The Boom in Art Electives
WHAT happens when a pre-med biology major takes a course in modern art as "a change of pace"? Well, on the first Friday of the term he cuts his Friday afternoon lab, drives to Boston, and spends the weekend in rapt contemplation of the exotic colors of Gauguin, the warm flesh of Renoir's nudes, and the shimmering waters of Claude Monet.
This case is true and typical. The biggest change in the academic side of undergraduate life during recent years has been the extraordinary growth in the popularity of art courses. Over 300 men took Modern Art last term, so many that it had to be moved into Spaulding Auditorium. Art 2, the basic survey course, will have over 450 this spring, making it the largest course taught by one man at Dartmouth. More of the smaller, advanced courses have been added to the curriculum, and their effectiveness has been enhanced by the addition of the galleries in Hopkins Center. This has allowed the Carpenter Galleries to present displays relating to the particular interests of certain classes while the Hopkins Center fulfills the obligation to provide exhibits of more general interest.
Enrollment in all art courses has leaped 25 percent in the last five years, and with 1600 course enrollments this year, Art is pushing hard on English as the most widely elected subject in the humanities.
The reasons for the boom are complex, but the search for an average-bolstering "gut" course is not among them. Marks in art courses run below the college average. There has been an increase in the number of art majors, but the great majority of those taking art courses are just men who have found the study of art to be a highly pleasurable experience, even if they get only a C-plus out of it. Some of these are headed for careers in the sciences and are having one final fling at the humanities. Also, the Art Department does a lot of "repeat business" with students who take one course and then come back for more.
The trend at Dartmouth is also part of, if a little ahead of, a nation-wide increase of interest in art which has taken place since World War II. Prof. Churchill P. Lathrop sees it as "a natural reaction to the Cold War's tremendous emphasis on science."
Hopkins Center has been a positive factor, though the upswing was under way long before the Center was even a large hole in the ground, and Dartmouth's advantage in having an outstanding art library is of long standing. Nevertheless, the sheer increase in studio space, in galleries, and the dramatic way in which the Center's glass walls put the studio art courses "on display" have all had a definite effect.
"When sculpture classes were held in the basement of Webster Hall no one was really aware they existed," says Prof. Robert J. Poor., "Now students just passing by the Center's sculpture studio can look in and see a class in action."
The inducements may be too great. The Department's basic drawing class was elected by three times the number that could be accommodated last term. Additional sections helped ease the problem and more staff would help, yet there is a ,real possibility that from the standpoint of studio space, Hopkins Center is on the verge of obsolescence in its second year.
