Courses in the Visual Arts at Wesley Theological Seminary are taught by Catherine Kapikian, Deborah Sokolove, and Artists-in-Residence. Although not every course is offered every semester, courses in the Visual Arts listed in the current catalogue include:
RA-113 Art As Worship, Worship As Art
Exploration of the relationships between art-making as a spiritual discipline, using art as a focus for personal
devotion, incorporating artforms into corporate worship, and seeing corporate worship itself as a form of art.
RA-120 Symbol, Sacrament, Ritual and Art
Uses of art and artistic performance in ritual, symbolic acts, sacraments. Uses of symbol, ritual, and sacramental
reference in artistic production. The idea of art as a means of encounter with the divine, and the ways that art may be used in worship to facilitate that encounter.
RA-152 Contemplative Drawing: Nurturing the Spiritual Self
Stimulate prophetic imagination through seeing, drawing, being. Explore creative process in relationship to spiritualformation. Left-hemispheric verbal, logical, and analytical processing integrated with right-hemispheric spatial, intuitive processing. Especially for non-artists. Evaluation on process rather than product.
RA-220 Oxnam Chapel Visuals
Principles of design and visual proclamation for an architectural setting through collaborative work with other
students and the Chapel Elder to plan, design, and execute paraments, banners, and other visual materials for community worship in Oxnam Chapel, taking into account the liturgical calendar, lectionary readings, and special celebrations that occur during the semester.
RA-253 Art for God's Sake: Art, Visual Culture And Christian Understanding
Investigate the ways that art has been used in shaping Christian faith, understandings and attitudes. Consider the connections among aesthetics and function of fine art, popular art and devotional art in the church and the wider society.
RA-295 Arts Practicum
Individual projects with theological focus in student's choice of medium such as paint, fabric (vestments, banners, tapestry), clay, wood, calligraphy, photography, poetry, dance, etc. Students unacquainted with dynamics of creative process in relationship to spiritual formation (art as meditation) and unacquainted with non-verbal expressions of Christian proclamation encouraged to participate.
RA-420 Practicum in Worship Visuals
Student designs and fabricates, or designs for fabrication by others, a work of visual proclamation for student’s worship setting. Frontals (table, pulpit, etc.), vestments (stoles, chasubles, etc.), processional pieces (crosses, banners, etc.), seasonal installations, bulletin covers, funeral palls, and miscellaneous imaginings are options.
RA-451 Visual Arts Apprenticeship
Work on one of the instructor's ecclesial commissions under supervision. Participate in creative process and work through design phases from inception of idea to installation of completed product. See instructor regarding description of current com missions and permission for apprenticing.
