"Art education should include current attitudes and methods of art-making, which to me means embracing new forms of expression, or new trends in the art world. There is more to art than painting, sculpting, drawing and photography. When people are working outside of the terms and limitations of those fields individually, I don't see any reason why an institution wouldn't provide opportunity to learn about it. As culture evolves and methods of expression evolve, an education in the arts- an education in expression- should include more than the fundamental and traditional methods of expression. It seems natural for an institution to foster the growth of students' possibilities and range, not limit them, especially in regards to expression, which is far from something that is able to be categorized ... I don't think anyone would disagree with that. Limiting students output to things that go on an easel is a little bit closed-minded."

Nicola Courtright, professor of fine arts and department chair

"I think we must take care to avoid any single or universal philosophy of a fine arts education, or art would lose its vivid, contradictory, and fundamentally creative character. Having said that, though, I believe that we are all obliged to engage deeply with a work of art to comprehend a larger concept, order, or rationale underlying its creation, whether we make art or look at it. Since the Renaissance, when the discipline of art joined the liberal arts (which had philosophy as their common foundation), artists have asserted that making art, too, is based on the capacity to think deeply and reason creatively. The idea, order or purpose we strive to discover in art could serve philosophical, religious, political, public, social or personal ends; it could arouse the emotions; it could contradict every certainty. But for those of us teaching the fine arts, the understanding and interpretation of art most often begins with its visual language, which is different from any other discipline's language. We who have spent years trying to see art's structures and understand its evocative nature try like crazy to convey these qualities to our students by means of words or the creative act."

DeWitt Godfrey, assistant professor of fine arts

"I feel strongly that the teaching of art is far more resonant in a setting that examines a variety of interdisciplinary discourses. I do not offer any one way of doing or thinking. Absolutism, fundamentalism and restrictive definitions of art have no place at Amherst or in contemporary art education. This attitude is integral not only to my coursework but also to the liberal arts ideals of the College-providing a structure for students to investigate assumed boundaries between disciplines while revealing the overlap of intellectual and creative activities. This reflects my own academic background and experiences: artists make work about what they are interested in and curious about, very few make work about what they learned in art school. Amherst College provides a setting for the broad and inclusive preparation that values intellectual discourse over practical training. I hope to help prepare students to understand the implications of their choice of expressive language, how this choice relates to historical context and how their chosen forms may be understood at a given moment, to find their place in the world and in their work."

Dave Molina '05, fine arts student

"Very few things are necessary to art, except perhaps a gift for transubstantiation. Very few things are necessary to the study of art, except perhaps a gift for gospel. Mandatory history for self-proclaimed artists may force perpetuation of an inclusively referential art world. Mandatory studio for self-proclaimed art historians may just be absurd. A fine arts education should promote the truth of a disjunction of the elements of art and art history, which would be fulfilled by the fullness of either, or the coexistence of both. To force their union is horribly wishful thinking."

Joel Upton, professor of fine arts

"The Department of Fine Arts, while not denying any of the varied approaches to art that exist at the college and in the world (including so-called "conservative" and "liberal" approaches, depending on what you mean by these words), is well advised to maintain the interdisciplinary character of a department that seeks out the "art" of art in the delicate intersection of both the practice and the history of art. For it is in this wondrous seam that the magnificent power of art will reveal itself to us all."

We invite your RESPONSE

Are anti-war protests effective?

send 100 words to astudent@amherst.edu by Feb. 6