The program requires a minimum of 12 credit hours over at least four courses, including Arts & Sci 6750 (3 hours).
- REQUIRED COURSE – All students must take the core course, a three-hour multidisciplinary seminar for artists in all fields, offered through the College of Arts and Sciences
In the core course, a group of graduate students from across various art fields will meet weekly and consider the ongoing and finished work of the members of the class, approaching this work not from the narrow perspective (and the concomitant emphasis on technique, and the conventions and jargon) of a single field, but from the wider perspective of art (process, practice, and theory) overall. Manuscripts and CDs of student work are distributed, studio visits made, slide shows viewed (et cetera). Sample topics for discussion include, but are certainly not limited to, the following: the pursuit of meaning in a work of art; notions of truth and verisimilitude; inspiration; social content; the meaning and nature of “beauty” in art; autobiography and “confession”; the projection of an artist’s personality; communication; symbolism; questions of when a work of art is “done” (how does the artist know? what does “done” mean in the case of an abstract painting or sculpture versus a lyric poem versus a dance piece?); time-based versus still-based work; and the role of performance (in the composition of a work of art as well as its execution—and the inherent differences in, for example, such fields as music and dance, which most often rely on artists other than the composer for its performance, and literature and painting, which are not “performed” in the usual sense of the word at all and are composed in solitude). Arts & Sci 6750 will be taught in rotation by various members of the faculty in the arts throughout the university. Recent iterations of the course have been taught by Michelle Herman (Creative Writing), Angus Fletcher (Film Studies/Creative Writing), Suzanne Silver (Art), Jennifer Schlueter (Theatre), Allison Crocetta (Art), and Candace Feck (Dance). For some students, this course will be a natural capstone to their graduate education; for others, it will serve as a doorway to the other courses that will constitute GISFA.
- ELECTIVE COURSES – At least three courses can be chosen from any graduate courses in any arts or art-related area outside the student’s home discipline
It should be noted that many (if not most) of these courses will require the permission of the instructor, and that virtually all courses in arts practice (as opposed to history or theory) will require it. For many of these courses, a considerable degree of sophistication in the discipline will be a necessary prerequisite (for example, a background in lithography or glassblowing); in others, “some background” will be sufficient (for example, the ability to read music). Other courses have no prerequisite other than graduate standing at OSU. (In some cases—for example, certain graduate courses in music—the course material itself will be appropriate across disciplines, for any student artist whose work has a performance component.) In any case, advising oversight will be provided. (A complete and current list of courses is no longer available online; however, any graduate-level course in the practice of art, the history of theory of art, or the contemplation of art–including certain psychology, philosophy, and comparative studies courses, may fulfill the requirements of the GISFA program. Through summer 2022, please consult Michelle Herman, the GISFA director, for more for information about course options. Beginning in autumn 2022, the co-directors of GISFA are Tom Dugdale and Richard Fletcher. Contact them for more information and advising.)