Curatorial Studio Syllabus
From Visual Studies
Contents |
Description
Curatorial Studio explores presentational and critical practice and the theoretical discourse specific to such practice within a studio context. This involves the curation (study and creation of visual presentations) in exhibitions or projects.
Prerequisites: Art and Design Majors: completion of Foundations and permission of instructor. Non-Art and Design Majors: Junior Standing and permission of instructor.
3 credit hours __
Introduction
Artists often do curatorial work. Contemporary art and design operate in contexts that are other than those of the traditional studio or professional practice. Museums and Galleries are no longer the sole sites of the presentation of visual art. Also the separation of roles is increasingly blurred between the creation of art by studio artists and the institution of art by gallerists and curators. Artists become curators or organize and institute the creation and presentation of art in varied contexts. New media make possible new, inexpensive, self-organized contexts for the curation of visual art.
Course Objectives
At the end of the course students are able to:
- 1. Discuss and apply visual, conceptual, technical, historical, and theoretical considerations in the curation of exhibitions and projects.
- 2. Demonstrate an ability to plan and implement various types of documentation and cataloguing of exhibitions and projects. This includes visual archives and representations of projects in catalogues (involving writing, visuals, editorial, design) and new media.
- 3. Analyze new and established sites for use in cultural presentations: materially, experientially, spatially, historically, socially, politically.
- 4. Demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively and cooperatively in the production, presentation, and evaluation of cultural forms.
- 5. Use verbal, written, and visual means to engage in effective and critical discourse about methods, structures, and ideas in the curation and presentation of visual works.
- 6. Recognize and describe the relationships between the practice of curating presentations of visual art and other human, civic, and commercial enterprise.
Course Topics:
- selection and contextualization of existing works in public presentations
- collaborative or directorial relationships projects created with artists
- writing, design, presentation of supportive texts in display, publicity and project publications
- the public function and practice of criticism
- understanding audience and community perspectives
Texts (recommended)
- Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space by Brian O'Doherty and Thomas McEvilley
- Contemporary Cultures of Display (Art and Its Histories Series) by Emma Barker
- Thinking About Exhibitions by Sandy Nairne
- Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium by James Putnam
Evaluation
Students are evaluated in 3 areas. Standard pedagogy in studio art varies in how these areas are weighted. Some faculty put much more emphasis on the studio production. Others prefer distributing evaluation criteria to reflect the range of criteria. These reflect the range of standard weighting of such criteria.
- 1. Studio production
This includes interim and finished studio products or productions: Individual or collaboratively produced projects. Studio products include: exhibitions, visual presentations, project proposals, exhibition support materials such as curatorial catalogues that are written and designed, didactic materials, web sites, and documentation or re-presentations of projects. 33%-70%
- 2. Studio Discourse: Writing, Reading, and Discussion, Critique
The operation of the studio and learning involve effective participation in communicating about ideas, studio work, and historical and theoretical texts. This can include the content of discussion participation, written responses to texts, written and verbal statements on studio work and ideas, and written and verbal critique. 10%-40%
- 3. Studio Performance/Contribution to the Group:
Studio work and learning is a highly social and dynamic activity that requires active participation by its members. This can be assessed by attendance as well as observed contributions to the studio organization, production, and progress. 10%-40%
