Berkeley Arts Seminars


basimgBerkeley Arts Seminars are small, faculty-led seminars that give UC Berkeley freshmen and sophomores an opportunity to explore the rich array of arts experiences available on our campus.


Information for Faculty

When you were an undergraduate, did you have an encounter with the arts that opened your eyes, broadened your horizons, challenged your assumptions? Our campus arts departments and organizations offer students a wealth of opportunities to have this kind of transformative experience, but many students coming to us from California’s under-funded public schools have received little arts education and have not been encouraged to see the arts as crucial to their intellectual, cultural, and personal growth. How do we help students to engage deeply with the arts available to them at Berkeley?

In response to this challenge, the Berkeley Arts Seminars program was created to make it easier for you to give incoming freshmen a firsthand experience of the rich array of arts resources at Berkeley. Ladder faculty from any and all disciplines with relevant experience and expertise in their proposed arts course topic are invited to teach undergraduate seminars that focus on performances or exhibits at a variety of campus venues, with classroom time (one hour a week with a maximum of 18 students) devoted to preparation before and reflection after.

**** Please note, this program is on hold for the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 semester ****


Thanks to support from the Division of Arts & Humanities, and under the umbrella of the existing Freshman and Sophomore Seminars program, the Berkeley Arts Seminar initiative provides:

  • A one-time curricular development grant of $500 in addition to any other stipend for which instructors may be eligible.
  • Underwriting of all admissions costs to assigned campus arts events for students and instructors. (Underwriting is not available for off-campus events; however, instructors may choose to use their curriculum development grants for this purpose.)
  • Advance information about upcoming events at Cal Performances, the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archives, the Departments of Art Practice, Music, and Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, and other venues across campus.
  • Model syllabi and assistance with course planning.
  • Staff support for buying tickets, making reservations, and/or arranging “behind-the-scenes” experiences.
  • Opportunities to brainstorm with other faculty.
  • An end-of-semester gathering with all the program participants.
  • Berkeley Arts Seminars should expose students to at least two different arts venues on campus. Staff are available to assist faculty in identifying events that tie in to their teaching interests.

Support for this initiative is provided by the staff of the Arts Research Center.


 Past Course Offerings


Questions?

For general information about Freshman & Sophomore Seminars, visit http://fss.berkeley.edu/index.html or contact program coordinator Alix Schwartz at alix@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-8378.