Students will develop expertise in artistic expression.

Students will demonstrate expertise in artistic expression and technique through the production of a cohesive body of work.

BFA Studio Art majors are required to take ARTS 4315, Professional Practices and mount an exhibition of their work. The work in the exhibition will demonstrate

• expression of concept through art
• artistic development through the evolution of concept
• use of medium and materials to express concept
• evidence of personal voice
• professional presentation

The exhibitions will be evaluated by a team of at least 3 studio art faculty. A rubric using a score of 0-100 for each aspect of the evaluation will be used. It is expected that at least 75% of the students will score 80 or above on the evaluation. The 2 weakest areas that emerged for last year’s exhibitions were ability to express a concept and failure to demonstrate an awareness of contemporary art and the issues prevalent in recent art theory. This is the second year since major changes to our program have been made and we have kept our expectations for students the same as last year. As last year, we have raised the minimum score for each student to 80% instead of 75%. This year, faculty examined and revised the evaluation instrument and the categories. It was agreed that “awareness of contemporary art and its relation to art history” could not be adequately assessed through the exhibition. “Ability to produce a cohesive body of work with a number of pieces that are consistent in theme, medium and conceptual basis” was also dropped. These categories were replaced with “artistic development through evolution of concept”, and “evidence of personal voice”. Faculty agree that if the student is successful in these objectives, their awareness of contemporary art will not need to be measured.

89% of the students evlauated scored above 80 in every category of the evaluation. The faculty believe that recent curriculum changes that have had positive effects on the students' ability to produce cohesive bodies of work.
This learning objective will be further emphasized with the addition of a new class into the curriculum, Advanced Studio, that will be a prerequisite for ARTS 4315 Professional Practices and help students prepare a body of work for their capstone class. 

Studio Faculty will re-evaluate the criteria for this objective and expand it to include the ability to articulate and communicate an artistic concept verbally through an artist statement or public presentation. Emphasis will continue to be placed on the ability to produce a cohesive body of work through curriculum development and projects in mid-level studio courses.

Students will demonstrate basic skills in drawing by producing works that show an understanding of elements, techniques and materials used in contemporary art practices.

Students will demonstrate basic skills in drawing by producing works that show an understanding of the elements, techniques, materials and concepts used in contemporary art practices.

Students in the BFA Studio Art Program will be required to take ARTS 1316 Drawing 1 and ARTS 1317 Life Drawing 1. After taking these courses, students must submit a BFA review portfolio that includes drawings that demonstrate

• expressive use of line and mark making

• use of value to describe forms and light

• compositions that incorporate the use of negative space and the entire page

• ability to draw the human figure with the correct proportions

• use of perspective to depict 3-dimensional space

• craftsmanship and proficiency with materials

BFA Students submitted portfolios for review early in the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 Semesters. 36 Portfolios were evalauated in the Fall and 67 were evaluated in the Spring.

In the Spring, the BFA Portfolio Review was moved earlier in the course sequence to take place BEFORE students completed ARTS 1317, but after the completion of ARTS 1316 Drawing 1. In the spring review, "the ability to draw the human figure with correct proportions" was removed from the criteria and the evaluation was limited to work from Drawing 1.

The criteria for evaluation and expectations were made clear to students by distributing information about the portfolio requirements to students through the art office and online. The information sheet for students is attached.

A workshop was conducted for faculty teaching Drawing 1 and Figure Drawing 1 to develop strategies for emphasizing composition, negative space and perspective drawing in courses. These were areas that were identified as weak in previous reviews.

It is expected that the average student score on each of the elements assessed will be at least 3.

BFA Students submitted portfolios for review early in the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 Semesters. 36 Portfolios were evaluated in the Fall and 67 were evaluated in the Spring.

Averages:

• expressive use of line and mark making -Fall: 2.75, Spring: 2.49

• use of value to describe forms and light - Fall 2.86, Spring: 2.7

• compositions that incorporate the use of negative space and the entire page - Fall: 2.66, Spring: 2.59

• ability to draw the human figure with the correct proportions - Fall:2.47, Spring: Removed from criteria

• use of perspective to depict 3-dimensional space - Fall:2.39, Spring: 2.69

• craftsmanship and proficiency with materials - Fall:2.67, Spring: 2.61

The Studio Faculty have evaluated the criteria that will be used to evaluate Drawings in the BFA Portfolio Review and will adjust them to emphasize drawing from observation, the use of value to describe shape, plane, volume and light. The ability to draw the human figure with the correct proportions will be removed.

The Studio Faculty proposed a common textbook to be used in all Drawing 1 classes and will adopt a standard syllabus to be used in all of the Drawing 1 courses to ensure that course objectives are consistent across classes. The Foundations Coordinator will organize exhibitions of student work from Drawing classes to be held at the end of each semester and these exhibitions will be used to assess progress on learning outcomes.