The Visual Culture minor offers a chance to study art from a cultural and historical perspective. It includes lecture and project-based courses for a full experience. The minor includes electives in topics that cover art activism and community engagement.
Whether you’re an art student looking to add an art history minor to your degree or a non-art major, you’ll benefit from adding an academic approach to visual and cultural literacy.
The following information comes from the official EWU catalog, which outlines all degree requirements and serves as the guide to earning a degree. Courses are designed to provide a well-rounded and versatile degree, covering a wide range of subject areas.
Visual Culture Minor
Consult with the Program Director of Art about questions about art history transfer coursework completed at other institutions.
| Required Courses | ||
| ART 210 | VISUAL CULTURE | 5 |
| or ART 213 | THE VISUAL ART EXPERIENCE | |
| ART 312 | ART ACROSS TIME: PREHISTORY TO 17TH CENTURY | 5 |
| or ART 313 | ART ACROSS TIME: 18TH CENTURY TO CONTEMPORARY | |
| ART 314 | THE BODY IN ART | 5 |
| or ART 331 | CONTEMPORARY ART | |
| Required Visual Culture Electives–choose from the following ART courses | 10 | |
| ART ACROSS TIME: PREHISTORY TO 17TH CENTURY | ||
| ART ACROSS TIME: 18TH CENTURY TO CONTEMPORARY | ||
| THE BODY IN ART | ||
| HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY | ||
| CONTEMPORARY ART | ||
| NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN ART | ||
| INTERNSHIP (may be repeated for credit) | ||
| ART AND COMMUNITY | ||
| ART AS SOCIAL ACT | ||
| WRITING ABOUT ART | ||
| INTERNSHIP (may be repeated for credit) | ||
| Total Credits | 25 | |
Notes: this course is part of the Art Foundations program and is open to all art and non-art majors.
Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Explore how the visual arts effect human life through exposure to the makers, materials, methods and meanings of art; engage with the visual art experience in a thematic manner to learn how it impacts personal, cultural and historical contexts.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 101, ART 213 (may be taken concurrently); or permission of the instructor.
This survey traces the development of modern and contemporary art, from Watteau to Ai Weiwei. Key artworks are studied in-depth and situated in their context to highlight the effects of modern selfhood, industrialization, globalization, revolutions, and wars on art. Emphasizes how artists have engaged with questions of tradition and cultivated the shock of the new. Includes many women, African-American, and Native American artists. Provides the principles of visual analysis and library research.
Cross-listed: GWSS 303, HONS 303.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 and junior standing.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
Many ideas about race, gender, and sexuality originate in representations of the body. This theme-based survey explores how figurative art has contributed, since prehistory, to shape today’s views. Emphasis in on applying contemporary issues, such as consent and identity, to the study of historical artworks. Includes class discussions and weekly writing assignments about art historical and critical texts that examine the production and perpetuation of cultural attitudes about the body.
Pre-requisites: junior standing or instructor permission.
Art has long been a catalyst for major cultural shifts. This course introduces students to the history and methods of art practice as a vehicle for social change and engagement. Students will learn about various social movements and their accompanying artistic production and will be guided through the process of researching, proposing and executing socially engaged artworks/events. Emphasis will be placed on understanding and creating artworks that promote community, collaboration and change.