Macaulay Honors College/ Queens College
Seminar 1 – The Arts in New York
Prof. Edward Smaldone
M- 3:05 – 4:20
Th – 3:40 – 4:55

Seminar 1 explores the diverse arts in New York City. During the semester,
students attend performances and exhibits of the current cultural season. In
addition to opera, dance, theater, and the visual arts covered in all sections of Seminar 1, faculty choose from a variety of textual, photographic, musical, and performance genres to explore how New Yorkers understand, enjoy, and create art. Students tackle such questions as: What does each genre offer? How does each speak to us? How does art create, serve and represent the people of the City and its diverse communities? Aesthetic appreciation is supported by social and historical investigations so that students are provided with opportunities for different kinds of engagement with art forms, including interpretation, analysis, and creative endeavors. The work of the seminar will culminate in a student curated exhibit of their own work for Snapshot NYC, an ongoing exhibition of photographs of student views of New York City.

Learning Goals:
In this seminar, students will:
1. Explain the role of the artists, the arts, and artistic institutions in the
lives of New York’s diverse citizens and the city itself.
2. Identify the key features of the different artistic forms studied in the
class.
3. Construct clearly written and well-reasoned analyses of these art
forms for multiple audiences (e.g., reviews, arguments, summaries,
personal responses, blogs, etc.).
4. Analyze artistic forms for their formal qualities.
5. Formulate their own individual aesthetic values after having studied
the City’s wide range of artistic expressions.

How your grade will be calculated:
Blog
Written Assignments
Class Discussions
Final Exam