Arts program gives 4-week courses

The Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts is offering four-week classes for the first time, during the three summer sessions. Previously, the school offered six- and eight-week courses during the summer.

The shortened course length might strengthen enrollment in fine arts courses, fine arts assistant professor Martha MacLeish said. The program aims to offer four-week courses that will fit better into students’ summer schedules.

“With our new format, students have the same amount of contact hours but move through the course at a more accelerated rate,” MacLeish said.

Kasey Ramirez, who just received her masters of fine arts in printmaking, is teaching her first summer session of F100, a fundamentals course focusing on different drawing techniques. The course is offered 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday during the first four-week summer session.

Ramirez also taught the same class during the school semester. The summer session is more intense than the semester-long course, which is taught twice a week in three-hour sessions.

“We’re able to get a really high level of concentration and tons of time spent on drawings,” Ramirez said. “I’m not sure how good the retention will be.”

Ramirez, who completed her undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design, is used to the longer class sessions since she took a similar class that was seven to eight hours long, once a week.

The summer session spends about the same amount of time on teaching as the semester course but less material is covered, and students can complete four main projects. Time spent outside of class is also greater in the summer session.
“During the semester, there are more distractions,” Ramirez said.

She thinks the ideal summer session length for F100 would be five weeks because students could have an extra week to learn different drawing techniques and spend more time on projects.

Lindsey Kitchell, a junior majoring in anthropology, has taken six-week summer courses and is taking F100 with Ramirez during the current summer session.
Kitchell said she finds the 8 a.m. time harder to handle than expected. Summer session courses have limited offerings, as opposed to semester courses that are offered at various times.

Kitchell also said she enjoys having four weeks of homework and class in the summer but admits the four-hour class every day is intense.

“Though less material is covered in these summer courses, the same essential course goals and concepts remain,” MacLeish said, explaining that many students find the schedule intense yet hopeful.

“It may be too soon to know for sure how this new format will compare to the previous one, but I am glad that we are trying it.”