This two-section course is the academic component of the 1st year MFA Core curriculum. This first section is aimed to refine students understanding of the critical underpinnings that inform and drive the increasingly global environment of the art world. Professional success as an artist hinges on one’s ability not only to create one’s work but also to continuously develop the ideas that drive it into an expansive body of work. Using a trans-disciplinary approach within the class, students will each be supported in developing a distinct and complex methodology relevant to their work as artists. Critical Thinking 1 sets the foundation of integrated theoretical learning within the studio. Students will explore and analyze a variety of methods of artistic research to understand how each approach, be it conceptual, scientific, biographical, or theoretical, may be useful to the process of developing their creative practices. Additionally students will also develop a keen awareness and capacity to deepen their studio practice by actively integrating existing and acquired knowledge, skills and methodologies from a variety of disciplines (art history, philosophy, cultural theory, etc). The class offers a focused collective study through lectures defined by faculty but also driven by the student’s unique interests, class reading, writing, discussion and audio-visual research. Building from such integrated collective explorations, this class furthermore supports each student’s capacity to critically drive their work contextually within the understanding of the complex and expanding field of Fine Arts acknowledging the increasing inter-contextuality of artistic practice and global exhibitions and prepare students to navigate that context as professionals.

This two-section course is the academic component of the 1st year MFA Core curriculum. This first section is aimed to refine students understanding of the critical underpinnings that inform and drive the increasingly global environment of the art world. Professional success as an artist hinges on one’s ability not only to create one’s work but also to continuously develop the ideas that drive it into an expansive body of work. Using a trans-disciplinary approach within the class, students will each be supported in developing a distinct and complex methodology relevant to their work as artists. Critical Thinking 1 sets the foundation of integrated theoretical learning within the studio. Students will explore and analyze a variety of methods of artistic research to understand how each approach, be it conceptual, scientific, biographical, or theoretical, may be useful to the process of developing their creative practices. Additionally students will also develop a keen awareness and capacity to deepen their studio practice by actively integrating existing and acquired knowledge, skills and methodologies from a variety of disciplines (art history, philosophy, cultural theory, etc). The class offers a focused collective study through lectures defined by faculty but also driven by the student’s unique interests, class reading, writing, discussion and audio-visual research. Building from such integrated collective explorations, this class furthermore supports each student’s capacity to critically drive their work contextually within the understanding of the complex and expanding field of Fine Arts acknowledging the increasing inter-contextuality of artistic practice and global exhibitions and prepare students to navigate that context as professionals.