Bringing it Down to Earth: An Exploration of the limits of Architecture Aesthetics in Understanding Class and the Built Environment in Southern West Virginia

A critical outcome of a liberal arts education is cultural literacy, which can lead to the development of cultural empathy and class awareness in students. Study of the arts is vital for obtaining this learning outcome; they offer primary evidence of cultural identity, social diversity, and class distinction. This view that studying art has significant value in the development of well-rounded students is widely held in academia, as evidenced by the place of the arts in liberal arts curricula across the U.S. Yet, traditional approaches to the study of art are not always successful in problematizing and evaluating the class systems upon which most art production is based and thus risk failing to meet liberal arts outcomes. Study of architecture theory exemplifies this challenge as it is largely a practice of a society\u27s intellectual, economic, and social elite and is often taught using the canon-based method of teaching art history. However, using experiential learning techniques in combination with study of high art architectural aesthetics can problematize the canon-based method of teaching art history. Furthermore, this approach also sets limits on the universalizing rhetoric of aesthetic theory by raising questions about class difference and privilege. This paper considers the efficacy of studying architecture aesthetics in a real world setting through two experiential learning projects, which were conducted through an art history undergraduate course in partnership with the service organization Big Creek People in Action in West Virginia