Think like a/n __________. Art and Critical Inquiry in the First-Year Program

How does a biologist read a photograph? What does a painting mean to a historian? What does a sociologist find in a print that an economist might interpret differently?

This gallery is a site of that kind of looking. Each fall, Colorado College’s First-Year Program (FYP) immerses incoming students in a rigorous introduction to liberal arts learning through two foundational seminars: CC100: Critical Inquiry and CC120: First-Year Writing. These courses encourage students to consider how different disciplinary methods shape their perception and understanding of things. The FAC Museum joins the conversation, offering a site where different disciplines can come together.

Think like presents works from the FAC’s permanent collection — paintings, prints, photographs, and drawings spanning time and subjects — as shared objects of study for multiple FYP courses. We invite students and faculty from different fields to bring their distinct questions, methods, and expertise to the same works of art, revealing how meaning accumulates, shifts, and surprises depending on how you look, how you think.

You are invited to join the conversation. Whatever you study, wherever you come from, whatever you notice first — interactive prompts in the gallery offer you the opportunity to add your own interpretation.

Colorado College faculty members who would like to integrate this project into their courses can reach out to facengagement@coloradocollege.edu.

This exhibition was co-organized with the Office of College Transition Programs. Support for this exhibition is provided in part by the Joseph Henry Edmondson Foundation, The Anschutz Foundation, and The Indigo Oak Fund.

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