Courses & workshops taught

Alex’s Art Appreciation course begins with close looking. Students locate specific visual details, describe how those details relate, and use that evidence to develop an interpretation. Formal vocabulary serves an argument about a work; naming a technique or element is only a starting point.

The course connects form to context. Students consider how medium, scale, site, duration and circulation shape meaning, alongside the cultural worldviews, institutions and power relations around an artwork. Comparative critique, discussion, writing and curatorial proposals give them different ways to test a position.

Assignments make the distinction between observation and interpretation explicit. Assessment values specific evidence, clear reasoning and communication. Course materials include readings, museum collection records and captioned audiovisual work, with provision to consider equivalent access when a barrier arises.

This approach is reflected in the Fall 2026 syllabus and assignment excerpts below.