The Brown Arts Institute is a university-wide research enterprise and catalyst for the arts at Brown that creates new work and supports, amplifies, and adds new dimensions to the creative practices of Brown’s arts departments, faculty, students, and community. Through year-round programming, research-focused courses, initiatives, collaborations, and partnerships, along with rigorous artistic and academic programs, BAI commissions and presents new work on campus, across Providence, Rhode Island, and beyond, from students, faculty, and on-campus arts groups, as well as in collaboration with forward-focused visiting artists and other performing arts organizations. Learn more at arts.brown.edu.
ARTS 1000. The Arts Workshop: I'm So Alone-Art of Surveilled Bodies Amidst a Global Epidemiological Cluster#@%$.
Since COVID-19, enforcement of “social distancing” has become a state mandate. The resultant choreographies of “social distancing” have catalyzed a confluence of gestures, disciplining technologies, discriminatory health practices, and state power; a braid of urgent concern for scholars and artists, and the subject of this interdisciplinary arts workshop. Offered by Brown Arts Initiative, the workshop is open to graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty by application. Full course credit is available for those interested. Participants will consider their respective creative practices in light of COVID-19 and emerging systems of computational recognition, broader trends with technologies of the body, and surveillance.
ARTS 1001. Arts Writing: New Forms of Cultural Critique.
In this course we will develop our critical skills and find our unique voice for multimedia arts criticism and storytelling rooted in a collective pursuit of liberation. We will study both contemporary arts journalism and cultural theory to assess the urgent needs and issues in the arts and society at large, and address them accordingly. We will be doing a good deal of reading, watching, listening, interviewing, writing, recording, and collaborating. This is where all your skills come in: photography, graphic design, web building, podcasting, playlisting, filming, interviewing, and of course writing. We will create a multimedia project documenting our work, and that of the artists we engage with. Through this process we will reimagine an inclusive, radical practice in culture, one that bridges the classroom and the world.
ARTS 1002. Arts Writing Workshop.
In this course, we will make space for constructive, community-led conversations about art -- and responses through thoughtful writing. How do we map out the conditions of art making? Who gets to impact culture, how, and why? How do we craft responses to art that move culture forward? And how does this writing benefit our lives, and communities? We will hone our cultural criticism skills in a series of workshops that will result in the making of a multimedia zine. This safe, collaborative space will help us reimagine the ways in which art connects us to those around us - and ignite new dynamics of care. This class is open to community members, for whom readings are not mandatory, and who can participate in producing the zine in any capacity.
ARTS 1003. Arts Leadership.
Arts Leadership is an undergraduate course introducing students to the building blocks of effective arts leadership, management, and succession planning with a focus on building practical skills while reflecting on the future of arts leadership. This course is intended for students currently acting in a leadership role for a student arts organization and encourages students to use upcoming group events and programs as the basis for assignments and final projects. Students planning to step into leadership roles may participate in the course with a current leader to develop organizational structure and succession plans.
| Fall | ARTS1003 | S01 | 17851 | M | 3:00-5:30(03) | 'To Be Arranged' |
ARTS 1004. Race and the Making of Art.
In this course, we will begin by examining how race is constructed, systematized, codified, commodified, and disseminated across various spaces in society through the study of several key scholarly and theoretical works. We will then use that lens to explore how different artists from multiple disciplines (poetry, visual art, music, and performance) have engaged issues of race in their work to both affirm individual and collective racial identities and trouble the ways those identities have been represented and understood. Each student will create creative or critical works reflecting their own intersections with these topics.
ARTS 1005. New Forms of Theatre: Traditional Storytelling to Storyweaving.
This course examines Native American theatre from origins of traditional storytelling to politics of race involved in Native theatre today and is best suited for students exploring how to become theatre makers. First, we examine traditional storytelling from creation stories in literature and theatre. Second, we study interactions with Europeans with the Doctrine of Discovery, Native American boarding schools systems, outlawing of traditional culture and how Native culture survived in these systems in wild west shows, sideshows and snake oil shows. Topics will be explored through a Native lens via movies, commercials, television and will examine the theatre movement that responded. Finally, students will directly engage with course content through weekly embodied practice. The weekly course structure will include one class meeting focused on seminar/lecture/discussion, with the second meeting focused on writing and movement based in Spiderwoman methodology.
ARTS 1006. Playing The Villain On Camera.
This class will explore playing the villain on camera. We will focus on three archetypes of the villain as outlined in USC Professor Joe Hacker’s seminal work “Auditioning for the Camera”: 1. The psychopathic individual. 2. Those driven by an inclination to create chaos, and 3.Those who get caught up in an illicit scheme to get something (money, power, revenge, love). Each of these archetypes will be explored in class, then filmed, and will be delivered to each student. Your professor is a working professional film, television, and theater actor, and students will additionally explore the “first day of shooting” using these villain pieces: you will be guided through the process of filming these pieces in a professional setting.
| Fall | ARTS1006 | S01 | 17859 | M | 4:30-7:00 | (K. Burton) |
ARTS 1007. Performance Practice Workshop.
Looking at performance as an act of transmission rather than a transaction or production, this class will consider the differing ways we relate to other bodies moving through space. Students will be guided through the process by which Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born create performance work. Utilizing writing exercises, song making practices, and structured/improvisational movement as research tools into what our bodies may carry from ancestors we no longer locate on a map or in a history book. Reading the writings of other practitioners whose work expresses foundational tenets of Okwui and Peter’s practice will be discussed alongside active movement exercises. With a focus on collaboration and engagement, we will investigate how performance can be a way of practicing new relations to one another. The course will culminate with students creating and performing their own projects with class participation.
ARTS 1008. Heart as Vector: Thinking Across the Arts with Shahzia Sikander.
This course thinks across the arts with the remarkable artist Shahzia Sikander. Over three decades, Sikander has produced compelling objects that practically and theoretically transcend borders and probe contested histories. Sikander is internationally renowned for a pioneering, multi-media practice that takes classical Indo-Persian miniature painting as its point of departure, and inflects it with contemporary South Asian, American, Feminist, and Muslim perspectives. Sikander’s work stands in opposition to the idea of homogenous and authentic national cultures; instead, Sikander asks that we understand terms such as “tradition,” “culture” and “identity” as unstable, abstract, and constantly evolving. This course considers different aspects of Sikander’s practice, from her training in Indo-Persian painting to her work with poets, dancers, and composers. We’ll engage closely with South Asian paintings, and a range of texts, including works by Aruna D’Souza, Gayatri Gopinath, and Saidiya Hartman.
ARTS 1009. Black Music Performance.
The history of black music is a rich and diverse tapestry, spanning centuries and continents.
In this course, students will explore the history of black music through a variety of lenses, including its social and cultural context, its technical and stylistic innovations, and its impact on contemporary music. Students will also have the opportunity to develop their ensemble instrumental skills through workshops and performance opportunities.
ARTS 1011. Acting for the Camera.
“Acting for the Camera” curriculum is divided into three parts depending on experience: 1. Auditioning for the Camera, 2. Acting for the Camera, 3. Playing the Villain on Camera. Part 2, “Acting,” will be our focus: Multiple scripts, including episodes of “Homeland,” “Mad Men,” and “Ted Lasso” will be part of the curriculum in addition to scripts from the following genres: comedies, drama, single and multi-camera TV (sitcoms), superhero franchises, horror, etc. This work should complement and enhance previous acting studies and help you move to an understanding of the nuanced shift actors need to make when they are acting for the camera. Kate Burton teaches ARTS 1006, "Playing the Villain on Camera," and TAPS 1500R, "Auditioning for the Camera." These courses (and any camera courses taught by Richard Waterhouse in TAPS) provide a foundation for studying camera acting.
ARTS 1030. The Essentials of Arts Journalism.
The summer is the perfect time to explore the rich cultural offerings of Providence and the wider region – from the RISD Museum to DIY spaces, MIT’s Poetic Justice Project and the many festivals in Massachusetts. This course is an opportunity to approach this artistic scene with the eye and mind of a critic, interviewing musicians, architects, writers and makers, writing reviews and profiles, and recording short audio and video stories. This practice will help you excel in your work as a student and professional in the arts, the media and entertainment. And it’ll be a fun way to know your city and area better, meet new people and bond with fellow students.
ARTS 1100. Anti-Social Reproduction: Art, Activism and the Question of Reproductive Labor (MCM 1701S).
Interested students must register for MCM 1701S.
ARTS 1110. Making Of: Beyond the Fourth Wall, Behind the Scenes, and Inside the Rabbit Hole of Filmmaking.
This class will examine the many ways that movies come together as well as the myriad ways in which they can be pulled apart and put back together by different audiences. Movie-making requires desire, collaboration, improvisation, money, time, and imagination. Sometimes, all it requires is “being there” and a cell phone. Much of what filmmaking demands is hidden in what is seen on screen, but the more we understand about the languages of cinema, the more it's possible to see. Using cinematic history, personal history, and political history as lenses, the class will think together in expansive ways about ethics, process, notions of self, and terms. The class will watch and discuss the films of makers from around the world and across time.
ARTS 1110V. Script to Screen: Scene Work (LITR 1110V)..
Interested students must register for LITR 1110V.
ARTS 1200. Reality Remix - Experimental VR.
This course pursues collaborative experimentation with virtual and augmented reality (AR and VR). The class will work as a team to pursue research (survey of VR/AR experiences, scientific and critical literature review), reconnaissance (identifying VR/AR resources on campus, in Providence and the region), design (VR/AR prototyping). Research findings are documented in a class wiki. The course makes use of Brown Arts Initiative facilities in the Granoff Center where an existing VR laboratory will be expanded through the course of the semester based on student needs. Class culminates in the release the class wiki as a resource for the Brown community.
ARTS 1210. Mapping Music in Providence (MUSC 0202U).
Interested students must register for MUSC 0202U.
ARTS 1300. Perception/The Performativity of Neurology (TAPS 1280D).
Interested students must register for TAPS 1280D.
ARTS 1310. Making the 21st Century Musical (TAPS 1251A).
Interested students must register for TAPS 1251A.
ARTS 1330. Way Too Much And Not Nearly Enough: Making Performance in The Post-Post-Dramatic (TAPS 1330A).
Interested students must register for TAPS 1330A.
ARTS 1340. Native American Theatre: from Traditional Storytelling to the Modern Theater Movement (TAPS 1340A).
Interested students must register for TAPS 1340A.
ARTS 1400. Radical Outsiders:Performance Arts Acts of Activism,Communion,Rebellion,Humor,Meditation(VISA 1400).
Interested students must register for VISA 1400.
ARTS 1401. Social Practice: Art in Everyday Life (VISA 1600)..
Interested students must register for VISA 1600.
ARTS 1500R. Auditioning for the Camera (TAPS 1500R)..
Interested students must register for TAPS 1500R.
ARTS 1700. Introduction to iPhone/iPad Moviemaking Using 3-D and 360 VR Comparisons (HMAN 1971S).
Interested students must register for HMAN 1971S.
ARTS 1800. ArtsCorps & The Future of Arts Work.
Introduce students to the principles, techniques, and skills essential to becoming an effective member of the professional arts workforce and to ArtsCorps, an innovative employment service in development here at Brown which will offer access to workforce development opportunities and paid on-campus and community-based project work in a variety of artistic disciplines. Students will be engaged in researching cultural worker employment models, as well as shaping, regularly assessing, and improving the student component of ArtsCorps. In addition to class time, each student will be assigned to an appropriate artistic project on campus across the course of the semester. A total of 180 logged hours, including class time, research assignments, and project work, will be required to pass the class and to enter ArtsCorps as a member eligible for paid work.
ARTS 1910. Artist@Work: William Brittelle.
Students who engage with the arts through Artist@Work courses learn through direct encounter the many and varied research and development processes artists use to advance their thinking, enactment, and refinement of in-progress works. As the students accompany the artist moving toward the goal of professional presentation, exhibition, and performance, they enjoy experiencing the real-world considerations, complexities, technicalities, and activities inherent in making large-scale and professionally-produced art works. Through this exposure, and their direct apprenticeship with working artists, students receive the opportunity for lifelong connection and real-world experience.
ARTS 1910A. Artist@Work: Carrie Mae Weems.
Students who engage with the arts through Artist@Work courses learn through direct encounter the many and varied research and development processes artists use to advance their thinking, enactment, and refinement of in-progress works. As the students accompany the artist moving toward the goal of professional presentation, exhibition, and performance, they enjoy experiencing the real-world considerations, complexities, technicalities, and activities inherent in making large-scale and professionally-produced art works. Through this exposure, and their direct apprenticeship with working artists, students receive the opportunity for lifelong connection and real-world experience.
ARTS 1910B. Artist@Work: Arts Education.
Students in Artist@Work: Arts Education will work closely with teaching artists Cassidy Jones and Drew Petersen to develop arts curriculum for Carrie Mae Weems: Varying Shades of Brown, a campus-wide artistic intervention including exhibitions, performances, and a gathering during the Fall 2023 semester. Students will garner insights on the processes and practices of being a teaching artist while gaining first hand experience contributing to the development of Brown Arts Institute’s public programs. This course is best suited for students interested in education, arts curriculum, public programming and/or considering a career as a Teaching Artist.
ARTS 2000. Frequencies of Black Life.
As part of an inter-institutional collaboration with the Princeton Collaboratorium for Radical Aesthetics at the Lewis Center for the Arts (LCA) and the Brown Arts Initiative, the proposed graduate seminar will be team-taught by Tina Campt (Art and Archeology/LCA) and Alexander Weheliye (Modern Culture and Media/BAI). The course engages the idea of frequency as a conceptual framework in a range of fields including sound and media studies, Black studies and critical theory, studies of the Anthropocene and social ecology, art history and criticism, and among contemporary artists working in multiple media. Joint in-person sessions of the seminar will be structured around conversations with guest artists and scholars who will present their work at public events and seminar meetings at the host institution.
ARTS 2001. Intertextuality, Interconnectivity: A Performative Sonnet Approach.
In this course, we’ll consider how language, poetics, text, identity and performance generate new perspectives of understanding and creating art. We will consider connections and divergences through a sample of innovative approaches to art making, concepts and experiences. We will utilize both poetry and performance theory, especially Speech Act Theory, to frame ideas of Intertextuality and Interconnectivity in the arts.
ARTS 2090E. Black Feminist Sonic Praxes (ARTS 2090E)..
Interested students must register for MUSC 2090E.
ARTS 2221. Accessioning, Archiving, and Antiracism: Critical and Creative Approaches (AMST 2221A).
Interested students must register for AMST 2221A.