Glossary
UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Seattle Course Descriptions
Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
T ARTS 101 Play and Place: Introduction to Creative Practices (5) A&H
Develops creative, collaborative and problem-solving skills in the context of visual arts practice and exploration of the local environment. Explores the role of "play" in artistic process, and develops new ways of thinking and working that allow us to develop creative ideas.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 101
T ARTS 102 World Voices Vocal Ensemble I (1, max. 5) A&H
Introductory study in singing and musicianship. Performance of different types of choral music ranging from Gospel to Call and Response, contemporary and historic music of world cultures, as well as popular style. Open to all University of Washington students, faculty, and community. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 102
T ARTS 103 World Voices Vocal Ensemble II (1, max. 5) A&H
Extended study in singing and musicianship. Explores advanced repertoire in different types of choral music ranging from Gospel, to Call and Response, music of world cultures both contemporary and historic, along with personal vocal study. Open to all students. Corequisite: T ARTS 102. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 103
T ARTS 110 Music in Culture (1, max. 3) A&H
Explores music and social expression through innovative and collaborative projects. Investigates roles of music in addressing issues of social justice and resistance, issues of cultural and identity and history, and popular culture.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 110
T ARTS 115 Beginning Piano (3) A&H
Provides group instruction in the fundamentals of keyboard technique, including correct playing techniques, music reading, elementary music theory, and development of effective practice habits. Intended for the beginning pianist, with no prior musical experience assumed. Portable keyboard required for in-class participation and individual practice.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 115
T ARTS 120 History of Classical Music (5) A&H
Introduces students to western art music from the following periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, and Postmodern. Develops listening skills as the vehicle through which specific musical concepts are examined. Provides analytical and critical tools to develop a historically informed appreciation of this tradition.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 120
T ARTS 125 Introduction to Western Music Theory (5) A&H
Explores rudiments of music in the Western tradition; notation of time, small pitch structures, some analysis and composition for non-music majors with no prior hands-on music experience. Course overlaps with: MUSIC 116 and MUSIC 117.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 125
T ARTS 150 Introduction to Theatre (5) A&H
Explores the aesthetic principles of theatre to provide a foundation for attending, enjoying, and analyzing the live theatrical experience. Focus is placed on the specific roles of the playwright, director, actor, designer, and audience; and the critical skills and vocabulary to better appreciate and evaluate theatre. Course equivalent to: DRAMA 101. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 150
T ARTS 151 Fundamentals of Acting (5) A&H
Explores fundamentals of acting, including introductory understanding of selected systems and perspectives from respected practitioners (e.g., Stanislavsky). Develops skills valuable in acting, for example, relaxation, concentration, creativity, script analysis, and action execution for performance. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 251.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 151
T ARTS 160 Introduction to American Musical Theater (5) A&H
Introduces students to the history and evolution of American musical theater, focusing on the American musical and its most significant writers, composers, lyricists, directors, choreographers and performers. Develops fundamental skills in musical theater performance, with practical application of acting, singing, and movement techniques. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 171 and MUSIC 161.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 160
T ARTS 200 Studio Foundation I: Contemporary Art Strategies (5, max. 15) A&H
Provides hands-on experience in studio art with a variety of visual and performative strategies while introducing them to narrative and symbolic forms. Explores how to use images, objects and interventions in time and space, and learn skills for conceptually-based art making.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 200
T ARTS 203 Body Image and Art (5) A&H
Explores questions about body image through contemporary art making strategies. Examines how the human body is portrayed in popular visual media, considers relevant art history, and uses drawing, collage, photography, and site-specific projects to investigate the students' stories about the body.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 203
T ARTS 210 The African Diaspora through Music: The Rhythm, the Blues, and Beyond (5) A&H/SSc
Traces the evolution of the blues from its African indigenous roots, through slavery in the American South, and the cultural assimilation of various elements that influenced its development. Examines the impact on U.S. and global culture, and explores the contemporary African immigrant population in our region.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 210
T ARTS 220 Exploring Classical Music in our Community (2) A&H
Explores western art music, or 'classical music', through current concert offerings in the Tacoma community. Presents a broad survey of the primary periods of classical music history. Exposes students to current issues in the music business, locally and globally. Attendance of four off-campus concerts required.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 220
T ARTS 225 Musical History of Tacoma (5) A&H
Explores a diverse range of musicians and musical genres through the lens of Tacoma's history. Utilizing primary source readings, listening examples, and guest lectures by local musicians and historians, presents a survey of the musical history of Tacoma, from the region's native peoples and early settlers to the present day.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 225
T ARTS 230 Issues in the Arts (5) A&H
Employs interactive presentation and discussion format, culminating in a collaborative community-based art proposal. Topics include aesthetic and conceptual strategies; roles of art and artists in contemporary culture, censorship, sexism, racism, and political issues; and the evolving roles of making, technology, and social media in individual, collaborative, and hybrid art practices.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 230
T ARTS 240 Landscape in Contemporary Art (5) A&H
Develops alternative means of expressing and communicating ideas about landscape through a variety of art projects and proposals. Examines the changing role of landscape in art and the influences of environmentalism, politics and global culture in those changes. Includes: field trips, art projects, reading, process book, and project proposals.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 240
T ARTS 251 Intermediate Acting: Scene Study (5) A&H
Refines fundamentals of acting utilizing early 20th century European authors and theatrical styles of naturalism and realism as they pertain to acting and the creation of character. Application of Stanislavsky, Chekhov, and other relevant methodologies in order to develop advanced skills such as psychological motivation, concentration, subtext, and focus of attention. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 351. Prerequisite: T ARTS 151.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 251
T ARTS 252 Introduction to Stage Directing (5) A&H
Introduces stage directing, covering significant figures in the history of directing as well as various approaches and methods. Focus will be on the director's craft: analyzing a script, developing an approach to the material, seeking inspiration, collaborating, casting, creating a design concept, working with actors, and staging. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 460. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 252
T ARTS 266 The Artist as Visionary and Dreamer (5) A&H
Explores art that investigates dreams including dream journals and work with collage, painting, drawing, and photography. Focuses on reading of the artist as visionary and utopian thinker as well as contemporary dream theory as a tool for social change and healing. Concludes with a collaborative, community-based project.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 266
T ARTS 280 3-Dimensional Art and Contemporary Approaches to Sculpture (5, max. 15) A&H
Examines 3-dimensional images and explores innovations and trends in contemporary sculpture. Covers formal design elements, and historic and cultural meaning. Includes studio projects, process book, reading and discussion, and research project.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 280
T ARTS 281 Art and Culture in India (5) A&H/SSc
Examines contemporary India in historical and comparative contexts. Emphasizes production of diverse material objects and how they produce and represent value and significance for South Asian conceptions of self, society and the real world.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 281
T ARTS 282 Art and Culture in China (5) A&H/SSc
Examines major aspects of contemporary Chinese culture in broad historical and comparative contexts. Emphasis on family, self-cultivation, virtues, and artistic refinement in the constitution of unequal social power in China. Examines modern faith systems in relation to Daoist, Confucian, Buddhist, and popular folk conceptions of life and reality.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 282
T ARTS 283 Art and Culture in Japan (5) A&H/SSc
Examines material production of value and meaning for contemporary Japanese people. Explores a framework for interpreting the present in relation to the past, and recognizing common cultural strategies for cultivating a respected self in Japanese culture. Includes topics of family, gender, work, business, and aesthetics as they relate to various identities.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 283
T ARTS 284 Art and Culture in the Pacific (5) A&H/SSc
Examines the personal, social, economic, and political predicaments of selected modern island nations in relation to their ancient and colonial histories. Explores complex adaptations and/or rejections of European ways, migrations, contemporary sovereignty movements, and vigorous re-assertions of local mana (modes of power, knowledge, and prestige).
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 284
T ARTS 285 Contemporary Chinese Art (5) A&H
Surveys the development of Chinese art across various media from the 1970s to the 2000s. It investigates key art movements, styles and trends, influential artists and art projects, experimental exhibitions and avant-garde publications, and China's growing number of new museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 285
T ARTS 286 Asian American Art (5) A&H, DIV
Explores the work of artists, craftspeople, and laborers of Asian descent from 1850 to the present. It focuses on themes of belonging, cultural hybridity, and the politics of representation, through visual analyses, discussions, site visits, and collaborative projects.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 286
T ARTS 311 History of Rock and Roll (5) A&H
In-depth look at the musical, social, and political history of rock and roll. From the pre-rock era of the 1940s through the fragment rock styles of the 1990s and beyond. Recorded examples and video clips underscore the tremendous changes in American popular music and culture brought by rock and roll.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 311
T ARTS 314 Rap Music, Identity, and Culture (5) A&H/SSc
Explores rap music and how it has shaped our society. Examines musical aspects of rap, the culture in which it originated, and the culture that it has created.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 314
T ARTS 315 Music and Crisis (5) A&H
Examines how individuals and communities use music to cope with periods of crisis. Explores a range of basic human needs and places music within that discussion. Uses case studies of social and political crises to consider how different populations use music to manage in such times.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 315
T ARTS 320 Improvisational Theater and Performance in Everyday Life (5) A&H
Explores and practices theatrical improvisation as a form of creative expression, with an emphasis on fundamentals such as risk taking, status, support and trust, agreement, teamwork, active listening, and creative problem solving. Also examines connections between theatrical performances and everyday behaviors.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 320
T ARTS 335 History of Photography (5) A&H
Surveys the history of photography from 1839 to the present with an emphasis on various dimensions of the medium from art to advertising, journalism, photographic documentary, surveillance and pornography. Analyzes the photograph in the context of technological advancement, aesthetics, social and cultural influences, critical and theoretical discourses. Course overlaps with: BIS 323.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 335
T ARTS 336 Glass Arts (5) A&H
Covers issues related to glass arts and object making. Includes instruction in the fundamentals of glass blowing, sand casting, relief sculpture, and related mold-making practice. Emphasis on teamwork and safety in the Hot Shop.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 336
T ARTS 351 Theatre Practicum (1-5, max. 15) A&H
Introduces practical skills and knowledge of what it takes to mount a theatre production by creative involvement in the planning, rehearsal and production of a show. Opportunities are available in, but not limited to, acting, design, marketing, dramaturgy, and stage management.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 351
T ARTS 360 Women Artists from the Renaissance to the Present (5) A&H
Explores the painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and new art forms of women from the Renaissance to the present, placing their work in artistic and cultural contexts. Situates women artists in the framework of general art history to provide an overview of women artists' careers and production.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 360
T ARTS 364 Feminist Drama (5) A&H, DIV
Explores feminist theory and performance through dominant theatrical works from the early 20th century until today. Examines gender classifications of dramatic styles and genres, and asks how pivotal ideas of the feminist movement are embodied in works by female playwrights. Investigates and surveys what characterizes feminist dramatic poetics.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 364
T ARTS 367 Ideas Through Objects: A Conceptual Approach to Art (5) A&H
Explores the metaphorical possibilities within objects through various contemporary art-marking techniques. Emphasis on the development of meaning through the creation or manipulation of objects. Instruction in both formal and conceptual art making. Course overlaps with: BISIA 342.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 367
T ARTS 368 Human Figure in Contemporary Art (5) A&H
Develops drawing skills and alternative means of expression through a variety of studio art projects based on the human figure. Considers figurative work from the Renaissance to contemporary performance artists. Includes studio projects, a process book, reading and response, and research project.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 368
T ARTS 371 Theatre History: Ancient Drama (5) A&H
Explores the history of global theatre and performance from origins in North Africa and the Mediterranean, through ancient and classical Greece, Rome, and India, to Medieval Europe. Builds critical, historical, and cultural understanding through student research.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 371
T ARTS 372 Theatre History: World Drama through French Neoclassicism (5) A&H
Investigates theatre and performance history including classical Chinese and Japanese theatre, Indigenous performance in the Americas, Early American Theatre, European Renaissance, English Restoration, and French Neoclassical periods. Goals include building critical, historical, and cultural understanding through student research. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 371. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 372
T ARTS 373 Theatre History: Modern Drama (5) A&H
Explores modern and contemporary theatre and performance from the rise of realism and the early avant garde through the innovations of the twentieth century to political performance and theatre for social change across the globe. Builds critical, historical, and cultural understanding through student research. Course overlaps with: DRAMA 373. Offered: Sp.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 373
T ARTS 386 Contemporary Art and Studio Drawing (5) A&H
Covers principles of drawing. Includes markmaking, outline, negative-positive relationships, proportion, perspective, and composition. Intensive, hands-on coursework.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 386
T ARTS 390 Site Specificity in Art (5) A&H
Focuses on concepts of site and place through contemporary art-making procedures. Includes instruction in both formal and conceptual approaches to site-specific installation. Emphasis on creating connections and dialog between place, artist, audience.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 390
T ARTS 391 Reconstructing Self in Art (5) A&H
Covers issues related to the generation of identity and change. Includes instruction in the fundamentals of conceptual object making, self-documentation, and basic three-dimensional construction techniques. Emphasis on problem solving, visual literacy, and presentation.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 391
T ARTS 393 Urban Walking as Creative Practice (5) A&H
Employ, examine, and explore urban walking as creative practice. This interdisciplinary course combines aspects of drawing, movement, architecture, journalism, psychology, urban planning, and art history while learning about art and its impact on the community. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 393
T ARTS 395 Community-Based Arts Practice (5) A&H
Investigates community-based art through experiential learning and exposure to contemporary art theory and history. Students create a community-based art project and work with local artists who are developing projects in the community.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 395
T ARTS 402 Eco-Art: Art Created in Response to the Environmental Crisis (5) A&H
Investigates how art can address the environmental crisis. Experiment with contemporary art practices, creating work that reflects concerns about the environment. Discussions focus on the ways contemporary artists define eco-art, the history of the art that looks at nature, the landscape, and current ecological theory.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 402
T ARTS 404 Art in a Time of War (5) A&H
Examines art that addresses the topics of war and peace. Analyzes contemporary popular media and how they frame war and violence. Students create art, read and discuss how art might prompt our society to visualize new ways of resolving conflict. Course overlaps with: JSIS B 438.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 404
T ARTS 405 Cultural Identity and Art (5) A&H
Examines the concept of cultural identity and fear of difference. Through reading, analysis of contemporary media and art, and studio artwork, students make art pieces that explore cultural identity using digital photography and text, photocollage, site-specific installation, and community-based art.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 405
T ARTS 406 Labor, Globalization, and Art (5) A&H
Explores issues of labor and globalization through the art process. Experiments with contemporary art practices, making projects that examine work histories and that follow the global journey of a commodity. Discussions focus on the history of labor art and how art is intersecting the global justice movement.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 406
T ARTS 407 Art and the Public (5) A&H
Explores issues associated with the creation of public art. Investigates the individual's role in community establishment, cultural politics, memorialization, and visual response to social and political events that shape our communities. Studio course, personal supplies and art display permission required.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 407
T ARTS 410 Community and the Public Arts (5) A&H
Explores community-based art in our region and culture, with direct experience in research, communication, negotiation, persuasion, improvisation, and collaboration. Students engage in fund-raising, grant-writing, public speaking, problem-solving, documentation, and networking. Guest speakers introduce local social, cultural, environmental histories, and relationships between studio- and community-based art practices.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 410
T ARTS 411 History of Jazz (5) A&H
Presents a broad survey of the primary periods and styles of jazz during the 20th century in the United States. Exposes students to the most innovative jazz musicians and their music as well as their contributions to American culture through the use of extensive audio and video examples.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 411
T ARTS 469 Art Theories, Methods, Philosophies (5) A&H
Studies theories, methodologies, and philosophies that have shaped the practice, analysis, and criticism of art such as aesthetics, formalism, Marxism, structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, and postcolonialism.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 469
T ARTS 471 Culture and Meaning in the Visual Arts (5) A&H
Considers various ways of exploring the relationship of "art" to its cultural contexts. Covers US or international topics, depending on student interests.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 471
T ARTS 480 Contemporary Art and Society-1945 to Present (5)
Studies major artists and creative trends since World War II within framework of popular culture. Investigates contemporary modes of creative expression within regional, national and international art scene. Frames discussions within context of historical conceptions and critical debates. Current exhibitions serve as case studies. Participation in field trips required.
View course details in MyPlan: T ARTS 480
