Students in IC's creative arts programs explore how the arts stimulate our emotions, provoke our thoughts, and guide our actions and beliefs. They also examine how artistic works express a range of meanings, from the emotions and ideas of individual creators to the ideas of entire societies. Many classes are performance based, offering students the opportunity to practice and polish the techniques required for artistic production, whether constructing a sculpture or writing a poem. Other classes invite students to deepen their appreciation of works of art as they develop an understanding of the social, political, and economic contexts in which art is created and in which they themselves create or support artistic production.