Foundation

Foundation provides core studies for life-long learning and professional practices in the visual arts by teaching fundamental skills that enable students to become adept, well-informed makers. Integrating core visual studies with Liberal Arts curricula enhances students' ability to construct meaning using the formal elements of art and design.

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New Student Guide

By the end of the Foundation Year, student learning outcomes will demonstrate that students have acquired and understand the following:

Fundamental Skills		Mindful making and improving of work by manipulation of art & design media.
Thinking Skills		The ability to distinguish between and use rational, intuitive, and critical thinking processes, and to construct meaning using visual information.
Visual Quality		The ability to identify visual strengths and weaknesses to promote aesthetic resolution and clarity of intention.
Professionalism		Strategies for success such as attentiveness, time-management skills, and the ability to commit to a personal vision in the endeavor of art making.
Inventiveness		Using problem-defining processes to complement problem-solving skills.
Spirit of Investigation		Visual and idea oriented research, the spirit of play, and delay of closure.
Community as Resource		Accessing the larger metropolitan community as a creative and learning resource.
Preparation		Identifying technical and conceptual needs of the art and design departments and integrating them into the Foundation curriculum.

Foundation Forward The spring Foundation Forward seminar helps students select a major. Students may elect to pursue an Interdisciplinary Concentration by entering one of the majors and taking a number of elective courses outside the major.

Paris Trip Each year Foundation students travel to Paris for ten days during spring break to view art in an extraordinary urban environment.