Art, Performance & Cinema Studies (APCS)

Our approach to the arts is unique: APCS is the only undergraduate degree at SFU, and one of only a handful in Canada, that studies the fine and performing arts from an integrated and comparative perspective, teaching students about the history, theory, and critical analysis of visual art, film, music and sound, and theatre and dance, among other artistic disciplines. Progressing as a cohort, and taking a mix of lecture and seminar courses, students get to know and work closely with their peers, as well as area faculty, all of whom are experts in their fields.

We are small, but we are big: APCS and the School for the Contemporary Arts as a whole offer every advantage of a small art school and all the opportunities of a large, comprehensive university. You get to know your professors and work with them very closely; you also have endless opportunities to meet other students in myriad settings outside the classroom at performances and exhibitions, screenings and talks. The Woodward's campus feels like a small town; it is comfortable yet exciting; it is knowable but very diverse. But you also have access to the dozens of nationally and internationally recognized departments and programs at all three of SFU's campuses. You can take classes in the sciences, in interactive technologies, in the arts and humanities, in business and economics and more, and you can put together an undergraduate program of courses that is rich and exciting. When you come to SFU you can get a fantastic art education at the same time that you can get a rewarding and challenging comprehensive university education. Few, if any, other universities offer such a context for learning.

Unlike in other undergraduate programs focused on the study of a single art form (e.g., a BA in film studies, or theatre studies, or art history), APCS majors are immersed in a pedagogical culture that sees artmaking and its analysis not as siloed by discipline or medium. Instead, you will be part of an environment of doing and thinking that sees collaboration and critique across disciplines as inherently generative: for both art makers and art theorists (i.e., you). To that end, you will be taking classes alongside the next generation of emerging contemporary artists in all disciplines, trying your hand at studio courses of your own, and attending and writing about an exciting range of exhibitions, performances, and screenings in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Seeing art made and exhibited while you are learning how to talk about its formal properties and conceptual and historical lineages is invaluable add-on training.

Students learn the histories and aesthetics of world cinema, modern and contemporary art movements, theories of performance, sound studies, critical writing in the arts, curation, and more.

Yes. The APCS major offers two streams: one in art and performance studies, and one in cinema studies. Lower division requirements for both streams are the same, with students thereafter having the option to tailor their degrees according to the upper division requirements for each stream.

A core feature of our curriculum is indeed the elective and special topics courses that you see in the course catalogue. These courses change from year to year, allowing students to take on a broader variety of topics that a static curriculum cannot provide. These courses also allow faculty to teach to their areas of current intellectual exploration, so you often get courses on the most exciting new areas of research.

Some recent topics of these courses have included:

• Ghosts and the Supernatural in Contemporary Cinema
• Creative Ecologies
• The Cinema of Iran
• Sound Art
• Magic and Cinema
• The Art of Activism Today
• Visual and Material Culture of 19th century Britain and Canada
• Introduction to Filmmaking for APCS majors

Yes. Students have the opportunity to pursue internships with local arts organizations that give them valuable skills in arts management, communications, archiving, and production. Additionally, many APCS students choose to participate in Field Schools that are regularly offered in Berlin and London, two of the major art capitals of Europe.

The APCS BA prepares students for a range of careers in the arts: curating and programming at festivals, galleries, and artist-run centres; working in arts administration, arts advocacy, and arts policy-making; writing arts criticism; and teaching arts education. It gives students all the skills you gain from a liberal arts degree, such as strong writing, argumentation, analysis, and oral communication skills; on top of that, APCS majors learn skills in acute audiovisual, art historical, curatorial, and performance studies analysis. The degree also prepares students for Master’s degrees in studies of the arts, including our own MA in Contemporary Arts.