This overview of the visual arts includes the aesthetic qualities, structural forms, historical roles, and untapped potential of artworks and visual culture. We will examine art both in its chronological and geographic frameworks as well as across time and place through media and thematic connections. We will use description to explore the formal appearance of artworks, research to decipher the underlying content, and analysis to begin to recognize what these elements reveal about the cultures and artists that produced them. Writing assignments, projects, and class presentations will give students the opportunity to gain a broad familiarity and general appreciation for visual art of all kinds in collaborative and interactive ways.