Creativity and Aesthetics

Art is a form of expression that can delight, entertain, empower, transform, instruct, challenge, and provoke.

3 credit hours | There are two options, CAC (Creation) and CAA (Analysis). In CAC courses, students learn about a particular art form to create examples of their own. In CAA courses, students learn about a particular art form, including related formal properties, terminology, and conventions, to utilize in interpretive analysis.

 

students working on project

The Value of Creativity and Aesthetics

Art can expand our understanding of ourselves and others across place and time, foster collaboration and communal experience, and encourage nuanced and non-literal thinking. The creation and analysis of art offers insight into this power, spurs original and divergent ideas, and promotes a broader understanding of cultures.

Student Learning Outcome

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of a particular art form in a specified context through production and/or analysis of that form.

Requirement Details

Examples of CAC courses include Creative Writing, Dance, Theater performance or production, Ceramics, and Music composition or performance courses. Examples of CAA courses include Art History, Film Studies, Theater Studies, and Musicology courses.

  • ARHS 1306 – Introduction to Architecture
  • ASPT 1300 – Introduction to Painting
  • DANC 3374 – The Evolution of American Musical Theater
  • ENGL 2390 – Introduction to Creative Writing
  • THEA 2319 – Fashion History & Culture

Course Search

Students will:

Creation

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of an artistic form.
  2. Apply the elements of an artistic form.

Analysis

  1. Identify the conventions of a particular artistic form.
  2. Analyze the formal elements of an artistic form within a specified context.

 

Courses in this category:

  1. Have a primary and sustained focus on the creative arts.
  2. Typically focus on the analysis and/or creation of art in the visual, performing, and communication arts.
  3. Ask students to consider how and why artistic works are conceived, realized, presented and/or utilized, evaluated, experienced.
  4. Invite students to reflect on the purpose and effects of art, both in the students’ own time and in other places and times.
  5. Include an assessment assignment that requires students to demonstrate each of the skills in the Creativity and Aesthetics Rubric. This assessment assignment should be one of the following: an objective exam, an essay question on an exam, an essay, or a research paper; or a creative work of some kind, such as a musical composition, play, poem, sculpture, painting, dance, film, advertisement, etc.