Art 200: Art Appreciation (Saliklis): Collection Project Resources

Collection Project Introduction

Art 200 – Collection Project

Museums are fantastic repositories for educating the public about the visual arts. An overarching goal of this course is to make you more aware and appreciative of art from major museums around the world. You will strive to expand your definition of art over the course of the semester. With this is in mind, your term project for this course is to propose a work of art to join the permanent collection of the imaginary Cuesta College Museum of Art Appreciation. Each student will propose a unique work and place it in its context, advocating for why it should be in our collection.

You are a curator at the Cuesta College Museum of Art Appreciation. Your responsibilities include the “care, presentation, interpretation, and acquisition of works of art in the collection. This means that a work of art under the curator’s care, and works under consideration for acquisition, must be thoroughly researched in order to ensure their authenticity, quality, and historical importance. Acquisitions – whether through purchase gift, or bequest – should be guided by the mission of the museum as well as by the curator’s expertise. Therefore, curators, having specialized knowledge, should be involved in the decisions to acquire a work and then in presenting the object to their museum’s acquisition committee.” [CAA’s Professional Practices for Museum Curators. (Links to an external site.)]

Recently, a series of artworks has come up for sale in your area of expertise.

Your proposed artwork must come from a major museum or art collection. Here are some examples in California:

• LACMA: https://collections.lacma.org/ (Links to an external site.)  Fairly encyclopedic collection
• Getty Museum: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/ (Links to an external site.)
  The collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum comprises Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity; European art—including illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts—from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century; and international photography from its inception to the present day.
• Fowler Museum at UCLA: https://www.fowler.ucla.edu/collections/home/ (Links to an external site.)
  The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts and cultures with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Indigenous Americas—past and present

Your selection isn’t enough. You will need to convince the museum’s acquisition committee of the need for the acquisition.

Using your expertise, you will need to make a pitch to the museum board on why the museum should purchase the object based on the following criteria.

Your curatorial department is looking to ideally collect objects that “speak” to the following, although if an object makes a particularly strong case otherwise, you might consider it:

First, write your curatorial notes for the object:

1. What is the object?
2. What are its main formal elements and principles of design?
3. What is its subject matter?
4. What is its style/representational manner?
5. Where did it originate?

Second, after you’ve completed notes for your object, you will need to explain to the acquisition committee why they should or shouldn’t acquire the object.

Create a visual presentation pitching your choice. Your presentation builds upon your curatorial notes.

Analyze the work in terms of its significance and place it in its cultural context: What messages did it convey? How? How would it be used? What type(s) of person(s) would have owned it? Where would it have been placed, etc.? What does it bring to our collection? How does it connect to course materials?

Choose two works from the text or the lectures to support its inclusion.

Your visual presentation should take the following format:

1. Title Slide of the foundational work of art you propose to enter our collection, and an identifying caption
2. Textual slide of thesis (argument for why this work should be included in our collection) – 100-200 words
3. 2-3 Slides of Formal Analysis (each slide should have image(s) and 50-100 words of text in addition to the image captions)
4. 2-3 Slides of Contextual (each slide should have image(s) and 50-100 words of text in addition to the image captions)
5. 2 Slides each with a supporting work from class to aid your thesis (each slide should have images and 50-100 words of text in addition to the image captions). These supporting works need not be formally similar. They simply aid your argument for the foundational object inclusion in our collection.
6. Concluding Slide (most likely your foundational work) and concluding pitch 50-150 words.
7. Bibliographic Slide

You will hand in your written presentation. However, you can present it on the last day of class or you can upload a video. Video presentations must be 8 minutes or under. If you choose to present your project, you will receive extra credit points. This is completely optional.