Big Ideas Courses

Two speakers onstage

Letters & Science 25

Thinking Through Art and Design @Berkeley

Arts & Literature

This course introduces students to key vocabularies, forms, and histories from the many arts and design disciplines represented at UC Berkeley. It is conceived each year around a central theme that responds to significant works and events on the campus, providing an introduction to the many art and design resources available to students on campus. Students will compare practices from across the fields of visual art, film, dance, theater, music, architecture, graphic design, new media, and creative writing, and explore how different artists respond formally to the central themes of the course, considering how similar questions and arguments are differently addressed in visual, material, embodied, sonic, spatial, and linguistic forms.

This course was offered in partnership with the Arts + Design Initiative.

Terms Offered

The class prompted me to think outside the box through unique projects that were unlike anything I had done before. It really allowed each student to explore and left enough creative room for each idea to bloom.

— Student in spring 2024 class

The class prompted me to think outside the box through unique projects that were unlike anything I had done before. It really allowed each student to explore and left enough creative room for each idea to bloom.

— Student in spring 2024 class

This class has a unique mixture of art and technology that can open up the humanities for more STEM oriented students.

— Student in spring 2023 class

I absolutely loved this class, and it helped me think and view the world through a more creative lens.

— Student in fall 2022 class