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Chattanooga State

Fine Arts Program

Problems in creating fine arts SLOs

The discussion of fine arts learning objects quickly revolved around the issue of whether the

notion of learning objectives should be externally or internally governed. Clearly, because there are ablend of programs, the division has wisely chosen to make many of the learning objectives things that

you determine as departments and as a unit. You sped copious amounts of time justifying that decision

and frankly that time is wasted. Like a good child always trying to prove their worth to negligent

parents, you are chasing a dragon that neither cares or regards such efforts with much compassion. I

believe the learning objectives and outcomes only exist to make the division talk to themselves and to

discus issues of where the division sees itself and its learning community. I doubt if TBR cares much

what they are, so long as they help you do a better job serving your learning class.

SLOs and Tracking students: the frontier

A more valid form of soul searching occurs in the introduction to your study that concludes that you

spend little time in recording student successes and failures following graduation. We are all guilty of

that. This is not unusual. All schools have an out of sight, and out our mind attitude. However, I thinksocial media and digital technology can help us all there, and we can all correct that by using social

media to provide at least some strong anecdotal feedback. Be friends with your students as well as

mentors. Produce a professional linkedin, myspace, or facebook page that allows for updates and

longer missives from your peers and students. Invite everyone to join and be a fan. Assign collection

of facebook data to someone in your division. Rotate it. Try to keep track of who is writing to you and

make sure you target their commentary to professional data about their career. Create a subpage or

blog where they can register and keep up with you. Twit them and get them to follow your department

and track their career through weekly or monthly updates. Ask students to do this for a year after

leaving. Provide them with different pages that provide each class with its own page. Sort of use it as

a yearly yearbook for your classes in your programs. Now is a good time to start for film and dance

because they are new and those students will want a sense of community. If you think, this work is

non-academic, tabular and more like administrative record keeping, it is, but it is necessary and an

easy way to keep up with graduates. They are more likely to use social networking than to respond to

a form letter or even email. By the way, emails are still good, but my students think of email, as

communication for old people.

Individual SLOs and Silos

Listening to the discussion of SLOs I was thinking you have real SILOS in your departmental

divisions. We do too, but I have been working intently to get the professors to think more as a unit and

less as individual programs. Have you ever considered combining your professional Certificate degrees

into a professional fine arts certificate to increase numbers, keep accrediting agencies from looking at

your low number programs, (not that that seems to be an issue for the pro acting program) and

provides you with a means to combine your learning objectives.

Looking at appendix three and seeing the SLOs you arrived at for each discipline, there ismuch overlap. Clearly there isa struggle between the notion of scholar artists and simply artists that

are judged by their professional acumen. My background (which is pretty irrelevant) was at UVa and

there the notion of the gentleman scholar in the Jeffersonian tradition was stressed. I suppose the

institution determined that if the students did not become great artists, at least they would be skillful

aesthetes. It seems like that is a sticky point for these programs. I would contend that an

analytical/evaluative/general education component to even the purely professional amongst your

programs would aid the artistry of all the programs. It would seem helpful to go back to the table and

take all disciplines together and seek to create a series of slos you could all embrace.

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For example, if I was writing for the group I would start with:

1.Students frame cogent oral and written critiques of works that are Evaluative, analytical and

illustrate an understanding of primary works in the field/discipline.

Such a statement could serve a symphony, a play or a dance piece. Again, that sort of understanding of

issues might be as employable as the act of working in the field. Lots of people are technicians, but not

all technicians can explain their work.

2. Students respond to global cultural forces in the creation of personal, evocative, performative

media.

Such a statement entails that the work has breadth and understanding of other cultures (big for tbr

outcomes) and that it expresses what many of your departments desire: a sense of personal vision.

3.Students can craft a manifesto and objective critique of their own work that places their work in a

larger context while still remaining objective and open to criticism of their work. Thus artists must

have a rational and intellectual grasp of their craft and how to express this powerfully, but they must

also remain clear, receptive to criticism and focused on their audiences and patrons who provide the

lifeblood of their work.

Such a statement focuses on intellectual and objective processes, and the ability to respond to critiques

which I assume are mandatory in your labs and classes. Simultaneously, such self-awareness should

not translate into internalized arrogance and the students need to be redirected outward to audiences

and respected peers, mentors, critics and colleagues.

Finally, there is more commonality in your disciplines than any discipline realizes. The media is

different and approaches are different, but you could be sharing to a greater extent to gain more fully

rounded and (at least internally) successful student/artists.

Realize that the odds against artistic success, regardless of the individual students talent, are

astronomical, and the sense of self, the ability to be self-critical, the ability to have a strong statement

of principles (a manifesto), a relationship to the world, global cultures, and the facility to express

oneself with ease in a variety of formats are lessons that go beyond the nuts and bolts of an individualdiscipline. These general ed. Objectives, while seemingly superfluous in an aesthetic training program,

may last longer than any particular discipline skills that ebb and flow with new technologies and new

popular interests.

Learning Objectives questions:

1.Student learning objectives were described having been revised in 2002. Shouldnt learning

objectives be revised on a more equitable schedule that once every eight years?

2.It sounds from the narrative that students in non-fine arts majors might actually get a more of the

TBR learning objectives in fine arts disciplines than fine arts majors. Why is exposure to the same

learning objectives for general education students not mandatory for students in the arts?

3.What would be a better mechanism for insuring that learning objectives were met if not impeded by

the restrictions of articulation agreements?

4.Despite the claim the SLOs are more narrowly defined by the departments, lots of the programs

seem to avoid the broad overall humanistic objectives for very narrowly defined artistic competencies

sort of like trade school specifically targeted job skills. How do you justify the sacrifice of those

humanistic understandings. Dont you think the general understanding of the arts is as important as

just painting, just piano or just acting. Is practice more important than understanding.

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5.Schools can create whatever SLOs they want for AAS, but as these are AS/AA programs do these

competencies reflect what a general education community college should be doing?

Curriculum

After looking at the course descriptions, even the new programs seem to have well developed courses.

The breadth and depth of your catalog of courses is greatly impressive. 26 courses in art. A full two

year curriculum in photography and sculpture make your program the envy of the state. Even the

comparatively new dance program has five fine new courses. Music is similarly diverse and impressive

with a wide range of discipline courses and a strong theory and ear-training program to match it. The

theatre program is clearly programmed for a professional experience and the film program has

courses specifically geared to professional applications in the technical aspects of the field.

Some things immediately occur. Is there enough work in the arts to generate enough capable students

to success to continue any such programs. I think in my FA program there were only two of us who

happened to obtain academic jobs. The rest went into other fields. I think professional and semi-rpo

programs are good at he undergraduate level, but I question if the value of professional programs is to

the students to the seriousness of the profession. Our programs are not professional communication,

acting or art programs, but we have occasional artists, actors, and communicators that come through

our door. Considering the little amount of work in the fields, maybe we should gear ourselves to

programs that dont exist in large numbers, or to programs that can offer fuller employment. I know

that you have a graphics program and an art program. I assume that art exists in a different sphere

than graphics, but I also assume that graphics has more immediate professional applications.

Clearly the film program is not essentially about film production but about supporting professional film

companies that might be working in the area. Laudable and commendable. Do the students continue to

make films on their own? Would there be a market for a film criticism program where students could

study film aesthetics and write about it. Even in todays saturated internet market, I imagine there

more people writing about films than making them.

In theatre there is a mass of courses in professional acting, but what about courses in theatre

management for people starting little theatres. performance mangement courses for people managing

other peoples careers. What about arts entrepreneurship? Could you be starting companies in towns

without them?

I suppose the overriding question is, are there other ways to refocus these programs to give students

more career options than musical performance, acting, film crewing, dancing in a theme park, or

working for an advertising company? I think there are other focuses and your school is centrally

located to provide training for a vast variety of nearby locales in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and

the Carolinas. You have a wide reach and couold create perhaps new distinctive programs that might

not have been tried in that region. Programs like rural film cooperatives. Sculpture gardens for the

Southeast. Community theatre programs for isolated communities. Net theatres. There are lots of

ideas to explore.

Curriculum questions:

1.It seemed the difference between external and internal forces in the creation of an art curriculumseemed arbitrary and forced. Why didnt the external forces that resulted in the transferable courses

most naturally also serve the artistic and personal growth of the students already in classes in art. In

other words, what was wrong with basic design, and life drawing? Arent those pretty basic clases for

artistic expression and teaching fundamentals, anyhow?

2. I like the idea of a professional actor training program but what is the point of a New York

centered program when there is only one New York and your school is 1000 miles away. Why not

train for something more reasonable like regional theatre or media acting and not New York stage.

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3. Again there seems to be an insistence in suggesting that outer forces and inner forces are at war?

Cant you obtain the outer goal of transference of courses and fulfill the artistic ambitions at the same

time?

4. Curriculum ideas seems driven by professional need and by external forces. Which is more

important? Professional application or compliance with transfer agreements? What do your students

think is more important? Where does the value of student fulfillment by practicing the art come intothe mix. Considering the job prospects for most actors, filmmakers, and musicians, shouldnt personal

satisfaction play a larger role in curriculum decisions for the students? How would you measure that

and how might you argue for the programs success by that measure?

5.The authors seem to be quite compelled by external forces and the antithetical nature of that

purpose seems to fly in the face of the deeply internal reasons for why people choose an artistic and

often an impoverished (at least financially impoverished) life in the first place? Where is the destiny of

a life in art in your considerations. What role does the maturation of the artist play in your curriculum

decisions.