early college : curriculum

Curriculum

The goal of Early College studies is to teach students how to see and to strengthen their organizational skills. Each student chooses a major from among Ceramics, Jewelry & Metals, Painting, Photography, or Sculpture and develops skills particular to work in that medium. Foundation classes in Drawing and Design provide all students with a common language and a shared experience, while also helping to prepare them for admission to art school. Studio work is complemented by Art History, visits to local artists’ studios, field trips to Boston and Portland area museums and galleries, and workshops with visiting artists. Faculty critiques provide a supportive and valuable dimension to the curriculum. MECA’s Admissions Counselors review student portfolios and offer feedback. Students are coached in the documentation and presentation of their portfolios.

Majors:

Ceramics is a versatile medium that includes a range of possibilities from the functional vessel to large-scale sculpture. The material intimately records the tools and pressures used to manipulate it. Instruction includes wheel throwing, hand building, surface decoration, and glazing.

Jewelry and Metals acquaints students with basic metalsmithing techniques such as sawing, soldering, finishing, cold connections, textures, and forming. Each assignment will build on technical and visual information given in class. Principles of design and conceptual development will be explored with each project.

Painting leads students to develop a language of color, light, texture, and space, working with subjects such as the figure, still life, landscape, and personal composition. Issues of content and how to apply painting techniques to express personal imagery will be considered.

Photography helps develop the student’s way of seeing as well as the technical expertise to express that personal vision. The curriculum covers camera operation, principles of exposure, black and white film processing and printing, picture content, and finishing touches. (Students must bring their own 35mm camera with manual exposure capability.)

Sculpture introduces students to ways of expressing their ideas in three-dimensional form. Because sculpture is so much a process of working ideas and materials together at varying scales, students develop strategies for reasoning and coping with the unexpected.

Foundation Classes:

Drawing from observation is a key component of an artist's training. Emphasis is placed on perceiving elements of structure, line, tone, and composition through studies of still life and the figure.

Two-Dimensional Design investigates visual language through exercises exploring principles of form, figure-ground relationships, composition, balance, rhythm, pattern, scale, value, and color.

Three-Dimensional Design is the investigation behind all three-dimensional visual arts, such as architecture, ceramics, metalsmithing, stage-set design, and sculpture. 3-D materials are chosen for their tactile qualities — soft and plastic, rigid and flexible, hard and dense. Through the design process the student responds to the stimulus of the materials and is challenged to construct coherent visual form.

Visting Artist Workshops bring professional artists to the Program to facilitate workshops that introduce students to new ideas and different media. Workshops have included: Artists’ Books, Figure Sculpture, Metal Sculpture, and Glass.

Our Faculty

Early College faculty are working artists and college instructors who teach at Maine College of Art or other art schools and art departments around the nation. Their education and experience reflect the College’s national reputation, its dedication to a solid studio foundation, and the strength of its studio majors. Teaching assistants are advanced students or graduates of Maine College of Art who work with the faculty in classrooms and monitor the open studios.