Great Books, Great Art: Integrating Art History Into the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum

FAIN: EE-50158-05

Shimer College (Chicago, IL 60616)
Kathleen Mullaney (Project Director: October 2004 to April 2005)
Barbara S. Stone (Project Director: April 2005 to October 2007)

A curriculum development project to integrate great art works into a successful and rigorous great books core curriculum.

This project, from a Great Books college, provides a national model for integrating great works of art into liberal arts core curricula. This integration will occur in six required humanities courses, where great art works can illuminate philosophical, religious, and literary texts (and vice versa). Faculty will engage methodological questions in art history, examine works in local collections and beyond, and design teachable units--all under the leadership of prominent art historians. The resulting curriculum will be disseminated through conferences and a permanent website. This project brings nonspecialist teachers in the undergraduate core into greater awareness of the resources of art and art history.