Course Description:

Advanced Sculpture builds on the skills and modalities taught in Sculpture I and II. This third-year course asks students to develop individual directions through advanced assignments and challenges students' critical thinking through overarching themes relevant to art realized in their everyday life. Students will begin to prepare work suitable for submission through a student portfolio. By the end of the second semester, students will have the ability to objectively critique and articulate content and vision in their work. Students are required to maintain a detailed sketchbook that includes artistic vision and concepts leading to the work that is created. Assigned work throughout the course will emphasize three-dimensional media's technical, emotional, expressive, and non-verbal communicative nature. Students will also master advanced skills and expand their knowledge of three-dimensional processes, including but not limited to ceramics, wood, metals, fibers, plaster, stone, and wire. This course satisfies the Fine Arts requirement and may be repeated for credit upon recommendation of the instructor. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to demonstrate mastery of advanced skills and expand their understanding of current and historical directions in three-dimensional art through completed works, assigned written reviews of exhibits, and class critiques.  

Course Goals, Purpose, and Expected Student Outcome:

Advanced Sculpture will continue to emphasize the development of personal expression in student work with an emphasis on and reference to the historical/contemporary tradition of sculpture. During the process of completing assigned projects, each student will submit research materials, visuals, and concepts discovered that relate to the work produced. Advanced Sculpture students must also develop a presentation on a method, process, or body of work. Organization of presentation and research materials are a primary consideration for evaluation and the projects submitted. Technology through the creation of personal websites, electronic portfolios, and blogs will be required for advanced sculpture students. Their work will be photographed and updated regularly, and personal critiques will be applied for each concept and finished selection.

Course Objectives:

• Students will embrace various forms, including figurative, formalist, conceptual, and installation.

• Students will enhance their powers of three-dimensional expression by completing individual pieces, moving towards the creation of a final portfolio.

• Students will be provided the opportunity to learn sculptural skills and experiment with them in a creative environment.

• Students will increase their thought process, judgment, awareness, and skills.

• Students will have mentored independent study within the final 6 weeks to allow personal reflection on the constant evolution of the discipline and completion of an independent final piece.

• Students will analyze, problem-solve, communicate and defend choices on an advanced level, and learn to document their work through submitted research materials, visuals, and concepts to continue the understanding process.  

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of their work in connection with both contemporary society and contemporary art practice.

• Students will learn to document their work through submitted research materials, visuals, and concepts to continue the understanding process.  

• Students will cultivate a body of work that exemplifies maturity and sophistication in both technique and subject matter and will be used in a personal portfolio.

• Students will show technical proficiency with selected materials.

• Students will evaluate, select and exhibit work thoughtfully and professionally.

• Students will address technology by creating personal websites and electronic portfolios/blogs.  Work will be photographed and regularly updated, and personal critiques will be applied for each concept and finished selection.

Course Outline: 

During this two-semester course, the value of art in each student’s life and the world around it will be contemplated and discovered.  Beginning with asking essential questions, students will be guided towards personal answers through selecting assignments, materials, and the history of art that preceded them.

Some of the essential questions asked:

How is art meaningful/relevant in your life - why does art matter?

How does art serve the individual and society?

How does the history of art guide our vision?

1. Exploring Social Issues in Sculpture:

Developing students’ abilities to critically think about their own art making and its intent and the importance of meaning and concept behind creating their work is the main focus. Students will explore artists who used their work to comment on social issues worldwide, such as Carrie Mae Weems and Doris Salcedo.  Students will brainstorm social issues, what they are, what they mean, and how they are perceived.  Students must select and think critically about a particular social issue, write a personal response involving research and reflection on an aspect of that issue, then solve the difficult problem of how to communicate the issue visually in their final piece.  Throughout the problem-solving, students are asked to consider the elements of art and principles of design and, working within that framework, create their final piece with those in mind. The inclusion, understanding, and use of deconstruction/reconstruction will be discussed.  Aspects of discussion during the course of the project will include various communication venues, from public display (graffiti) and installation to more subtle, personal works such as gallery selections.  Real-world application through the creation of their own concept of social issues becomes the driving factor and force.

2. Beauty in Brokenness:

What does beauty look like?  What does broken look like?  Does beauty have to be a set standard agreed upon by others?  Is broken something less beautiful?  How would these two concepts be put together through art?  These are the essential questions that will guide student investigation in the creation of art that is personal through the concept of “broken” beauty.  The final project will pursue the art of mosaic - hand-created and found tiles and found objects that reflect the concept being created - to achieve a piece based on beauty in brokenness.  Research, critique, and discussion, both self and group, gallery/site visits will be utilized, as well as the work of mosaic artists such as Antoni Gaudi and Gerhard Marx and contemporary sculptor El Anatsui’s Broken Bridge II. 

3. Public work/Installation:

Students are asked to recognize issues and perceptions about their community, then create either monumental or miniature installations to invite viewers to explore those perceptions through art.  The installations become a conversation about solitude, community, and examining the roles of citizens and fellow human beings in a shared urban reality.  Work is based not only on the student's personal experience but also on the experiences of those they come in contact with daily.  The work of Isaac Cordal, George Segal, and Mark Jenkins will be researched and discussed.  The completion of the final piece(s) will depend on the site selected and approval from the administration, a written proposal outlining the concept, including images to scale within the selected location, and consideration of the community in which the installation will be placed.  Depending on the concept, students may work with either full-sized tape-constructed figures or miniature clay or soapstone figures.  The final submission of the piece will include documentation of community reaction and discussion of the perceptions realized.

4. Nature – Turning of the Form:

In nature, the concept of “turning of the form” is evident in everything from trees and how they develop to shells and the spiraling direction created by the creatures they protect and the water flow around them.  Students will explore the turning and twisting of forms in and out of space and become more sensitive to creating dimensional pieces that display movement, form, and shape.  Students will be able to see and discover the twisting movement of the form and recreate it through touch and sight, as well as recognize the turning movement in the nature of objects. Students will work with a single object of their choice – a shell or organic root such as a ginger root, working so that it has monumental scale.  Students will learn to see through form, visualize the whole movement, and sense its rhythm when completed.  Looking at the work of artists Deborah Butterfield, Jane Rosen, and Henry Moore and the natural artistry of shells, found driftwood, roots, and beach stones, students will discover and see how each material repeats and opposes forming a simple overall rhythm that they will have recreated through sight and touch.  Materials used will be clay, paper clay, and a selection of shells, driftwood, organic roots, and beach stone.

5. Exploration of Self:

Whether exploring their own psyche or simply because they are inexpensive and available, artists in every medium have attempted some form of self-portraiture or  “exploration of self”.  With this in mind, students will research the concept of a self-portrait, both traditional and non-traditional, from busts to abstract concepts of artists displaying who they are and how they wish to be perceived.  To understand the purpose of these works and how both the artists and viewer benefit, students will create an “exploration of self” by creating an article of clothing made from wire and additional materials as seem appropriate.  Students will respond to the work of artists such as Leigh Pennebaker, Lesley Dill, and Susan Cutts and use these images as a beginning to their own exploration of who they are and whom they wish others to see them as.  Preliminary studies will be part of the creative process, including creating a maquette before the completed piece.

6. Personal Meaning within Personal Space: Where is your refuge? 

Personal identity and the emotional state “Refuge” implies becomes the focus of students who must consider what refuge means to themselves and others – both human and not.  It can be described as “a stronghold which protects by its strength, or a sanctuary which secures safety by its sacredness; a place inaccessible to an enemy”.  Once realized, students will create their personal refuge in the form of a nest.  The concept of creating a personal refuge takes on an emotional impact for students who will discover not only what it will look like but also where it will be placed, what it will hold, and the materials necessary for the finished project.  The work of Jayson Fann, German artist Nils-Udo, and Beckey Kaye will be discussed, along with the natural art of birds and net-building techniques and placement.

7. Environmental and Earth Art – Collaborative Design using nature:

This assignment might appear to fall under the Public Work/Installation category but deserves a separate heading in that the concept of “proposal” work becomes an even more important piece of this collaborative project.  Beginning with the study of artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson, Agnes Denes, the Red Earth Environmental Art Group, and cultural awareness of environmental art such as that created by the Nazca people of Peru.  Students will use the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design, along with the properties and philosophies of the campus the school exists on and with, to create an environmental design using natural resources available.  Small group collaboration allows this assignment to be worked on within a time frame beyond the classroom. Communication skills become essential for these works of art to be designed, approved, and completed.  The landscape of the school and the student's relationship to it are the focus, and the process of each student's creation becomes art.  Work will be documented through initial proposals and presentations, illustrations/mock-ups of the concept, documentation of the progress, and final presentation and critique.

8.  Community Application:

The significance of real-world application in creating 3-dimensional art is often overlooked in coursework.  With this assignment, students are challenged with creating vessels built on the theme of curing hunger in the community.  Working with local restaurants in what is called The Empty Bowl Project, students will donate their created vessels to the community in a school-wide display and exhibition, auctioning off the bowls and using the funds to fight hunger.  This assignment aims to bring the community into the classroom and allow students to witness an event utilizing their art as part of a larger picture.  What began in Michigan with an art teacher helping students solve a problem for raising funds to support a food drive evolved into a class project making ceramic bowls, serving soup and bread for a donated amount, and allowing guests to keep the bowls as a reminder of hunger in the world.  Real-world application of student art and participation.

9. Final Portfolio Review, Critique, and Exhibition:

While students continually create and add to a portfolio of work, at year's end, a formal group critique, by way of a student exhibition of work, will be the final outcome.  Final portfolios will be submitted as photographs (minimum of two views for each piece) and in a creative application – book, album, timeline.  All final work will be displayed in the school gallery, and a student-run art opening will be arranged.

Evaluation & Grading:

Grades are based on participation, successful completion of each project, and specific requirements.  Final grades are based on creativity, craftsmanship, effort, and participation.  Assessment will be based on instructor observation and assessment, class critiques, and student self-evaluation.  Incomplete work will not be accepted for credit.

  65%  Assignments.  Artwork completed to specified requirements - successful expression of intended meaning, structural integrity and technique, and surface treatment.

  25%  Visual Journals. Creative thinking, consistent effort, and craftsmanship are the determining factors in grades for sketchbook work.

  10%  Discussion Board and Critiques.  The online factor involves participating in a class discussion board posted in Schoology.  Creative thinking and insight, along with regular critiques of both personal and peer work, are the determining factors in grading.

Artificial Intelligence Technology:
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology such as ChatGPT has quickly become common in the workplace and academic settings. Unless specifically allowed by the teacher, students are prohibited from using any and all Artificial Intelligence tools, large language model (LLM) tools, or essay writing services to guide, brainstorm, draft, or create student work related to any assessment or assignment, including written assessments, projects, and performance tasks. Teachers will specifically tell students whether it is acceptable to use tools like ChatGPT as part of any assignments, and students must follow their teacher’s instructions for each assignment. As with any resource, NDB expects students to cite their sources and note the use of resources when completing assignments. Turning in work that was written by other people or by generative AI resources as if it were the student's own without citation/notification is plagiarism, which represents a violation of NDB’S honor code. It will be considered a serious academic infraction.

General Classroom Guidelines (From the Student Handbook):

Each student is expected to do their part in participating in classroom exercises, lessons, and discussions. Furthermore, they are expected to contribute positively to the classroom and whole school-learning environment, thus enabling successful facilitation of classroom management and discipline by their teacher. Teachers will handle minor disciplinary problems with the full support of the Associate Head of School for Student Services. Any major offense, or excessive minor offenses, will be referred directly to the Associate Head of School for Student Services. The following are general classroom guidelines for all students (each teacher has their own variation of these guidelines and consequences):

● Be in your assigned seat with all your materials when the bell rings.

● Request permission from the teacher to leave the classroom.

● Maintain classroom behavior that shows respect for others’ learning.

● Respect personal space.

● Respect school property and the property of others. ○ No food, drinks (other than water), or gum allowed in classrooms at any time.