Tertiary visual art education, as taught at the Queensland College of Art, fosters diversity in learning by providing a wide focus of study. This encourages students to broaden their perspectives and to challenge established perceptions and views. Your Art Theory studies will build a foundation which will provide you with the capacity for life long learning and enable you to keep abreast of a changing world.
Overview
Art Theory courses contextualise and enhance the student's studio practice. They give students a breadth of knowledge and make them aware of the wider implications of applying their specialised studio expertise. They focus on visual art practice as a vehicle for debate and discourse and improve the students scope to reflect critically on his/her own work.
Course content
Each Art Theory course is based on a rigorous academic methodology and helps students to achieve high competency levels in oral and written communication skills. In intellectual terms, it attempts to generate ideas which can be applied to studio project work.
There are three main categories of Art Theory courses, which
- Provide a sound understanding of our society, including its history, its cultural traditions, its social structure and its social mix. These seminal courses place visual artists, craftspeople and designers and major visual art movements within this context. These include our foundation 1st year studies 20th Century Visual Culture and our specialist core electives such as:
- History of 20th Design,
- Issues in Photo History,
- Readings in Art History,
- Animated Cinema and the Web,
- Genre and the Moving Image, amongst others.
- Encourage students to think about visual art in lateral terms and from a range of perspectives such as Photodiscourse, Art and Design in the Public Environment, Design Issues, Protest and Propaganda, the International Avant-Garde, Popular Culture, Short Film, and Fashion and Art, amongst others.
- Courses which concentrate on aspects of professional practice, exhibition, promotion and arts administration such as Curatorship, and Marketing.
Assement
Assessment is based on your ability to:
- comprehend and recognise key practitioners and visual art movements in the 20th century;
- organise oral presentations;
- research and write coherent and well argued essays;
- consider visual art problems from a range of perspectives;
- to gather evidence, to analyse, to synthesise, and to critically evaluate visual cultures in their various forms.
Gaining an Elective Major or an Area of Specialisation in Art Theory
You will be awarded an Elective Major in Art Theory by completing 60 Credit Points of art theory elective courses,or will gain an area of specialisation by completing 30CPs made up of Art Theory elective courses. Each course is worth 10CPs.You may choose to; study one course over a three semester period or you may choose to do one art theory course in one semester and two art theory courses in another semester.
Majoring in Art Theory
A major in Art Theory can be useful in expanding your vocational horizons. Often artists, craftspeople and designers are expected to be versatile and experienced in different aspects of arts administration. They are often required to make presentations, write submissions, reviews in magazines, scripts, press releases or copy for newspapers as an adjunct to their professional practice. Employers will consider all of your qualifications before choosing you as the right candidate for the job. Having 'excellent communication skills' is difficult to prove, with limited theory courses in your final university assessment results.
Our program also prepares students to successfully complete Honour's study and articulates well with other research higher degree postgraduate programs, both at QCA and other faculties within Griffith University, such as Education. It is also highly regarded with other higher education institutions across the country.
If you have a major in Art Theory, you will be confident of having the appropriate admission requirements to continue your studies in Australia or overseas.