1. Analyze historical styles and visual traditions. (Analyze)

• Employ a vocabulary of both general and specialized words appropriate to art and art historical discourse in both speaking and writing.
• Demonstrate knowledge of selected objects within their cultural and historical contexts.
• Recognize cultural and historical references in the contemporary visual environment.

2. Demonstrate critical thinking and persuasive written exposition, particularly in relation to images, artifacts, and the built environment. (Analyze)

• Explain the defining formal, stylistic, and technical characteristics of images, objects, and architecture using appropriate specialized terminology.
• Recognize and employ different methodologies (such as formalist, Marxist, socio-historical, feminist) in analyzing a specific images and objects.
• Write cogently on selected aspects of art studied, evaluating diverse opinions and conflicting accounts.
• Analyze primary texts (literature and writings about art over the centuries) in relation to selected images, artifacts, and buildings.

3. Explain the appearance, production, and use of visual images and artifacts in contemporary and historical visual culture. (Connect)

• Identify and characterize the artists and audiences of relevant images and objects.
• Discuss the cultural and/or physical contexts for the original production, appearance, and use of works of art in the western and non-western traditions.
• Develop an original thesis derived from engaging in independent research.

4. Recognize and employ methodological approaches current in the inquiry of Visual and Material Culture. (Analyze)

• Show critical awareness of one or more current methodological approaches.
• Analyze and compare expositions of theory and criticism relevant to the field.
• Analyze literary texts and historical documents as examples of interpretive method, assessing the value of the methodology for the topic and the quality of the author’s use of the method.

5. Demonstrate research skills for analyzing images, issues associated with visual and material culture and problems in analysis. (Contribute)

• Use effectively the printed, electronic, and human resources of libraries, museums, and galleries to locate primary and secondary sources on a given topic.
• Use primary sources effectively in pursuing research.
• Demonstrate advanced research skills to carry out a research project.
• Present cogent accounts of research in progress to others engaged in the same process, and respond to their criticisms in the eventual product.

Updated: February 2018

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