Faculty of Arts

“ The Faculty of Arts has a different and more difficult task to discharge in laying down such course or courses of study as shall best conduce to the special end it has in view, that of securing by more direct means the general cultivation of the mind. In the main principle which guided the deliberations of this Committee,—that of the desirableness of permitting in the later stages of a student's career and after having taken guarantees for a certain basis of general culture—considerable latitude in the courses of study open to him—I cordially concurred. ”

“ School-leaving Examinations.—The faculty of arts in medieval universities covered secondary as well as higher education in the subjects concerned. The division in arts subjects between secondary and university education has been drawn at different levels in different countries. ”

“ As the universities developed a system, their studies were arranged in the main under four heads, the general studies of what came to be called the Faculty of Arts, and the professional studies of the three superior Faculties of Law, Medicine, and Theology, but the student was not normally allowed to study in the three superior Faculties until he had spent some years in the studies of the Faculty of Arts. ”

“ In an American university the term college or school has largely replaced the term faculty; in Europe the term faculty is still used. Thus we say College of Liberal Arts, or School of Law, instead of Faculty of Arts, etc.
[18] For example, one of our modern state universities is organized into the following faculties, schools, and colleges:
(1) college of liberal arts; (2) school of medicine; (3) school of law; (4) school of fine arts; (5) school of pure science; (6) college of engineering; (7) college of agriculture; (8) school of history, economics, and social sciences ”

“ The Faculty of Arts has this advantage over other faculties that the institutions affiliated to it are more numerous. This will make it easy by a proper distribution of Work and a concerted programme to secure better results and to provide for a greater number of Chairs, each College taking up some special subject. The system of inter-collegiate lecturers is quite applicable to our wants. ”

“ The same considerations that determine your voluntary studies, determine also the University Ideal. A University, in my view, stands or falls with its Arts' Faculty. Without debating the details, we may say that this Faculty should always be representative of the needs of our intelligence, both for the professional and for the extra-professional life ”

“ Some, to their credit, recognise Art in its narrower sense, to a certain extent, and confer degrees for proficiency in some of its branches. If there are Doctors of Music, why should there be no Masters of painting, of Sculpture, of Architecture? I should like to see Professors of the Fine Arts in every University; and instruction in some branch of their work made a part of the Arts curriculum.
I just now expressed the opinion that, in our ideal University, a man should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge. ”

“ The field of art education is large enough to be sub-divided to the advantage and welfare of all, but the Academy must be the highest school, the university of art teaching, or its school department has no reason for existence. ”

“ A college of art founded in this part of the world cannot be expected, like a college of literature, to lay before its young members all that may be necessary to complete their knowledge and taste. What is to be had from books may be obtained almost every where; but the books of instruction by which the artist alone can be perfected, are those great works which still remain immoveable in that part of the world, where the fine arts in modern times have been carried to their highest degree of perfection. ”

“ The chapel of the university is now a gallery for paintings. The professors of these literary institutions have very competent salaries: the sciences taught are Mathematics, Medicine, Natural and Experimental Philosophy, and the Fine Arts. ”

“ There always has been a fight on the part of the school to get what it wanted from the directors; but things can be done. Read the list of “illustrious names” of visiting instructors, years ago, and then compare the student roll of the same time. Once the Art Institute was an art school with art students, who were artists, who in spite of everything led the life of artists, knew the analogy between painting and the other Arts, swarmed to concerts and the theatres, and created their own atmosphere. ”

“ They have ranged themselves into four classes; the first is devoted to the improvement of natural philosophy, chemistry and mathematics, and is denominated the "Academy of Sciences;" the second makes the language and literature of France its care, and is called the "French Academy;" the third applies itself to history and ancient learning, and bears the title of the "Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres," and the fourth, the "Academy of the Fine Arts," is employed on music, painting, sculpture and architecture. ”

“ It is obvious that in a general college course, a study of the religious, social, and political factors in civilization that does not include art among these factors is incomplete.
The question under discussion concerns the teaching of art to the candidate for the bachelor of arts degree, and this question will be solely kept in view. Since, however, graduates in science, engineering, law, medicine, etc., are not exempt from the needs of artistic culture, they too should have at least an effective minimum of art instruction.
Art a social activity
Art is recognized as a social activity. ”

“ A professorship in aesthetics, the editorship of a magazine devoted to the arts, the curatorship of a museum,—one or all, might have satisfied his present ambition. Yet he had never quite abandoned actual creative work. ”

“ An Academy, in which the Polite Arts may be regularly cultivated, is at last opened among us by Royal munificence. This must appear an event in the highest degree interesting, not only to the artists, but to the whole nation. ”

“ SCHOOLS OF COMPOSITION. In Music, as in other Arts, the power of invention, even when displayed in its most original form, has a never-failing tendency to run in certain recognised channels, the study of which enables the technical historian to separate its manifestations into more or less extensive groups, called Schools, the limits of which are as clearly defined as those of the well-known Schools of Painting, or of Sculpture. ”

“ The Academies were either public institutions maintained by the state, or private societies founded by individuals to further the general movement in favour of science, literature, and the fine arts. This they did in various ways, either by public instructions and criticisms, facilitating the printing of standard works on music, illustrating them with fresh notes, or by composing new ones; and every week the Academicians would assemble to compare their studies and show proofs of their industry. The study of one science or art would often help to illustrate the other. ”

“ But the majority of students, it is to be expected, will avail themselves of the permission accorded to them to specialise to a greater or less extent their studies after they have passed the First Examination in Arts. ”

“ Here may be found a complete encyclopedia of Ancient Geography, History, Biography, and Mythology. The department of the Fine Arts forms an entirely new feature; embracing biographies of ancient artists, and criticisms upon their productions. In fine, this noble work is not only indispensable to the classical teacher and student, but eminently useful to the professional gentleman, and forms a necessary part of every library that aims to be complete. ”

“ The Academy, in continuing the propagation of an ideal of beauty fixed by canons derived from Greek, Latin and Renaissance art, and neglecting the Gothic, the Primitives and the Realists, looks upon itself as the guardian of the national tradition, because it exercises an hierarchic authority over the Ecole de Rome, the Salons, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. ”

“ But whatever may be our proportion of success, of this we may be sure, that the present Institution will at least contribute to advance our knowledge of the Arts, and bring us nearer to that ideal excellence, which it is the lot of genius always to contemplate and never to attain.{5}
The principal advantage of an Academy is, that, besides furnishing able men to direct the student, it will be a repository for the great examples of the Art. ”

“ The College seems to be intended chiefly for ladies who have completed their ordinary course of English studies, and it will be divided into two departments, Educational and Industrial. In the latter, classes will be held for various decorative and technical arts, and for wood-carving, etching, and photography, as well as sick-nursing, dressmaking, cookery, physiology, poultry-rearing, and the cultivation of flowers. The curriculum certainly embraces a wonderful amount of subjects, and I have no doubt that the College will supply a real want. ”

“ There is a wider extent of learning, a wider field of study required for a degree in Arts than that which necessarily would be required for the degree of L.M., and I think it is a matter of congratulation that the great success which has been manifested in the examinations, has attended those who have sought to graduate in Arts. ”

“ There are three ways in which institutions for the promotion of the fine arts may be supposed to favour the object in view; either by furnishing the best models to the student,—or by holding out the prospect of immediate patronage and reward,—or by diffusing a more general taste for the arts. ”

“ The degree of Associate of Arts is conferred on deserving scholars in the state schools; and exhibitions (up to £200 a year for four years) enable pupils to study at the higher schools or colonial or European universities. ”

“ He recalled to the remembrance of his auditors the circumstances in which the Academy originated, and reminded them of the encouragement which the efforts of artists had received from the countenance which the King had given to the arts. "Let those," said he, "who have traced the progress of the fine arts, say among what people did the arts rise, from such a state as that in which they were in this country about forty years ago, to the height which they have attained here in so short a period. ”

“ It is the Arts Course of a University, particularly its Philosophy, that gives this general knowledge and enlargement of the mind. Its influence is most telling in the various Faculties where students specialize for their future career. ”

“ Since the beginning of the Academy’s existence, men and women whose names have become illustrious in the annals of American art have been enrolled as students. The schools are equipped in every way to teach the technique of painting and sculpture, the faculty is composed of representative artists of the day; collec{60}tions, galleries, classrooms, models, and casts are admirably fitted to afford instruction fully equal to that obtainable in Europe. ”

“ Not only does it include the students’ region—the Quartier Latin—with many of the chief artistic studios, but it embraces in particular the Sorbonne, or University, the Institute of France, with its various branches (Académie Française, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Académie des Sciences, des Beaux-Arts, etc.) , the École des Beaux-Arts, the École de Médicine, the Collège de France, the Lycées St. ”

“ It is recognised by the 42nd and 43rd Canons, &c., as one of the names of governors of cathedral and collegiate churches.
MASTER OF ARTS. The highest degree in arts, signifying one who is competent to teach, answering to that of Doctor in other faculties; conferred in all universities, though in a few modern instances superseded by that of Doctor of Philosophy. In England, the Masters of Arts form the privileged body of the ancient universities there; and there are many offices in the Church to which none are eligible but those who have at least taken that degree. ”

“ The Academy of Fine Arts, so often and so deservedly praised, has also become nearly unoccupied. Furnished at great cost, under the old Spanish government, and supplied with excellent casts from the finest specimens of statuary in Europe, it was, indeed, an academy of art—for a time ”

“ In the matter of literature and the arts of design, where there is likewise an implicit intention of enriching æsthetic appreciation, an agreement is more easily reached, by reason of their closer relationship to outer life, to action, and the more familiar processes of thought. Few would maintain that the purpose of college courses in English literature is to train professional novelists and poets; the college leaves to the special art schools and to private studios the development of painters, sculptors, and architects. ”

“ While the School of Fine Arts, as proposed, looks to the development of native genius, by giving dignity and honor to the professional education of an artist, there is much that is comprehended in the school that would have a direct bearing upon the schools of Agriculture and Engineering, and which would, at the same time, exercise an important influence in cultivating the taste of an educated gentleman. ”

“ The commanding claims which the arts of design, music, and the drama are asserting for an organized share in the higher education is also, I think, a consequence of the change that has come about in recent years in the constitution of the curriculum, the methods of instruction, the personnel of the student body, the multiplication of their sanctioned activities, and especially in the attitude of the undergraduates toward the traditional idea of scholarship. The old college was a place where strict, inherited conceptions of scholarship and mental discipline were piously maintained. ”