BFA Fine Arts

BFA Fine Art Student work will demonstrate:

• Disciplinary Knowledge and Skills
  Art historical knowledge(s), familiarity with the discourse(s) in contemporary art, basic to advanced knowledge and skills in their chosen media, experience in exhibition design, prep, installation, public relations and audience outreach, experience with analog and digital technologies used in Fine Arts.
• Proficiency in Industry-Standard Skills, Technologies, and Processes
  Competence using the Adobe Suite: Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere. Media specific technologies such as CAD, Sketchup, and a variety of advanced audio and video production and editing softwares, Analog skills include canvas preparation, color mixing, wood working, metal work, mold making, All students have experience using an SLR camera and many will know basic to advanced photo printing.
• Cross-Disciplinary Awareness and Practice
  Ability to work in interdisciplinary studios to analyze works of art and other cultural artifacts in a variety of media produced for a variety of contexts. Able to integrate knowledge from fields outside art design including social science, environmental science, politics, philosophy and literature
• Audience-Focused Research, Historical Context, and Field-Specific Discourse
  Ability to develop audiences through exhibitions, ceremony, publications, and events, and to appreciate the inextricable connection between context (concrete, historical, political, cultural,economic) and meaning.
• Capacity to Identify and Solve Creative Problems
  Ability to define issues and to use their artistic skills to give those issues a  form that others can engage and interact with.

BFA Fine Art Student work will demonstrate:

• Innovation
  Free and open minded thinking that challenges conventions, uses unexpected methods and extends the scope of the media they work in.
• Experimentation and play
  Experimentation with materials and methods and engaging in art productions without fear of unexpected outcomes. They will use simple means of experimentation that becomes fun, more like play.

• Challenge to the status quo
  Having knowledge of the existing discourse and conventions and the ability to challenge those discourses/conventions through innovative technologies, techniques, subject matter, or by an examination of theoretical underpinnings.
• Bravery in their work and their interactions with others
  Active engagement in critiques, in class discussions, public exhibitions, and self driven  assignments, thereby developing the courage to take positions, using techniques, or technologies outside the norm and openly discussing those actions with other students and faculty.

BFA Fine Art Student work will demonstrate:

• Self-awareness
  A (self)-awareness of their current artistic philosophy and professional approach and identity within the field of contemporary art.
• Capacity to communicate (orally, written, and/or visually) about their practice
  The capacity to communicate their artistic concepts, processes, and philosophies effectively through oral, written, and visual means in appropriate ways to various diverse audiences.
• Capacity to seek, assemble, evaluate, and ethically apply information and ideas from diverse sources
  The ability to generate insights by seeking out, critically evaluating, and ethically integrating information and ideas from diverse sources into their artis practice.
• Analysis of both ethical and aesthetic impacts of art and design
  The ability to analyze the ethical, aesthetic and political implications of their practice and that of the larger field of contemporary art and how art practice(s) influence society and impact the environment.

BFA Fine Art Student work will demonstrate:

• Understanding of themselves as parts of a larger whole made up of human and non-human beings.
  Students will demonstrate in course work and through the critique/evaluation process an understanding that art is not only self-expression (an expression of the  point of view of the artist) but the expression of broader human and non-human experiences and histories.
• Awareness of positionality – in the world, their field, their communities.
  Students will learn that positionality (identities, social constructions and power dynamics)  can influence a person's thinking, approach, and process of their art making. Through studio and liberal studies coursework students will demonstrate an understanding that works of art reflect social identities: gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, and geographical location. Art also reflects social constructions: How gender, race, and class intersect with each other and power dynamics: How social position and power shape access in society.
• Ability to work well, collaborate, and build relationships across differences in identity, perspective, aesthetics and disciplines
  Students learn that art making is a collaborative process even when the artwork is ascribed to a single maker. They will build relationships with each other - a wide range of people across differences in identity, perspective, aesthetics and disciplines. In  group studios and exhibitions students will learn to be tolerant and be collaborative.
• Integration of skills, information, and concepts
  Student work will demonstrate an ability to integrate an understanding of the above in their use of skills, information and concepts.

BFA Fine Art Student work will demonstrate:

• Ability to define aspirations, future goals and their role within the creative economy
  by writing coherent and compelling artist statements that define their aspirations in the creative economy.
• Awareness of audience and ability to cultivate relationships with others in their chosen fields.
  by presenting exhibitions and events in Galef for their peers and faculty, the college and finally public audiences and develop relationships inside the Otis community and with the larger arts community.
• Compelling presentation and exhibition skills, through Annual Exhibition, Capstone, and portfolios
  by working for a year in senior studio to learn the skills of exhibition making, creating a body of work described in an artist statement partly developed in Capstone and by learning the skills of exhibition catalog production.
• Proficiency in budgeting, time and project management
  by creating a cohesive coherent body of work for exhibition that requires budgeting, and time and project management.
• Career readiness, as evidenced by strong interpersonal skills, self-advocacy, adaptation, autonomy, initiative, and willingness to both receive and offer feedback
  by demonstrating career readiness through professional level cooperation in producing collaborative projects (e.g exhibitions) that require adaptability to the group, self initiative and the ability to give and take feedback to peers.