Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course provides an opportunity for students to study one or more urban studies topics that lie beyond the scope of the other courses. This course will normally provide a more research-intensive experience than other graduate urban studies courses.

COURSE DETAILS:

Canadian Cities through Art and Design celebrates the Canadian Sesquicentennial by developing your knowledge of Canada’s urban history, as expressed through art and design.  While slide lectures build your visual literacy, discussion engages across disciplines developing understanding of Canadian urbanism and its connection to evolving urbanism around the world.  You will learn about Canada’s urban/rural dichotomy and its expression in Canadian art.  Land-based themes, including those explored through works of Group of Seven and the Emma Lake School will be complemented by contemporary consideration of First Nations works.   You will develop the ability to read text and sub-text in works of art and will gain a basic understanding of the social and cultural lenses of the artist and the viewer, especially through a Postmodern lens.  This upper-level undergraduate elective may appeal to Studio Arts, Art History and Architecture students, to Urban Studies and Liberal Arts students and to students of History, Environment, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology.

The course mixes slide lectures on key topics with advanced readings that cut across arts, history, design and urban studies.  You will be challenged to integrate learning from a variety of sources, including readings, videos, slide lectures and visual review of arts to develop their ability to understand the evolution of Canadian art through the nation’s history.  You will gain an appreciation for the depth and complexity of Canadian expression and its relationship to various key phases of our collective history.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: