Minnesota - City Arts
Spring Semester
“Creating Art and Meaning in the City”
Set in the vibrant arts scene and culturally diverse neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the City Arts program immerses students in communities working for social change through art and culture. City Arts is built on the belief that artists are active members of our democracy, and that artistic and cultural expression have the capacity to shape a society.
In City Arts, a wide variety of creative practices are embraced as essential tools for civic engagement, participatory democracy and social justice. Through classroom seminars, field visits, and a professional internship, City Art students explore how art and culture impact communities and how creative work (like performance, writing, visual art, and music) can address pressing social issues and make them visible and real. Social and cultural identity, democracy and power structures are just some of the issues students grapple with through the lens of art, culture and social change. Throughout the semester students meet with a wide variety of local artists, educators and arts advocates in addition to attending performances, films and installations as part of the learning process.
Whether a painter, activist, actor, theorist, or still in the midst of questioning self in world this program helps students think and work creatively for social change. City Arts is a dynamic environment for exploring the role that art, culture and creativity play in a wide variety of disciplines. Along with students majoring in the arts and cultural studies, past participants have also come from sociology, psychology, urban studies, social work, communications, political science and various language and literature departments.
"I gained not only a wider understanding of the world and my place in it, but also the realization that close-mindedness, on either side of the party line, is detrimental to anyone's personal growth." - Student Reflection |
Example Internship Placements
- Central High School
- Forecast Public Artworks
- Bedlam Theater
- Highpoint Center for Print Making
- In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater
- KFAI Radio
- MacPhail Center for Music
- Minnesota Center for Book Arts
- Minnesota Citizens for the Arts
- Intermedia Arts
Hands-On Experience
The City Arts classroom is built from three key ideas:
- The best way to understand art and social justice is to combine theory and practice. Students read challenging texts, meet with incredible leaders in the field, and build their skills through a processional internship.
- Everyone in the classroom is a teacher and a learner. Students will be asked to bring their ideas, passions and own expertise to help shape the program.
- Learning is best when it is creative and interdisciplinary. Students from across schools and disciplines will actively engage art for social change.
Courses
Reading Seminar (Creating Social Change: Art and Culture in Political, Social and Historical Context)
Field Seminar (Arts Praxis: Social Justice Theory and Practice in the Field)
Internship (Placement and Seminar)
The courses are taken as an integrated whole and provide the equivalent of a semester's worth of credit, i.e. 4 course credits, 16 semester hours or 27 trimester credits. This program is full-time with classes two days a week and 20 hours weekly in an internship.
Faculty
If you would like to know more about the program fee, dates or other specific application information please visit the General Program Information page.
| Program Documentation |
| Example Syllabus |
Check out the other USA programs:
| Environmental Sustainability | MUST: Poverty, Inequality, and Social Change |
Writing for Social Change |
