Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Fine & Performing Arts

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts offers an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Fine and Performing Arts in which students explore music, theatre, art, and arts management through a series of foundation courses. Students then concentrate in a specific area through advanced classes, performance opportunities, and exhibits. A new arts management major is also available within FPA; students may also pursue initial teacher licensure as an early childhood or elementary teacher through the education department.


Visual Arts

Fine & Performing Arts Major with an Art Concentration Teaches Transferable Skills Useful in Any Career

The creation and study of visual art includes the following transferable skills that are helpful in all disciplines, and which are appropriate for the college’s liberal arts mission:

1.) Critical Thinking: difference between concept/percept, using compare-contrast, understanding and creating the difference between fact and fiction and/or illusion vs. reality; accident versus intentional result, aesthetic judgment, making measured judgments, etc.

2.) Coordination: developing hand-eye-mind coordination through particular craft skills necessary for visual art.

3.) Research: Knowing how to study/research a design problem, a history, or process and creating design solutions through the process of study.

4.) Innovation: creating new, original, or innovative design solutions to projects, themes, ideas.

5.) Planning: develop a work plan for a complex project, as related to project needs and requirements.

6.) Implementation / Work Ethic: after or while planning, doing the work; understanding craft process/skills. Knowing how to apply one’s self through a process of practice, work and play.

7.) Editing/revising: changing plans as necessary during implementation of a project; adjusting plans depending on client needs or available materials, etc.

8.) Responsibility: follow-through, such as by working through long-term art projects.

9.) Independence: Ability to work individually on self-motivated and self-monitored projects.

10.) Teamwork / Leadership: developed when working on group projects, collaborative art projects, group art exhibits, commissioned works client/customer relations, or group research projects.

11.) Cultural Appreciation, Understanding: through art history, art appreciation, art seminar courses, learning to understand the cultural and social contexts that are necessary for creative work to be done.

12.) Business Literacy: through art business, entrepreneurship, management, or art & economy coursework, marketing of artworks; art students gain a basic understanding of how business works.

13.) Communication Skills: Presentation/Sales Skills: through creating artworks and discussing them in class, public forums, etc., art majors learn how to present themselves (and their products and ideas) in a positive way.

14.) Communication Skills: Writing: the research, writing, revising and articulating of ideas through writing all take place in studio courses during assessment topics, reading assignments, and written responses; more heavily through applied art history writing and art criticism.


Theatre

Students in the fine & performing arts may focus on theater through a minor or concentration. Courses include Theater History, Costume Construction & Crafts, The Art of Acting, and Directing. Students have numerous opportunities to perform for college and public audiences in both main stage productions, as well as in one-act festivals and staged readings.


Music

Students in the fine & performing arts may focus on music through a concentration. Courses include Introduction to Music, Music History, Music Theory and Performance Workshop, among others. Students have numerous opportunities to perform for college and public audiences, including choral and band concerts. MCLA also hosts numerous concerts and events through the Patrons of the Arts performance series.


Arts Management Program

This unique BA program, within the Fine and Performing Arts Department, is a total immersion in the business of arts, and one of the few undergraduate programs of its kind in the nation. The Arts Management major combines study in art, music and theatre with coursework in business administration and public relations, to provide training in all aspects of managing nonprofit cultural organizations. Courses include fundraising, museum studies, and performing arts management, among others. The program offers numerous internship and future employment opportunities through partnerships with Berkshire cultural organizations, such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, where MCLA students and graduates actively participate in many aspects of art administration including box office management and educational outreach. This hands-on connection to the creative economy facilitates entry into an expanding job market in arts related enterprises.

---

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Art School Location

Other art schools in Massachusetts

Clark University (The Department of Visual and Performing Arts) The Department of Visual and Performing Arts consists of scholars and artists whose areas of expertise encompass different disciplines in the arts: ar... Address: 950 Main Street

American International College About the College American International College is a private, co-educational institution located in the geographic center of Springfield, Massachu... Address: 1000 State Street

Newbury College (School of Arts, Science & Design) School of Arts, Science & Design Mission The School of Arts, Science & Design at Newbury College engages students in social, intellectual, and h... Address: 129 Fisher Avenue

Back to: » Art schools in Massachusetts » Art schools in North Adams

More information: » Marinas » Boats for sale