examine
these topics providing relevant and concrete answers to some larger issues of
foundation pedagogy and theory, place and shared spaces, and issues of
cultural context.


"Theory as Foundation"
Stephen Shipps, Emerson College

In 2001, at CAA’s annual meeting in Chicago, its Education Committee
sponsored an open session in which ca. 150 attendees were asked to share any "gaps"
they found in their undergraduates’ preparation for the study of art in college
and/or art school.  Virtually all of those who responded cited one or both of
two such "gaps" – and remarkably, no others. They said that their entering
students had little-or-no idea what artists did that was any different from what
anyone else did; and/or little-or-no idea what particular significance art had
in their lives.

Danto suggested almost twenty years ago (1986) that art was nearing the end
of a 200-year odyssey toward the embodiment of its own essential nature as idea
: art had, he said, become philosophy – had become, that is, theory.  That
this was and is in fact the case has become ever more observably true, unto now.  
Postmodern thinking today posits art either as over, in Danto’s sense of art
as a essential category readily discernible from others, or as pure
socioeconomic construct, or both; and the work increasingly embodies these notions.  
Apparently, though, students come to us from secondary school courses that are
still (presumably) discussing art as a certain set of canonically-acknowledged
skills, or as formalist exercise, or as traditional Eurocentric history of
either or both.  Small wonder, then, that would-be art students today are confused
about just what it is that they want to study, and why.

My idea is that we college-teachers-about-art are called upon today to
pointedly acknowledge, early on in Foundation programs (of any sort), the confusion
these inherited views of art must cause in the face of what art has become
lately, and then use theory itself to teach to it.  We need lately to
specifically address the theoretical foundations – structural, semiotic, and
historiographic – that have given rise to the current situation.  
If we do so early and well, students will be infinitely better equipped to
evolve their own meaningful, working understandings of the field and its
relevance, than they are if we don’t.  (I have both qualitative and quantitative
proof of this.) They will learn better, that is, about art and about themselves,
which as far as I know is the point.


"Art School and Interdisciplinarity: Developing Foundation as a Shared Space"
Monique Fouquet, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design

In examining the tradition of compartmentalizing art into distinct
disciplines, it becomes possible to understand how, in institutions devoted to the
education of artists, disciplines have evolved within clearly defined boundaries
which have become signifiers of specific practices. Historically, sculptors
teach sculpture, painters teach painting, photographers teach photography, and so
on. Teaching thus falls under the paradigm of mastery where professors are
beholders of specialized knowledge and where students seek access to that
specific knowledge. But since contemporary art practice does not always fall within
the disciplinary boundaries long established in art schools, we must ask
ourselves how we can advance art as connecting the aesthetic, the cultural and the
political. And we must also promote the intrinsic value of learning through
making, rejecting the self-referential orthodoxy of any specific discipline.
In my own institution’s catalogue, the first sentence describing the
Foundation program reads as follow: "The primary goals are to encourage inquiry and
promote a willingness to engage in contemporary art and design issues". In order
to live up to our promise to the students and to ourselves, we have created a
structure that promotes the idea of Foundation as a ‘shared space’. A shared
space is a context in which "creative intersections" (Becker, 2000) are
encouraged, and where connections with things inside and outside the art world
serve to expand the visions and awareness of our social and cultural milieu. At
Emily Carr a shared space is a space of negotiations where a mix of faculty from
Foundation and from other departments are engaged in an ongoing debate about
what a good Foundation program should be. Such debate takes the form of
discussions but also of experimentation with challenging collaborative projects that
cross disciplinary boundaries.


"Building a Pedagogical Foundation"
Mary Stewart, Northern Illinois University

Graduate students and adjuncts teach the majority of courses in many
Foundations programs. What essentials must they know, and how can they learn it
quickly?
This talk will focus on a wide variety of teacher training skills, including:
   -Developing clear lesson plans
   -Critiques: form and content
   -Assessment: what, when, and how
   -Adapting an existing assignment
   -From Good to Great: assignment essentials and elaboration
Additional discussion of various teacher training models will be presented,
time permitting. These may include:
   -Mentoring
   -Using the buddy system
   -Apprenticeship
   -Observer model

"From the Ground Up: Building a 21st Century Foundation"
"Eight Lessons for Academic Leaders"
more from the conference to come


"Regional Roots"
John P. Gee. Ball State University

The foundations program well represents the basic building blocks of a more
extensive process by which many artists are educated. A successful foundations
program should embrace both homogeneity and diversity.  An important aspect of
diversity is regionalism and in regionalism lies the essential character of
many existing foundations programs, their signatures or personae. This might be
a sense of place, or a prevailing geography.  It could be a very picturesque
rural setting, or nature triumphant, with spectacular vistas.  It might even
be a dynamo of an urban environment with all its dissonance and vitality.
With an enduring sense of history and tradition, a given region could
evidence a most profound and obvious spiritual connection between native peoples and
their surroundings. An even more subtle mixture of individuals, places and
traditions could also result in a highly enriched stratification of creative
possibilities.  Virtually all existing programs bear some witness to their
regional origins and the foundations of foundations.

Is a spirit of regionalism still alive and well?  Are differences still as
important as similarities?  How might certain regional characteristics, a sense
of place or a specific cultural milieu, influence a core foundations program?  
Is it still possible to encourage the unique and even the unorthodox in the
face of continuity and measured consistency?  What kind of strategies might be
developed to recognize, reward and preserve regionalism in existing programs?  
The creation of new interdisciplinary and outreach approaches that directly
connect institutions and communities could prove to be very effective. Just
what kind of pedagogues and classroom experiences really celebrate particular
people and places? Just how many sides might there be to a well-rounded
foundation experience?


"Teaching About Art in Times of Terror: An Illustrated Discussion of
Techniques for Integrating Post Sept 11 Issues of War and Peace into Foundation and
General Education Arts Classes"
Paul R. Solomon, Western Michigan University

This presentation illustrates specific techniques that allow the seamless
integration of contemporary global issues into curriculum for General Education
and Foundation art classes. This examination of global events in the wake of
September 11 and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, is
contextualized within the broader mission of using interdisciplinary approaches in
these classes. The prime goal is to give beginning art students and general
education students a notion of what culture means and to explore what roles they
play in the various definitions of culture. The key to this methodology is to
engage students in images and words from popular culture, which are especially
accessible to them and to invite comparison with works of fine art in all
disciplines that come from contemporary and historical sources. Another
prerequisite is to create an environment in the classroom that encourages students to
feel secure in bringing to the conversation pertinent personal information, for
example: stories of family members, or their own, of serving in the armed
forces. These classes utilize material from a variety of sources including
digitized archives of visual art forms as well as music, film and performance.