Class 1

1. To get to know each other, each student will share a favorite experience with art, including any art form they choose—visual art, music, theater, dance. This can be an experience you’ve had as a viewer or as an artist yourself!
2. I will outline the different art forms that will be explored in this class, and we will discuss what art is and why people make it.
3. We will then go over the syllabus and the goals and learning outcomes for the class. This includes the practice of taking good notes during every class. I will go over a list of all the free museum days throughout the city, to be referenced throughout the semester, included at the end of this syllabus.
4. We will start reading Chapter 1, “Art on my Mind,” from bell hooks’s book Art on my Mind.

Goals: To get to know each other, understand the larger course goals, and familiarize ourselves with some of the arts organizations in New York City.

Homework: Your first Art on My Mind mini essay is due Monday, 3/11 on Blackboard. Pick an artwork of your choice and write your first Art on My Mind mini essay, a half-page in length, describing what inspired you to pick this artwork, what it’s made of, what it’s trying to communicate, and how it makes you feel. This can be something you encounter on your commute, like a sculpture in a park;  a favorite artwork you’ve seen before that stuck with you; or an an artwork you see in a magazine or on the internet. (I will provide a few options of artworks if you need inspiration.) The purpose of this first exercise is to familiarize me with your writing. Upload both your half-page of writing and an image of the artwork to Blackboard.

Class 2

1. I will give a slide lecture about series of artworks, including photo diaries, to introduce the Photo Diary Assignment that you will complete each week.
2. We will discuss the “Describe, Interpret, Evaluate” method for talking about art. We will discuss the different forms art may take and the different kinds of institutions where art can be seen. If there’s time, we will read Strickland, Boswell, & Brown’s “Introduction: How to Look at a Painting” pp. x-1, from The Annotated Mona Lisa in class.

Homework: Your first Photo Diary assignment, including a photo you take and a written reflection of it, is due on Blackboard on 3/18. For the Photo Diary Assignment, take photographs as you go about your day this week. Photograph whatever you encounter that stands out to you as conceptually or aesthetically striking. Your goal here is to make an artwork yourself, not to take a photo of artwork you might see in a museum. This is a chance to tell the story of your own life in pictures. Take more than one picture, and then select your favorite image for your Photo Diary and write a paragraph about it. Your paragraph will explain why you chose this image, or can be a more poetic response to the ideas that the image encapsulates.

Finish the reading and make notes of three talking points.

 

Class 3

1. We will discuss the Bell Hooks reading and the Strickland reading.
2. I will present a slide lecture providing terminology for visual elements.

Homework: Write your second Art on My Mind mini essay, to be turned in on Blackboard by 3/25.

 

Class 4

1. We discuss everyone’s first Photo Diary entry in our first “critique” of the semester, describing, interpreting, and evaluating our classmates’ artwork. I will first go over the rules of a critique.
2. I will give a presentation about the major movements in Modern art to contextualize what you will see at the Museum of Modern Art next week. We will have a conversation about museum etiquette.
3. To contextualize modernist thinking, we will read Baldwin’s Creative America excerpt in class and discuss it.

Homework: Complete another Photo Diary entry, due 4/1 on Blackboard.

 

Class 5

We will meet at the Museum of Modern Art, inside the entrance at 11 West 53rd Street. Please note that MoMA is free with your CUNY ID. I will provide a work packet because large groups can’t walk through the museum together. I will move between the places included in the packet throughout the class, available to talk to students in small groups or one-on-one.

Homework: While at MoMA, select an artwork that intrigues you for your next Art on My Mind mini essay. Upload both your half-page of writing and a picture of the artwork to Blackboard before 4/8.

 

Class 6

1. To prepare us for drawing in class next week, I will give a slide lecture introducing the spectrum of mark-making in drawing throughout history and across cultures. Line has been a constant feature throughout the history of art, starting with the cave paintings of Lascaux, spanning from the precise line work in etchings by Albrecht Dürer and portraits by Charles White to the expressive use of line by artists like Julie Mehretu, Wassily Kandinsky, and Yayoi Kusama. We will discuss line weight and the effect of using either a single line weight for stylistic purposes or using a broad range of line thicknesses, creating a “quality of line” that can be useful in depicting objects in real space. We will discuss the effects of repetition to create pattern and texture, and the historical use of cross-hatching of lines to create convincing drawings of volumes. We will examine the use of line in contour drawings and blind contours, and in different types of gesture drawing.
2. We will spend the rest of class time drawing.

Homework: 1. Submit a Photo Diary entry on Blackboard before class on 4/15.

 

Class 7

After spending the first few months of term looking at and analyzing art, we will explore what it’s like to create art ourselves. We will spend the day drawing. If you don’t have an idea for what you’d like to draw, the exercise will be to make an abstract drawing employing as many different types of mark making as you come up with, embracing the expressive power of drawing. Students can experiment with the various drawing media and implements provided to experience a wide range of mark-making strategies. Materials will be provided, and we will listen to music to fuel our creative energy.

Homework: 1. Submit a Photo Diary entry on Blackboard by 5/6.

2. Read the excerpt from John Berger’s Ways of Seeing and write down three talking points so you are prepared to discuss the reading with your classmates.

 

Class 8

1. We will discuss the John Berger reading.
2. I will give a lecture on contemporary art and its various movements and ideologies, which will prepare students for our upcoming visit to the contemporary exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
3. I will present a slide lecture about the Whitney Museum of American Art and we will explore its website so everyone can plan which sections they’d like to visit when we go together next Tuesday.
4. I will give a presentation on the museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions that are free and available to you in New York City. Each student will pick one that seems personally interesting and go there to seek inspiration for the Final Essay, the topic of which will be assigned in class.

Homework: 1. Select a museum from the list for your final essay. Be prepared to discuss the museum you’ve selected! You should visit by 5/25 in order to complete the paper on time.

2. Submit your final Photo Diary entry on Blackboard by 5/13.

Class 9

We will visit the Whitney Museum of American Art, meeting inside the museum at 99 Gansevoort Street after you have passed through security. You can enter the Whitney for free with your CUNY ID. I will provide a work packet because large groups can’t walk through the museum together. I will move between the places included in the packet throughout the class, available to talk to students in small groups or one-on-one.

Homework: Select an artwork at the Whitney for an Art on My Mind mini essay, due 5/20 on Blackboard.

Class 10

1. I will present a slide lecture about the Metropolitan Museum of Art and we will explore its website so everyone can plan which sections they’d like to visit when we go together next week.
2. As we continue our ventures into creating artwork, I will present a slide lecture on the many forms art can take beyond traditional painting, sculpture, and photography, and the many materials that artists use. This slide lecture will focus on Material as Metaphor to explore about how artists have achieved a technical narrative throughout history and into the present.
3. Together, we will read in class Jerry Saltz’s list essay, “How to Be an Artist,” which is the inspiration for the Free-Form Art Project.
4. Starting in class and finishing for homework, every student will create an artwork based on one of the prompts provided in points 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of “How to Be an Artist” by Jerry Saltz. You may use whatever medium is available and interesting to you, whether it is another photography project, a drawing, a collage, a digital drawing, a painting, a sculpture, or an assemblage. You will write your final Art on My Mind mini essay about your process, including your selection of materials and how they relate to the subject matter of the artwork you created. Please create something that is personally meaningful to you and invest time and care in it.

Homework: Bring in your Free-Form Art Project to class on 6/4.

 

Class 11

Class trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We will meet inside the museum (1000 Fifth Avenue), inside the educational entrance to the left of the stairs, aligned with 81st Street. As CUNY students, you can pay twenty-five cents to enter. I will provide a work packet because large groups can’t walk through the museum together. I will move between the places included in the packet throughout the class, available to talk to students in small groups or one-on-one.

Homework: 1. Select an artwork at the Met for your final Art on My Mind mini essay, due 6/3.

2. Continue to work on your final paper.

 

Class 12

1. Each student will present the Free Form Artworks they created, which the other students will describe, interpret, and evaluate in a “critique.” The critiques will be structured so that the artist will have a chance to speak after the other students have shared their thoughts.
2. I will give a lecture on the broader context of art, looking at art’s relationship to larger social, political, and economic issues.

As we reflect on the semester, we will discuss what we have encountered in the vast landscape of the arts of New York City. We will consider who and what have been missing this semester or underrepresented in the art we have encountered, and why.

We will reflect on the role that arts have on the individual and the society, and discuss how we would like to incorporate art into our lives to come.

Homework: Final essay due 6/6 at 8:59 PM on Blackboard. No late work will be accepted.

 

Culminating Course Experience or Final Exam

Date TBD—either June 8, 10, 11, or 12

Students will present their final paper topics, including whether or not they would recommend the museum/cultural institution they visited to their fellow students.