Contemporary art today confronts viewers with a bewildering array of images, objects, and processes. In this class, we will explore how contemporary art connects artists and viewers in forms of creative engagement with pressing social and political issues. We will see how artists use diverse strategies to help us consider who we are, how our world is changing, and how we can best inhabit it together. We will discuss how today’s art speaks to both individual and collective life.

Examine color as a distinct visual phenomenon, investigating its practical, theoretical, and illusionary aspects. You will employ various media and materials in exercises and compositions that demonstrate properties of color structure, symbolism, and perception as well as the potential application to art and design. This course lays an excellent foundation for further studio coursework in art and design.

As an Arts student, this course will guide you to make the most of your student academic experience. Through conversations with faculty, staff, alumni and employers, you will develop a professional network and gain a deeper understanding of your value.

Visual Thinking is a course about building visual literacy, a foundational skill relevant to all students and to a wide range of professional pathways. This course will benefit anyone with an interest in expanding creativity, especially engineers, scientists, designers, poets, writers, visual artists, and theater makers. Visit drama.uw.edu to learn more and register.

This historical and cultural study of the Broadway Musical examines how this uniquely American art-form was largely created by people marginalized from mainstream society and explores how musicals have both reflected and shaped American culture -- especially in regard to issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, social justice, and equality. Visit drama.uw.edu to learn more and register.

Meet at Meany Hall Room 268 for weekly rehearsals with the UW’s resident Gospel music expert, Phyllis Byrdwell, a giant of Seattle’s Gospel music community. Byrdwell led the music ministry at Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church for more than 50 years. This class, introducing students to songs and methods of the Gospel tradition, includes a final performance on June 3 at the UW’s Gerlich Theater. No prior experience required.

No prior experience is required to take this class led by Javanese master musician Heri Purwanto, the School of Music’s spring quarter Ethnomusicology Community Artist-in-Residence. Class time in this introduction to the Indonesian music and dance form of Gamelan includes weekly rehearsals on the UW’s extensive set of gamelan instruments, with a culminating performance on June 4 at the UW’s Gelrich Theater.