Course Overview

New for 2023!

Amidst continuing man-made environmental degradation and a radically changing climate, contemporary artists are increasingly working with the very materials of the natural world to attempt to pose solutions to this crisis, as a lamentation of a changing world, to raise awareness, or to simply work in a way that is more environmentally conscious.

Building on the legacy of the Earthworks movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, these ecologically motivated twenty-first century artworks explore bio-l, geo-, and meteorological themes as they are exhibited or staged outside of the museum in the natural world, in public settings, and within communities.

This course will introduce students to the history and contemporary practice of earth art while students create their own Earth Art on the campus and throughout the city of Syracuse.

All students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Completion and have the opportunity to request a Syracuse University credit or noncredit transcript.

Course Objectives

COURSE SPECIFIC:

  • Explore ecological issues and concerns through artmaking that takes place in natural and public settings.
  • Challenge existing notions of the possibility of the various and myriad forms that art can take.
  • Expand knowledge of contemporary art through the study of Earth Art and through making one’s own Earth Art.
  • Create art in an environmentally and ecological manner.
  • Gain a historical understanding of the tradition of this experimental art form and new, contemporary, environmentally conscious work being created today. 

TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS:

  • Develop an interdisciplinary skill set that integrates various modes of thought surrounding the environment and contemporary art.
  • Employ critical thinking as a generative tool in evaluating and building on one’s own work and the work of others.
  • Develop thought through the manipulation and process of forming materials.
  • Large scale project development and implementation, moving from concept to realization.
  • Further consciousness of the effects of climate change.

Course Information

Course Prefix and Number: ARI 300 / SCN 134

Format: On Campus (at Syracuse University)

Eligibility: Students must be of rising high school sophomore*, junior, or senior status – or a 2023 high school graduate. 
*Rising sophomores are only eligible for the noncredit version of this course.

Credit: 3 credits** or Noncredit

**Prospective students wishing to take the course for college credit are required to submit a sample portfolio of 3-5 images of current artwork formatted in a single pdf document. Please include name, date, title, and dimensions. Images in the sample portfolio do not need to be in the medium of the course to be taken but should emphasize creativity and technical accomplishment.

Grading:

  • Credit: A-F
  • Noncredit: Pass/Fail

Cost:

3-Credit:

  • Residential: $4,535
  • Commuter: $3,589

Noncredit:

  • Residential: $3,945
  • Commuter: $2,999

Program rates are subject to change and will be approved by the board of trustees. Discounts and scholarships are also available.


Program Information

Summer College – On Campus: Experience what college is really like: take a college-level course, live in a residence hall, have meals with friends in a dining hall, and participate in activities and events on campus.


Course Dates and Details

ProgramCourse DatesSynchronous Class Time (Eastern Time)Credit/NoncreditStatus
Summer College – On Campus2-Week Session III: Sunday, July 30 – Friday, Aug. 11, 2023MTWThF;
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
3 credits or NoncreditClosed

Course Requirements

Required Supplies

Students will each need one (1) 9″x11″ sketchbook.

Typical Day

Tentative Schedule

  • 9 a.m. – noon Lecture, Discussion, and Demonstration led by Professor 
  • Noon  – 1:30 p.m. Lunchtime Lecture/Visiting Artists
  • 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. Studio Instruction with Graduate Assistant
  • 6 – 9 p.m. Open Studio

When class is over, and on weekends, students can look forward to various Summer College – On Campus activities to meet and connect with other students! Check out our On Campus Experience page for more information!

Academic Field Trips

Potential Field Trips:

  • DIA Beacon

Faculty Bios

Sam Van Aken

Sam Van Aken is a contemporary artist whose work bridges traditional and innovative modes of art making, developing artistic genres to create new perspectives on such themes as agriculture, botany, climatology, and communication. Van Aken’s interventions in the natural and public realm are seen as metaphors that serve as the basis for narrative, sites of place making, and in some cases have even become the basis of scientific research.Born in Reading Pennsylvania, Sam Van Aken received his undergraduate education in Art and Communication Theory. Immediately following his studies he lived in Poland and worked with dissident artists under the former communist regime through the auspices of the Andy Warhol Foundation and the United States Information Agency.

Van Aken received his MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and since this time his work has been exhibited and placed nationally and internationally. He has received numerous honors including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, Association of International Curator’s of Art Award and a Creative Capital Grant. Recently, his work has been presented as part of Nature-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, at the World Economic Forum, as part of Seeds of Resistance at the Eli and Edyth Broad Art Museum at Michigan State and New Earthworks at Arizona State University this past spring. His monumental work, The Open Orchard, recently opened to the public on Governors Island, New York City with an expansive orchard planted in partnership with community gardens throughout the entire five boroughs. Sam Van Aken lives and works in Syracuse New York, where he is currently the Associate Director of the School of Art and an Associate Professor at Syracuse University.