Are you integral to your artwork?
Performance art is the expression of art by the body. From the Dada movement in the 1910s and 1920s to the Fluxes movement and Happenings of the 1960s and 1970s, performance is central to the transformation of art into a radical and experimental practice centered in social critique and community engagement. Pioneered in conjunction with movements for justice, equality, and civil rights, performance art is linked to important social change. Unlike many other traditional forms, its foremost figures are diverse and rooted in feminism. If you believe that creativity extends to the physical and social realms, performance art may bring your art practice into exciting new territories.
Professor Rae Goodwin
If you are interested in the body, human interactions, being seen, known, or understood, performance might ignite your creativity. It may liberate your work from traditional forms and materials, or it may bring those same elements to life.
Performance art often lives on in documentation and in the publishing and sharing of images and video. In this way, it is often indiscernible from video art and photography.
Performance is frequently integrated into courses such as Lens Arts, Digital Video, and Guerrilla Art. Performance is also encouraged in studio areas such Foundations, Photography, Printmedia, Fiber, Sculpture, Intermedia, and more.
Courses that touch on performance art often show how it can transform passive object-based work into active social engagement. Study in performance introduces concepts in duration, time, space, endurance, and the ethics that revolve around performance, witnessing, and social action. Because performance art is integral to social and institutional critique, it is often central to discussions about the importance of art in general, the responsibility of the artist, and how an artist’s subjectivity and experiences inform our understanding of their work.
Join our vibrant performative community for student-led events and performances during gallery openings, class critiques and even for pop-up happenings in public space.
A-S 390 Performance Art
Performance Art is a course open to students from many/any backgrounds and skill sets. This class covers a broad history of this exciting practice for context and open-ended prompts from which students will create and perform new work. A variety of subjects will be explored in workshop format and students will apply a more focused approach for a few of these projects. Some of the following topics may be covered: performance for the camera, monologue, public intervention, food, installation, movement/dance, expanded spoken word, integration of sound, costume, etc. There are no pre-requisites for this course, but a curious mind and a willingness to perform in/as art are necessary.
A-S 285 Lens Arts
A-S 285 is an introductory course in digital image capture that focuses on the still and moving image as an art practice. Students will learn the fundamentals of camera operation and editing software in order to visually communicate their creative ideas. Students will be introduced to contemporary lens arts practice through research and assignments. This course is essential for any student wanting to succeed in digital media and/or design.
A-S 346 Digital Video
An intermediate level course in which students learn video editing and compositing methods, color techniques, masking, and key effects in the digital video application environment. Storyboarding, shot lists, and audio and sound design will be emphasized for all projects. Creative work may be collaborative and or individual.
A-S 390 Guerrilla Art
In this course students will view, discuss, critique and develop a variety of artworks in an investigation where artistic creativity and social engagement meet. Students will learn the techniques and strategies used in Interventional Art while developing their own creative ways to engage in public sphere. They will be introduced to the history of contemporary public art and the current discourse around public engagement, site-specificity, pedestrian psychology, and the politics of space. The projects will be both collaborative and individual and can be petitioned for credit towards the DMD degree if appropriate. Prerequisites - Sophomore status, recommended that all Studio Foundations classes be completed.
A-S 446 Visual Storytelling
A digital video class with emphasis placed on use of camera and postproduction editing and keyframing skills for an advanced student. Curriculum will focus on the required creation of a series of short original video works. Industry practices of shot lists, color correction and post-production, such as AfterEffects will be explored in depth. Video works for this course can be 2-D animation, projection, installation, or screen based.
A-S 580 Photography Projects I & II
A-S 580 I & II are photography-based project courses. The emphasis of this course is on the expansion of photographic techniques, self-expression, and long-term project development.
Student performance work
Rae Goodwin / Professor
Doreen Maloney / Professor
Garrett Hansen / Associate Professor
Forest Kelley / Assistant Professor
Lee Ann Paynter / Senior Lecturer
Heather Stratton / Lecturer
Art Studio BA, BFA
A studio art degree prepares you for the creative life you plan to live and opens the door to an inventive career full of exploration, critical thinking, and a practice based in hands-on making
Art Studio MFA
The MFA in Art Studio is an interdisciplinary degree that embraces broad forms of making and practice.