Syllabus

Arts in New York City

Spring 2024

Guttman Community College, CUNY

Course Number: ART 200

Instructor Name: Maya Mason

Course Blog/Website: Blackboard

Catalog Description

Arts in New York City introduces students to a range of artistic forms, venues, media, and movements in the arts mecca that is New York City.  In this semester long course, students will be exposed to visual and performance arts as well as public, private, and community-based arts institutions. They will explore a broad range of art forms through texts, images, and experiential components (visits to museums, art walks, film screenings). Students will be introduced to and develop visual literacy skills by closely and carefully examining works of art, discussing their observations, and supporting their views using evidence from the artworks. Students will develop the critical visual literacy skills needed to discuss meaning and interpretation, audience, source, access, and the impact of works of art on the individual. Course assignments include interpretation, analysis, and synthesis of creative work of many forms.

Credits/Contact Hours:       

3 credits


Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will develop their abilities to:

  1. Gather, interpret, and assess both visual and written information from a variety of sources (museums, galleries, art walks, written materials) and points of view (the artist, the art historian, the art critic, the viewer/audience member, the arts professional (museum employee, curator, etc), and other students).
  2. Critically evaluate evidence and arguments on various perspectives about art.
  3. Produce well-reasoned and well-researched written and oral arguments, using evidence to support one’s conclusions.
  4. Articulate how meaning is created, conveyed and interpreted in various forms of art (visual art, dance, theater, public art, outsider art).

Use appropriate technologies and research skills to conduct research about art and the creative process and to communicate one’s findings in both written reports and oral presentations.

Required Texts

All materials will posted on Blackboard and printed for you.

Required Materials:

Please bring a notebook specifically for this class and come in with the assigned readings annotated and ready for discussion.

Students should have access to a camera to complete the photography projects for this course.

Requirements & Course Policies:

Students are expected to check their Guttman email accounts regularly. I will occasionally email if there is any scheduling factor I need to discuss before class or any adjustments to assignments.

Although this is an Art class, it will necessitate reading, writing, and discussion. Please be prepared to read and write both in class and outside of class, and to complete your assigned readings and writing assignments.

Experiential learning is essential to this course. You will be expected to participate in experiential components that will further develop your understanding of the course content.

When we schedule museum visits as a group during class hours, we will meet at the front of the museum instead of in class. We will discuss museum etiquette in class. Professor Mason will be in the museum at all times if we visit together, so you can feel free to walk around with her or explore on your own based on the prompts provided in the assignment.

Cell Phones, iPads, and laptops will be used for instructional purposes ONLY. Please put electronic devices away unless otherwise requested by the instructor. Excessive disruption in class, repeated cell phone use, or lack of engagement in class will affect your participation grade.

Assignments & Grading

Art on My Mind Mini Essays: 25% (5 entries)

Photo Diary Project, Including Images and Writing: 25% (5 entries)

Free-Form Art Project: 10%

Final Essay: 20%

Participation: 20% (includes experiential learning activities)

For writing assignments, I use a rubric with multiple evaluative criteria, including content, style, grammar, and organization.

I grade with letter grades on a 4.0 scale:

Grade Quality Points 100 Points
A+ 4.0 97-100%
A 4.0 93-96.9%
A- 3.7 90-92.9%
B+ 3.3 87-89.9%
B 3.0 83-86.9%
B- 2.7 80-82.9%
C+ 2.3 77-79.9%
C 2.0 73-76.9%
C- 1.7 70-72.9%
D+ 1.7 70-72.9%
D (passing) 1.0 60-66.9%
F 0 0-59.9%

Assignments:

  1. Art on My Mind Mini Essays: You will write five short, narrative essays as you think about art during this course. Documented experiences may include formal visits to galleries, museums, monuments, or events; reflections on readings and class discussions; and observations in the course of your daily interactions with arts in New York City. You will upload 1 image and 1 piece of edited writing (personal nonfiction, prose, poetry) about the art you see, hear, and/or experience on your own. They will be five to eight sentences in length. The image and writing must be uploaded to Blackboard by 8:59 PM on the due dates.
  2. Photo Diary Project: You will complete a photo diary project five times throughout the term, including a written component to accompany the images. These will be five to eight sentences in length. The photographs and written component will be uploaded to Blackboard by 8:59 PM on the due dates.
  3. Free-Form Art Project: You will make an artwork in the materials of your choice, guided by a prompt provided by the professor, to be presented in a critique on the final day of class.
  4. Final Essay: For this assignment, you will write a longer essay synthesizing and responding to the readings, discussions, works of art covered in class, and personal experiences with art. The paper will be two pages, double-spaced, with the topic assigned in advance. The writing and any images referenced in your essay must be uploaded to Blackboard by 8:59 PM on the due date.

College Policies

PLAGIARISM POLICY:

Plagiarism carries a range of penalties commensurate with severity of the infraction. The instructor may, for example, require the work to be redone, reduce the course grade, fail the student in the course, or refer the course to the Faculty-Student Disciplinary Committee. Cases referred to that committee could result in suspension or expulsion from the college. (Please see page 167-168 of the student handbook for full explanation.)

Policy on Academic Honesty
Guttman Community College considers intellectual honesty to be the cornerstone of all academic and scholarly work. GCC views any form of academic dishonesty as a serious matter and requires all instructors to report every case of academic dishonesty to its Academic Integrity Officer, who keeps records of all cases. All work submitted or posted by students in this course must be their own. Submission of writing or ideas which are not the original work of the student, or which is not adequately referenced, is considered plagiarism. Unintentional plagiarism is still plagiarism, so if you have any question about whether or not to acknowledge a source, acknowledge it. And ifyou are still uncertain, be sure to ask. Refer to Article II of your Student Grievance Procedures for further details on academic honesty and Guttman’s academic integrity procedures. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion.

Disability Support Services
In compliance with the American Disability Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Guttman Community College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (Emotional, Medical, Physical and/ or Learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY located in Room 509-B to secure necessary academic accommodations and adjustments for additional informationand assistance please call 646-313-8833 or email [email protected].

Time Expectations
For every one instructional credit hour, a Guttman student is expected to spend at least two hours studying, reading, writing, researching and working on projects, and preparing for tests.

Attendance Policy
Success in this course is dependent on your active participation throughout the course.

Late Work/Make-up Policy
All assignments are due by the deadline as posted on the course schedule.

Note: points will be deducted for every day that an assignment is turned in late. Turn your work in on time!

Weekly Schedule

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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

Readings will include excerpts from the following texts:

Baldwin, J. (1962). Creative America. New York, NY: Ridge Press.

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books.

Brara, Noor and Gay, Roxane. “Author Roxane Gay, Who Loves Art But Dislikes the Art World, Has Some Advice for Galleries: ‘Stop Being Terrible’.” ArtNet, 12 Apr. 2021.

Freeland, C. (2001). But is it Art? An introduction to art theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

hooks, b. (1995). Art on my Mind: Visual Politics. New York, NY: The New Press.

Saltz, Jerry. “Jerry Saltz’s 33 Rules for Being an Artist.” Vulture, 27 Nov. 2018.

Smith, Roberta. “Robert Colescott Throws down the Gauntlet.” The New York Times, 8 Jul. 2022.

Smith, Zadie. “Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Visions of Power.” The New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2020,

Sontag, S. (1973). On Photography. New York: Doubleday.

Strickland, C., Boswell, J. , Brown, P. (2007). The annotated Mona Lisa.  (2nd ed.). Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel Company.

Resources

CUNY ARTS—Free or Reduced Admission for CUNY Students to Museums

  • As part of City University of New York, Guttman Community College has access to CUNY Arts.
  • The program offers free or discounted admission to many New York City cultural venues.
  • Here’s a listing of institutions with free* or suggested admission prices for CUNY ID holders: (Note: “Pay what you wish” means you can pay whatever you want—even 25 cents!

Suggested admission is NOT a required amount! Ignore that number and just pay what you can for any museum that’s “pay what you wish” or “suggested admission.”)

Additional Free Museum Times

This is useful for your friends and family if you’d like to bring someone along when you go to a museum for class (which I encourage!), or for after you have graduated from CUNY. (Check these hours on a museum’s website before you go—they may have recently changed.)

  • ALWAYS FREE(or pay what you wish):

American Folk Art Museum

American Museum of Natural History (pay what you wish)

Bronx Museum (pay what you wish)

Brooklyn Museum (pay what you wish)

The Cloisters (pay what you wish)

El Museo del Barrio (pay what you wish)

Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College

Green-Wood Cemetery

The Hispanic Society of America

International Print Center

Metropolitan Museum of Art (pay what you wish)

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

National Museum of the American Indian—Smithsonian Institution

New York City Police Museum (pay what you wish)

P.S.1 MoMA (pay what you wish)

Queens Botanical Garden (free Nov-March)

Queens Museum of Art (pay what you wish)

SculptureCenter (pay what you wish)

Socrates Sculpture Park

Staten Island Museum (pay what you wish)

Storefront for Art & Architecture

Studio Museum in Harlem (pay what you wish)

Waterfront Museum

  • MONTHLY FREE HOURS:

Bronx Museum (First Friday, 6-10 pm)

Brooklyn Children’s Museum (Second Weekend, before 11 am)

Brooklyn Museum (First Saturday, 5-11 pm)

El Museo del Barrio (Third Saturday, 11 am-8 pm)

Neue Gallerie (First Friday, 6-8 pm)

Noguchi Museum (First Friday, pay what you wish

  • WEEKLY FREE DAYS or HOURS:
  • MONDAY

Museum at Eldridge Street

  • TUESDAY

9/11 Memorial Museum 5-8 pm

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Staten Island Museum 12-2 pm

Wave Hill 9 am-noon

  • TUESDAY

Bronx Zoo (pay what you wish)

Museum of Jewish Heritage 4-8 pm

New York Botanical Garden

Queens Botanical Garden April-October, 3-6 pm

Van Cortlandt House Museum

Yeshiva University Museum 5-8 pm

  • TUESDAY

China Institute 6-8 pm

International Center of Photography 6-9 pm (pay what you wish)

Museum of Arts and Design 6-9 pm (pay what you wish)

Museum of Chinese in America

New Museum 7-9 pm

Trinity Church: Concerts at One 1-2 pm (September through May)

  • FRIDAY

Japan Society 6-9 pm

Morgan Library & Museum 7-9 pm

Museum of Modern Art 4-8 pm

Neue Galerie 6-8 pm

New-York Historical Society 6-8 pm (pay what you wish)

New York Aquarium 3 pm-closing (pay what you wish)

New York Hall of Science 2-5 pm (September through June)

Rubin Museum of Art 7-10 pm

Staten Island Museum 12-2 pm

Whitney Museum of American Art 7-9:30 pm

  • SATURDAY

Brooklyn Botanic Garden 10 am-noon

Jewish Museum

New York Botanical Garden 10 am-noon

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 5:45-7:45 pm (pay what you wish)

Wave Hill 9 am-noon

  • SUNDAY

Frick Collection 11 am-1 pm (pay what you wish)

New York Hall of Science 10-11 am (September through June)

Queens Botanical Garden April-October, 4-6 pm

Studio Museum in Harlem

  • If there’s a museum you still can’t get into for free, try Culture Pass with your free Brooklyn, Queens, or New York Public Library card.
  • Free application to see what gallery shows are available in your area: See Saw App
  • Free weekly email blast detailing free arts events in NYC: ArtCards 

Funded in part by the CUNY OER Initiative

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.