Semester Reflections

Semester 3

As my third semester as an Arts Scholar comes to a wrap, I have  an opportunity to reflect on how I’ve grown throughout the semester. Arts Scholars was an incredible resource for me my freshman year, and its impact to me as a sophomore is no different. From providing me opportunities to expose myself to new art—such as field trips or drum circles—to giving me valuable lessons on how to view art through a different lens, this program has been a great deal of support in my early college years.  A key idea this term was that art changes how we see accepted history. This stood out clearly at the National Museum of American History. In one display, famous people such as Malcolm X and Judy Garland appeared with ordinary people in sharp black-and-white images. Instead of following usual national myths, it pushed us to rethink who gets recognized and why. Seeing it live showed me how visuals influence what we believe about America’s past. Art reveals hidden assumptions about which lives matter in historical memory. The semester’s focus on the creative process became especially meaningful as I began planning my capstone project. I learned how research is a crucial role in getting the groundwork ready for a creative project. Early brainstorming and reflection helped me clarify what I was actually interested in investigating. As my planning progressed, I became more comfortable sitting with uncertainty and using it productively, allowing the project’s direction to emerge through testing and refinement. This shift in mindset reduced the pressure to be immediately “right” and instead emphasized how brainstorming and revision are central parts of the creative process. Hearing how peers interpreted my ideas often revealed gaps or assumptions I had not noticed. Capstone proposal questionnaires gave me the opportunity to get feedback from a peer and to also give feedback of my own. Communicating with my fellow Arts Scholars helped me see feedback as an essential tool for growth rather than criticism. In architecture, iterative design is a very important concept. We spend a week working on our project, present our work to our professor/TA, and are given feedback and improvements we can make for next week. This went hand-in-hand with what we did in Arts Scholars this semester. Every week, we were given the opportunity to build on the capstone ideas we generated from the last, eventually leading us to a fully polished capstone proposal.  This semester, I contributed to the Arts program primarily through active participation in discussions and engagement during my field trip. I did this by asking questions, responding to peers, and connecting ideas from colloquium to the real world. I would like to take advantage of more opportunities to contribute in the future, like attending more on-campus art events. This term made me rethink how I see certain subjects. Because of capstone projects focusing on societal problems, I faced situations that felt uncertain or uneasy. When I listened to views unlike mine, it showed me why understanding others matters. I learned progress usually comes when we doubt our assumptions - also, creative work helps handle messy ideas.