CHC 10101/ Honors College Seminar I
Fall 2006 M W 12 - 1:40 PM
Harris Hall 11
Prof. Grazyna Drabik
Office: NAC 6/ 344; ext. 6333 (212.650.6333)
Email: gfdrabik@aol.com
Office hours: Wed. 9 –10 am
& by appointment M, W before or after the classes
Tech Fellow: Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum
Office: NAC 4/ 150; ext. 6917 (212.650.6917)
E-mail: aliurosenbaum@honorscollege.cuny.edu
THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY
Seminar 1 aims to introduce you to the diversity of arts in New York City. You are provided with
the Honors College Cultural Passport that gives you free or discounted access to leading cultural
institutions in the city, its museums and galleries, theatres and concert halls. Thus, it allows you to
experience first hand the richness of the arts. During the semester we’ll attend together some
highlights of the Fall 2006 season, but I encourage you to use this opportunity wisely also on your
own – this term and through your years as a college student.
Honors College mission statement and learning objectives:
To enhance their appreciation of these experiences, students investigate the social, historical,
and aesthetic context of the work performed or exhibited. Students develop their analytic and
communication skills by participating in class discussions, preparing oral presentations, and
writing regularly about examples of the visual, performing and literary arts. In addition to
experiencing these art forms as an audience, students are encouraged to examine performances
and exhibitions from the multiple perspectives of scholarship, creativity, and production.
In the seminar, students will:
1. Demonstrate their increased familiarity with cultural resources in New York, which allows
to find with a greater ease one’s own way in the labyrinth of so many institutions.
2. Show their understanding of the interrelation of the arts, and of the arts with culture,
through research and writing relating two or more artistic texts, or an artistic text and its
cultural/ historical context.
3. Utilize appropriate evaluative/ critical discourse to analyze their own experience of the
arts, including of artistic creation.
General policies:
Each of the units of my section of the seminar: theatre, dance, opera and visual arts, is based
on specific readings, live performances or art exhibitions. Our activities include analysis,
interpretation and creative work. Combining theory with praxis, experience with reflection, should
help you to develop critical standards and to gain new insights into a variety of art forms.
Prepare yourself for active involvement throughout the semester. This is not a lecture course.
There is no final exam or one term paper. How much you’ll gain from the course (and your final
grade) depends on your continuous engagement in diverse activities: conversations about
assigned readings, discussions of issues raised by plays or art shows visited, preparations of your
own art work, explorations of this multifaceted city.
Requirements:
• Regular attendance. Since this course combines experiential learning, research, and
discussion, attendance is a critical factor. I expect your presence at every class session and at all
events scheduled outside the classroom. Any absence from class or an assigned performance/
common event will affect your grade.
• Several short writing assignments, in-class and at home. Home assignments should be
presented typed, on time. These short reflective writings or reports compose a porto-folio of your
work-in-progress.
• Field trips and common events, as scheduled.
• Oral presentation in class on a selected topic (see separate hand-out).
• Two artistic projects prepared individually and as a group (see separate hand-out).
Required readings:
• Alan Bennett, The History Boys (Faber and Faber).
• Peter Brook, The Empty Space (A Touchstone Book, Simon & Schuster).
• Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Dover Thrift Editions).
• Selections (hand-outs) from Susan Woodford, Looking at Pictures;
Mary Anne Staniszewski, Believing Is Seeing;
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations;
Baudelaire, Fleurs du mal and Paris Spleen;
Roland Barthes, Camera lucida;
poems about New York.
• Gounod’s Faust – to be read (libretto by Jules Barbier & Michel Carré) and heard (Gounod’s
opera) before our visit to the Metropolitan Opera.
Recommended recording: Orchestre du Théatre National de l’ Opéra conducted by André
Cluytens, with Nicolai Gedda (Faust), Victoria de los Andeles (Marguerite), Boris Christoff
(Méphistphéles).
The required texts are available at City College bookstore.
CDs and DVDs of opera and dance performances can be bought at Tower Records or the
Julliard Bookstore on the North side of the Lincoln Center Plaza. They can be also heard/
viewed at New York Public Library - Performing Arts Branch at Lincoln Center (located at
the Western side of LC Plaza).
Academic honesty:
It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to use someone else’s words to describe one’s own
response to a painting, a performance or a poem. I trust you’ll search honestly to express how you
see, hear, feel; how you experience a work of art. Nevertheless, let me state it explicitly: rely on
your own judgment and use your own words in preparing writing assignments. Any research
sources and quotes must be acknowledged and properly documented.
Plagiarism is a form of theft.
An overview of the course:
W Aug. 30 Introduction to the seminar: syllabus; student questionnaire; in-class free writes; small
groups; Cultural Passport; geography of the cultural institutions; sources of information;
New York City as theatre.
Sept. 6 - 20: focus on theatre.
Readings:
Alan Bennett’s play; Pirandello; Peter Brook.
Events:
8/ 24 Broadhurst Theatre: The History Boys.
Two individually selected plays.
Meeting with Meghan Duffy, actress and theatre historian.
Preparations for a group performance.
Note: Friday, 9/ 22, 9:00 - 5:00 pm: “first-ever” Open House at the Metropolitan Opera (opening of
the Schwartz Gallery Met; preview of stage technical preparations; dress rehearsal of new
Madame Butterfly; and a panel discussion with production team after the rehearsal).
Sept. 25 - Oct. 11: focus on dance
Events:
9/ 26 Common Art Event at Graduate Center, 5 - 9 p.m.
? 9/ 28 or 9/ 29 Fall for Dance at NY City Center.
One individually selected dance performance.
Movement workshop with Tammy Wise, healer and dancer.
Cont. preparations for a group performance.
Oct. 16 - 30: focus on opera
Events:
? Th 10/ 19 Faust at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65 St.
Meeting with Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum, composer and musician.
* Cont. preparations for a group performance on Wed. Nov. 1 & Monday, Nov. 8.
Nov. 8 - 15: focus on visual arts: painting, collage, installation.
Readings:
Hand-outs: S. Woodford; M. A. Staniszewski.
Events:
Two individual visits to a selected museum/ gallery/ exhibition.
Meeting with Marek Bartelik, art historian and critic of contemporary art.
Preparations for art project II.
Nov. 20 - Dec. 11: focus on visual arts: photography and film. Public art in the city.
New York City as art.
Readings:
Hand-outs: W. Benjamin; Baudelaire; R. Barthes; poems about NYC.
Events:
? Screening of the documentary Dog City (together with Brandon Judell’s class).
? Screening of the film by Agnes Varda, Gleaners and I.
Individual and group research in selected neighborhoods of New York City.
Oral presentations.
Cont. preparations for art project II.
* Final presentations of our work.
Wed., Dec. 13 last class; conclusion of the course.