Naropa University Oakland

Master of Liberal Arts Program in Creation Spirituality

 

 THE ARTIST AS SPIRITUAL VOYAGER

 

CSP692        Number of Credit Units: 2

 

Instructor: Robert Rice        Instructor's contact telephone number: 707-568-5559

 

Class Schedule: Spring 2003, Thursday and Friday March 20 & 21, 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

 

Course Description:

This seminar will look at how visual artists, musicians, poets and dancers serve as spiritual guides and will examine ways the creative process may make accessible experiences that are ineffable. It will also examine the responsibility of the artist as a conveyer of truth and the fact that certain truths, especially in the modern and contemporary periods of the arts, may involve images, sounds or movements that are challenging or unpleasant.  

 

Course Objectives:

The goal of the class will be for students to develop an understanding of the spiritual power of the arts and to know more directly how the artist brings together the human and the divine. Direct, hands-on experiences will support topics discussed in the seminar. 

 

Required reading: 1. Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet by Matthew Fox and 2. The Courage to Create by Rollo May.

 

Recommended reading: Technicians of Ecstasy: Shamanism and the Modern Artist by Mark Levy; and/or, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery by Jeanette Winterson.

 

Course Requirements:  Attendance, reading and class participation ………75%

                                        Final Paper (4-5 pages)..……… 25%

 

Mornings will be a combination of lecture, small group problem solving sessions and general discussion. Afternoons will be art-as-meditation, hands-on experiences and the discussion of this process as it relates to the morning sessions material.