Catalogue

Division of the Arts Overview

The Division of the Arts offers programs in architecture, art history and visual culture, dance, film and electronic arts, music, photography, studio arts, and theater and performance. Theoretical understanding and practical skills alike are developed through production and performance in all disciplines. In the course of their program studies, students in the arts also develop aesthetic criteria that can be applied to other areas of learning. Students may undertake the arts for different reasons—as a path to a vocation or an avocation, or simply as a means of cultural enrichment. Working with a faculty adviser, the student plans a curriculum with their needs and goals in mind.

As a student progresses to the Upper College, the coursework increasingly consists of smaller studio discussion groups and seminars in which active participation is expected. Advisory conferences, tutorials, and independent work prepare the student for the Senior Project. This yearlong independent project may be a critical or theoretical monograph, a collection of essays, or, for a large proportion of students, an artistic work such as an exhibition of original paintings, sculpture, or photography; performances in dance, theater, or music; dance choreography or musical composition; or the making of a short film with sound. In designing their Senior Project topics, students may have reason to join their arts studies together with a complementary field or discipline, including programs or concentrations in other divisions. Plans for such integrated or interdivisional projects are normally created on an individual basis with the adviser.

Several special curricular initiatives are noted throughout the chapter. The Center for Experimental Humanities (EH) is a hub for exploring intersections between media, technology, and disciplines in the arts, science, and humanities. Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (ELAS) courses link academic work with civic engagement; Calderwood Seminars help students translate discipline-specific writing to a general audience; Hate Studies Initiative (HSI) courses examine the human capacity to define and dehumanize an “other”; Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck Initiative courses provide a Native American and Indigenous studies approach to American studies; and Disability and Accessibility Studies Initiative (DASI) courses examine disability and accessibility from a variety of practical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. OSUN online and collaborative courses are taught by faculty at Bard and at partner institutions throughout the world and enroll students from across the Bard Network. 

The course descriptions listed in this chapter represent a sampling of courses taught in the last three years.

Division chair: Laurie Dahlberg