syllabus

 

Beginning Reading Links:

Week 1:

Introductions. Who are you? What art have you seen lately? What excites you about the art field where you are and in general? What depresses or makes you apathetic you about the field? What about it don’t you know?

The context of our discussions will be the United States specifically New York City. The first day will be spent considering COVID and other significant events affecting the art field within this context.

We will spend time looking at 2020 specifically conversations will pay close attention to museums as institutions and sites of protest and action. We will consider how museums are funded in addition to art activist groups tackling these issues. Decolonize This Place. People’s Cultural Plan. Chinatown Arts Brigade. Art Handlers. Arlene Davila.

 

   For next class watch this panel: Blackhouse Kollective- Soweto x Strike MOMA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roT_jojH_m4
 

  Week 2

Discussions continue where we left off last week. For our second class, we will look further back in history at the tradition of art activist groups in New York City. Beginning the class taking a look at Aruna DeSosa’s Whitewalling we will look at protests at the MOMA in the early 1970’s and subsequent activities in the field there after. Our class will segue towards current actions that have deeply questioned art’s relationship to social and political issues regarding inequity, war, and pharmaceutical companies among others. Nan Goldin and Sackler Pain, Whitney Museum 2019 Protests. Koch Brothers. Strike MOMA.

 

  For the next class watch this panel: Strike MoMA Working Group of IIAAF Presents: A Conversation with Sandy Grande, Stefano Harney, Fred Moten, Jasbir Puar, and Dylan Rodriguez https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2vzhwnjy4s

optional: Read two chapters from Aruna DeSosa’s Whitewalling provided pp. 1-30.


   Week 3

We will conclude our discussions from last week and talk about the possibility of the future for museums. What other models might there be to work off of? What’s happening where you are? We will spend time discussing and reviewing segments from the panel assigned. Bring in materials/questions/ideas that you think would add in the creation of a “curriculum”.

 

Week 4

Research and present on YOUR FIELD. How would it relate to the creating of a decolonized curriculumWhat is your filed of art? Who are the most exciting contemporary artists/ projects/ writing/ research in your field where you are right now? Present on three examples you find inspiring. Tell us why you like this work? How does it relate to your work? How does it relate to context where you are living? Prepare a 15 minute presentation: 10 minutes to briefly introduce the three examples you’ve selected, and 5 minutes discussing how they relate to your work, etc. Please include image/video/audio examples for each example and for yourself.