Course Description |
Tests and Papers |
Class Schedule |
Weekly Reading Assignments |
Required Texts |
Reserve List
Spring 2000. Instructor: James Mundy (x5236) and (email) Jamundy.
The seminar will meet weekly on Tuesdays from 10:30 AM-12:30 PM in the
Ann Balis Morse
Print Study Room in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Attendance is
compulsory. Any absence must be accompanied by a medical or dean's excuse.
There is one assigned text (see below) for the course. Weekly readings will be assigned
from a number of different sources, some of which will be found on reserve in
the Art Library. Class discussions will focus on potential topics for oral
reports and term papers, presentations of which will fall due in the second
half of the semester.
One fifteen minute state of
research report early in term. One hour major oral report A research paper
on a given topic roughly 5,000 words in length. There will be a take home
final exam for this course. What follows is a partial list of possible paper
topics:
1)The Museum as Demonstration of Cultural or Political Power
18 January-Orientation-What is a Museum?
Consideration of Topics
25 January- Discussion of Topics (cont'd)
1 February-Discussion of Topics (cont'd)
8 February-Discussion of Sensation
15 February-State of Research Reports
22 Feb.Presentation by Jason Kauffman
29 February-State of Research Reports
21 March-TBA
28 March-final reports
4 April-final reports
11 April-final
reports
18 April-final reports
25 April-final reports
2 May-final reports
January 18th-25th
"Muses, Museums and Memories" by Bonnie Pitman in America's Museums: Daedalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
"The Musaeum of Alexandria and the Formation of the Museum in Eighteenth-Century France," by Paula Young Lee. On Reserve in the Art Library.
Jan. 25th-Feb. 1st
"What is the Object of this Exercise?" by Elaine Heumann Gurian in America's Museums: Daedalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
"Anatomy on Display, and It's All Too Human" by Edmund L. Andrews in The New York Times. (Photocopies handed out in class)
Feb. 1st-Feb. 8th
Read Articles about Sensationonline
"Museums as Centers of Controversy," by William L. Boyd in America's Museums: Daedalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Feb. 8th-Feb.15th
"Museums of the Future: The Impact of Technology on Museum Practices," by Maxwell L. Anderson in America's Museums: Daedalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Feb. 15th-Feb. 22nd
Attend "Museums, Money and Media," a lecture by Jason Kaufman at 5:30pm, Monday, Feb. 21st in Taylor 203.
Links to articles by Jason Kaufman
Three Museums, Three Approaches to African Art
NYC Tribune
Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao: New Colossus
Washington Post
The
arts and humanities: There's something in it for you!
Art Newspaper
American museums: Works for hire
Art Newspaper
The Getty Museum's
retreat from the antiquities market goes only so far
Art Newspaper
Austria Returns War Booty to Rothschilds
WSJ
Boston
Museum Imbroglio: A Cautionary Tale
WSJ
Bennett, Tony, The Birth of the Museum,London, 1995
Crimp, Douglas, On the Museum's Ruins,Cambridge, Mass. 1993
Harwit, Martin, An Exhibition Denied,New York, 1996
Impey, Oliver and MacGregor, Arthur (eds.), The Origins of Museums,
Oxford, 1985 Karp, Ivan, Kreamer,
Christine, and Lavine, Steven, Museums and Communities,Washington D.C.,
1992
Lee, Paula Young, "The Musaeum of Alexandria and the Formation of
the Museum in Eighteenth-Century France," The Art
Bulletin,Sept. 1997, pp. 385-412.
Lee, Sherman E., The Role of the College Art Museum,Poughkeepsie, 1993. Low,
Theodore L.,The Museum as a Social Instrument,New York, 1942
Nicholas, Lynn, The rape of Europa : the fate of Europe's treasures
in the Third Reich and the Second World War,New York, 1994
O'Doherty, Brian, Inside the White Cube,Santa Monica, 1986
Vergo, Peter (ed.) The New Museology,London, 1989
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2)The Museum and the First Amendment (Issues of Censorship)
3) Art and War, National Identity, and Propaganda
4) The Museum as Social Missionary in Nineteenth Century America
5) Patrimony and Repatriation of Culture-Whose is it, anyway?
6) Second Hand Smoke-The Museum and its Relationship to Corporate
America
7) The "Niche" Museum, its Purpose and Relevance
8) The Museum and the Press
9) Museums and Populism
10) Art and Social Conscience
11) Political Correctness and the Museum
12) The "Language" of Museum Architecture
13)Flashpoint Exhibitions- Entartete Kunst, Mapplethorpe,
Sensation,
Enola Gay,Harlem on My Mind and others
14) Art as Hostage, Art Vandalism
15) Installation Art
16) What to Collect and Why
17) The "Language" of Display
18) Should Anything Not be Exhibited in a Museum?
Where Do We Draw the Line?
19) The Museum as Social Instrument
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on "Art Museums and the Press" (See readings under "Weekly Assignments")
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(to be found in College Bookstore)
(on reserve)
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