The short-titled folder, “Art I” merely contains a few black and white photographs…

An October 4, 1947 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy), contains a report from H. Harvard Arnason, chairman of the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, detailing the organization, purposes, and programming of the department, and brings insight to the meaning behind, “Art I”

“Art I is a lecture and workshop course designed to introduce the student to the many problems involved in the first approaches to objects of art. Examples selected from great works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are used to illustrate principles of design and the various intents of the artist. In the workshop the student attempts to solve in a simplified form, certain basic problems in color, design and interpretation which have concerned artists. In the lecture period he is then shown how the great artists of the past and present have approached and solved these same problems. The introductory course is being taught cooperatively by a large part of the art faculty, and thus serves as an integrating factor for faculty as well as students. “