The American Culture and Ideas Initiative works toward implementing its mission through interdisciplinary course development that highlight the broad nature of its interests. Below are a list of courses that have been developed for the Fred Fox School of Music.
Human Achievement & Innovation in the Arts
The understanding of European and American masterpieces of visual art, classical music, and dance are explored from the point of view of the innovations they signify within their historical setting (technological and aesthetic), their enduring legacy in the present day, and their role in humanity's construction of civilization. By enrolling in this interdisciplinary course, students become familiar with the formal elements of the arts and how they relate to the viewer/listeners subjective experience as designed by the artist/composer. Philosophical notions of Beauty permeate all aspects of the course. The concepts of innovation and achievement in other disciplines are reinforced as crucial lessons that can be learned from engaging with this cultural material.
MUS 160D1- Asia, Gordon - 3 credit hours
The Arts, Economics, and Entrepreneurship
An essential component of arts education is understanding how economic development and entrepreneurship have contributed to the creation of the significant artifacts of culture. Students become competent in the basic principles and terminologies of each area under consideration as they develop an understanding of how artistic creativity, economic activity, and entrepreneurialism correspond to each other within today’s society.
Developed and implemented with the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, the course brings together major non-political forces of civilization in order to foster a holistic appreciation of the human element embedded in their discourses. Concepts such as value and choice can have economic, moral and aesthetic connotations. Creativity is just as essential in business as it is in art, while the artistic goal of creating beauty can have significant economic and commercial implications. These and other concepts--such as intuition and reflection, moral agency in art and business, and human ideation--form the exploratory core of the course. Students ultimately form an understanding of how art, economics, and entrepreneurship relate to humanity’s need to establish norms of behavior, and to create institutions that help us work together in order to survive.
MUS 496S - Gordon, Asia, Alsua - 3 credit hours (seminar format)