StoryMap: Public Arts, Museums, and Field Trips
Submission: copy and paste the link to your StoryMap through this assignment link on Quercus
For this assignment, I am asking you to consider several questions about the readings and conversations that we have had over the semester, and to place those considerations in a StoryMap.
This course was designed to begin with some considerations of the practice of art history across its different institutions and to experience some of these practices in the context of the local GTA museum/gallery environment. We began with a series of readings that considered a range of ways of thinking about art and visual: from material properties to visitor engagement to theoretical ponderings. We had virtual guest speakers from the University of Toronto Art Museum and the City of Toronto Collections, then moved in-person to our own campus gallery to begin a series of field trips, expanding your awareness and knowledge of the different directions that this field moves in depending on the institution and/or professional specialization of the guests we met on our field trips. These questions (see below) ask you to analyze and evaluate the assigned readings together with the experiences and information you have received on our field trips. You may feel free to draw on material from the textbooks that was not assigned, as well as the assigned readings/articles on Quercus, notes from your field trips or responses you posted on PeppeR. You should synthesize this material into StoryMaps: you may use mapping features, images, quotations, material from relevant websites etc. to support your work.
You are expected to include appropriate reference citations, but of course you may use first person to provide your own opinion. You must answer at least three (3) of the four (4) questions.
You should have 2-3 pages of text (plus additional images/map/other material) for each question that you answer.
Professor's name
Course
Date
Story Map Assignment
Question one
Art has been in existence for thousands of years. Art is an avenue of expressing oneself and connecting with the community around us more profoundly and personally. Art is more than a paintbrush on a canvas-it is a piece of our imaginations brought into existence in a film, song, painting, or a piece of literature (Lambert 13). Art, such as public art, is a responsibility, considering its interaction with society. Public art communicates community values, improves our surroundings, and changes the landscape. Public art is a form of communal expression by incorporating the community directly in its creation and delivery or merely by announcing the criteria in a request for artists. As a result, public art has the role of reflecting and elevating public dialogue. Public art may also be a part of social interaction in which our environment stimulates, relax, or unite us. Public art reflects our changing society and an embodiment of our shared story that has become our shared history through time. It's a chance for us to leave our stamp on history. Public art displays our culture's beliefs and the importance we have on society and social connections. Public art enriches our public life and is an essential component of a genuinely democratic society in which we join time and space.
Art museums carry these responsibilities today by providing insights into humanity's past and learning valuable lessons. Museums help us build unity and connection rather than division by giving us examples of past bad behaviour and its consequences (Duncan 106). On a sociopolitical level, galleries and museums bring people together. Facilities like this serve as a pleasant reflection of local accomplishments and breakthroughs, drawing societies closer.
As we emerge from the pandemic conditions, museums are responsible for strengthening social unity, enhancing creativity, and promoting inspiration, education, and collective memory. They also have a responsibility in promoting tourism to enhance the development of the economy to overcome the current crisis. Museums contribute to the education of future societies. From establishing child-friendly displays to educating youngsters in a digital learning environment, organizations all around the globe are doing their share to pass along information (Lambert 17). This course has helped me a great deal in giving me an insight into understanding how the museum world interacts with my studies. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, museums in the country closed, and they only opened a few months ago. I would encourage the museums and galleries to increase their internet presence to reach even those who cannot physically access them due to the pandemic's restrictions. Everyone now has fast access to art visuals on the internet. Museums must provide a compelling rationale for visitors to pay to see the genuine item. Offering more insightful data about the culture and art at the exhibits is one approach to provide that worth. Explain to the audience why they must be there in simple terms.
Question two
For a museum to be fully operational and functional, several job positions should be filled to ensure this. The role of a museum educator is one of these positions. Guests are informed and familiarized with museum educators' selected displays' contents, histories, and contexts. To extend digital learning offerings, museum educators offer group tours, sit at information desks, or post content on the gallery's websites. Certain educators, particularly scholars serving in museums, may conduct research for the institution. Educators also write booklets for specific exhibits or museums.
Exhibit designers are the brains behind the exhibition's creativity and innovation. Developing new and intriguing displays brings artworks, antiques, and the gallery's valuable things to reality (Lambert 33). To build plans for shows, exhibit designers must team up with curators who may train and assist designers on the gallery's long-term aims and start to crystallize for further exhibitions since they deal directly with the marketing team and other administrators.
Conservators of art and history are among the essential and technically demanding professions at a museum. Conservators operate in a gallery's archive and are in charge of the organization's items and archival documentation. Conservation professionals and technicians must have conducted a considerable study to make proactive conservation strategies, such as climatic and environmental regulation, insect control, storage and packing of sensitive goods, and discovering appropriate encasing techniques. Conservators work to repair problems, avoid long-term degradation, and maintain the aesthetic value of artefacts and maintenance.
Studying works of art fosters problem-solving and critical thinking abilities, which are crucial for success in both life and education. These include adaptability, creativity, awareness, interaction, understanding, contemplation, investigation, evaluation, and analysis (Duncan 86). Students can acquire novel approaches to viewing the world, feeling, and relating to themselves, colleagues, and their environment by studying art museum works.
Museums need connections and collections which make them unique. Museums must also gather plenty of the old ...