OPINION: Mason should offer a greater variety of courses in the arts

To fulfill the general education requirements at Mason, a student must complete at least three credit hours of fine arts (photo courtesy of Susan Larson/Flickr).

Though George Mason University is not an art school, it needs to have more options to fulfill the general education fine arts requirement that all students must complete before graduation. Mason should offer classes that both fulfill the arts requirement and appeal to a greater variety of students’ interests.

Right now, Mason offers art courses that involve art history, dance, music, theater and art and visual technology. Basically, you can sing, dance, draw, paint, act, play with Photoshop or sit through a boring lecture.

It sounds like there are a lot of options you can pick from to fulfill that art credit, right? But what happens when you are not interested in any of the classes offered? You’re supposed to be fulfilling an art credit; it’s supposed to be fun, not just another lecture to try to stay awake in.

The University of Mary Washington, a liberal arts college in Fredericksburg, offers the same art courses as Mason. However, UMW also offers courses in ceramics and fiber work.

Virginia Commonwealth University, whose arts program is ranked number one out of all of the public university arts and design programs in the country, has everything that both Mason and UMW offer; additionally, VCU offers extended media, kinetic imaging, choreography, craft material studies and art education as well as majors in all of the art categories.

It isn’t that Mason doesn’t have a lot of options—it does. Mason just doesn’t offer enough courses to adequately represent all artistic interests. Art classes at Mason just don’t appeal to everyone, and don’t get everyone excited.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t draw or paint or sing or play any instrument well or do anything on the computer—the internet is just too distracting. But I can craft and sew. So where is that class, Mason?

Opinions expressed in this column are solely the beliefs of the writer. 

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