Exhibition and Museum Studies EMS-503-1 Beyond Exhibitions Brooke Anderson Curatorship of contemporary art exhibitions is one of the most important and problematic aspects in the transformation of the global art scene. Far beyond the field of mere exhibition making, it has become a crucial driving force in defining contemporary art, which continues to be reinvented through curatorial interventions. This course will include travel to New York and Los Angeles, where students will meet with curators through visits to museums and galleries. Satisfies Exhibition and Museum Studies Elective Program course fee: $2,500. The program course fee includes ten (10) nights lodging in both New York and Los Angeles (January 7–11 and January 14–18), and ground transportation in LA. Enrolled students pay tuition for three (3) credits and a program course fee of $2,500 for this Faculty-Led Program. Tuition and fees for Beyond Exhibitions must be paid no later than December 3, 2012. EMS-507-1 Art’s Curtain Call Frank Smiegel What happens to both visual art spaces and performance-based work when the former becomes the stage for the latter? As large and small-scale visual art programs across the globe embrace live idioms, from Tino Seghal at the Guggenheim in New York to Allora & Calzadilla at the American pavilion in the 2011 Venice Biennale, performance work is increasingly being sited to visual art space. Such a turn is hardly new, as Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s opera Four Saints in Three Acts appeared at the Wadsworth Athaeneum in 1934; Yoko Ono’s first iteration of Cut Piece debuted at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo in 1964; and Experiments in Art & Technology commissioned performances via MoMA in New York in 1965. It’s true, though, that we often think of performance work in visual culture via the NYC lofts of the 1960s and ‘70s, imagining that such experimental work requires open, free-form places. This class will investigate what happens when the radical energy of live work is brought into the institution. We will ask how the “live” might resist or reinforce the spectacle of global artwork, once it is brought into that global belly. We will wonder too about the local manifestations of this situation, wondering how social practice and food-as-art work in the Bay Area works across places from the Headlands Center for the Arts to SFMOMA to the Oakland Museum of California. Satisfies Exhibition and Museum Studies Elective
SPRING 2013
EMS-590 Thesis I: Independent Investigations Dale Carrico (EMS-590-1) Cameron MacKenzie (EMS-590-2) Prerequisite: Open to MA and Dual-Degree students only In this seminar course, methodologies for research and writing will be explored in relation to theses and developing projects. Students will develop their bibliography and identify source materials for ongoing independent research. This course is intended to advance the development of thesis research and writing through individual student presentations, group discussion and review, and one-on-one discussions with the instructor. Satisfies Requirement for the MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies EMS-591 Thesis II: Collaborative Projects Claire Daigle (EMS-591-1) Open to HTCA and Dual Degree students only Betti-Sue Hertz (EMS-591-2) Open to EMS and US students only This course provides the context for the collaborative project that, along with the student’s individual thesis, forms the capstone of the MA program. Students from all three MA programs work together to define, research, and present a group project focusing on a crucial aspect of contemporary art and its critical contexts. Students will take responsibility for all aspects of the project, which may include topical research and writing, curatorial work related to project design, budgeting, selecting and commissioning artwork, exhibition design, and public outreach, thereby gaining professional experience in art historical research, programming, and presentation. Past projects have included film screenings, art exhibitions, public events, and print and web-based publications on a variety of themes. Satisfies Requirement for the MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies