ART 200A

Environmental Art and Sustainable Design

According to the architect Louis Sullivan, "you cannot express unless you have a system of expression; and you cannot have a system of expression unless you have a prior system of thinking and of feeling; and you cannot have a system of thinking and feeling unless you have a basic system of living."

ART 200A is a four-credit course offered each spring semester to students at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. The course consists of formal discussions, presentations, lectures, film screenings, and site visits related to the creation of a personal lived system. The course was first instructed by Artist-in-Residence Richard Bresnahan under the course name "Artistic Lifestyles."

Through hands-on model building and creative design exercises, students in this class are ultimately tasked with the assessment and measurement of their own physical belongings and asked to match this reality with the creation of a model living space to suit their current and future needs. It is now taught by Steven Lemke, a former apprentice and alum of the course.