English 235, Spring 2010Professor: Julia M. Garrett

English 235, Spring 2010Professor: Julia M. Garrett

Tue / Thu, 11:30 – 12:50 pmOffice:Marcil 115

Marcil 216Office Hours:Tue 4:30–5:30; Wed 1–3 pm

e-mail: hone: 602–2226

Collaborative Assignment

Communities and Social Change in Contemporary Art

DUE: Mon., April 19, by 3:00 pm at my office

During the last few years a new set of assumptions about the role of the artist has emerged in the United States as part of what is being called the “new public art.” This “new genre” of public art, according to critic Suzi Gablik, “takes the form of interactive, community-based projects inspired by social issues” (2) In fact, the new public art might be more accurately termed the new community art to the extent that questions raised by the interaction of the artist and particular, often urban, communities have played a central role in its evolution. Further, this work tends to be less concerned with producing objects per se than with a process of collaboration that is understood to produce certain pedagogical effects in and on the community. In this way the new, community-based public art represents a transition from an earlier model of public art that involved the location of sculptural works in sites administered by public agencies -- either federal, state, or local governments or other administrative bodies (airports, parks, etc.) -- or alternatively, private locations. . . . The growing influence of this new public art is evident in the proliferation of articles, conferences, books, exhibitions, and commissions. It can also be observed in the changing funding mandates of major private foundations, for whom “community” has become the buzzword of the moment. . . . [For example] the MacArthur Foundation -- the largest private funder of media arts in the country . . . has re-written its program guidelines to explicitly reject media “art” in favor of “community-based organizations that are working to promote social justice and democracy through media”. . . .

Kester, Grant. “Aesthetic Evangelists: Conversion and Empowerment in Contemporary Community Art.” Afterimage 22 (1995): 5+.

During the current week of class, decide who you would like to work with in a group of 3 on the following collaborative assignment. You should plan to meet 2–3 times to complete the assignment.Please note that the assignment guidelines below are best suited for those who choose to write about painters, muralists, or photographers. You may need to make some adjustments if you choose an artist working in a different medium, and in that case, you should e-mail me about your ideas.

Stage 1, Collaborative Research: Choose a contemporary figure working in any medium from the visual or performing arts (e.g. video, experimental theater, cartoons, painting, performance art, photography, public art, guerrilla art). The work of this person (who should be an American artist who is still alive) should take up some of the ideals and concerns present in the emerging field of “community art” as described above. In other words, the artist you choose should see herself or himself as addressing a specific social issue regarding “identity” or “community” in a way that aims to change people’s attitudes about that issue. Some artists create works that are clearly “acts of resistance,” aimed at exposing racial prejudices and educating communities about social injustice; others address those issues less directly.

You should choose someone whose work is unfamiliar to you, so you will need to research this artist’s work. A websearch is probably going to be the simplest resource for most of you. I will post several relevant links on our course website that you may find helpful. You can also try using a general search engine (such as “Google” or “Yahoo”) using some combination of search words to narrow your search according to a specific area of interest (e.g., if you’re interested in performance artists, or Chicana/o muralists). I also strongly encourage you to seek out an artist working in the local community, including someone you may know personally.

Research the person you have chosen as thoroughly as possible, become as familiar with as much of his or her work as you can (and take advantage of the resources at other local university libraries if you can). As you survey the work, set aside periods to discuss as a group some of the prominent themes and social concerns you see in their art. You don’t need to worry about covering secondary material on your artist (i.e., scholarly criticism of the work), although if you do use someone else’s analysis of her or his work, you must document those references. Once you and your group have decided on your chosen artist, please send me e-mail with the following information: members of your group, short description of the artist you have chosen, and sources of information you will be using for your research (include website URLs). You should submit this information for approval by Friday, April 9at the very latest. If you are trying to decide between 2 or 3 different artists, you can contact me earlier to help you decide, or you can submit two shorter proposals for my feedback and suggestions.

Stage 2, Initial investigation: After looking over as much of this artist’s work as you can, select a few images (3-4) or a segment of his or her work to analyze closely. Keeping in mind that you will eventually want to focus on a single social issue, write up a detailed interpretation of the work in relation to our courses themes on immigration, race and ethnicity, as well as the strategies of resistance from lecture. Be attentive to recording and understanding your emotional and perceptual responses to this work; did it change your attitudes about an issue? did the full meaning of the work emerge only gradually? were there things about the work that you found disturbing? especially powerful? You could also look at how their work has changed over the course of their career). Note: Each of you should type up your own description and brainstorming report (1-2 pages, single-spaced) which will also be included in the final portfolio.

Stage 3, Written Assignment: Together you will compose a short paper (approx. 1000-1200 words) analyzing your chosen artist’s work in relation to the course themes. Your analysis should both (a) identify what specific social issue regarding “identity” or “community” that your artist appears to be addressing; and (b) offer a statement about how the artist strives to make us understand or reconsider that issue in the selection of work you have chosen. To some extent you may be doing some “translating” of what you think the artist’s intent is (and you may find resources where the artist spells that out for her or his audience), but it is much more important that you offer your own independent perspectives on the social meaning of this artwork. I recommend that you structure the paper this way: Introductory paragraph, including brief biographical information and an overview of the artist’s work, concluding with an overarching thesis statement that pulls together your analysis of the individual images you have chosen to focus on. Paragraph #2: analysis of one image, written by one person in the group. Paragraph #3: analysis of second image, written by a second person in the group, Paragraph #4 (you get the idea). Be sure to indicate in the margins of the paper who wrote which paragraph in the paper. You will need to pull together a rough draft and proofread it as a group, making revisions where necessary so that the paper works together as a whole argument.

Recommended formatting for paper:

1.5 spacing (to fit on 2-3 pages)11 or 12 point font (Times Roman)1” margins

Stage 4, Submit Final Portfolio: Your final portfolio should be submitted in a 2-pocket folder and will include:

(1) final draft of paper; proofread for errors, grammar, spelling, etc., include the word count at the top of the page

(2) color print-outs of 3-4 images that you analyze in the paper

(3) list of books and/or websites you relied on in researching your artist

(4) copies or print-outs of biographical and background information

(5) brainstorming reports from each group member

(6) short paragraph explaining how each group member contributed to the final portfolio

(7) preliminary draft of a PowerPoint file for presenting your artist’s work to the class (just email me that)

Stage 5, Class Presentation: These collaborative assignments will be the basis for our classes during the last week of the semester which will allow students to read from their papers and exhibit the work of the artists they researched in a PowerPoint slide show.

How to do this assignment in 2-3 meetings:

Before meeting: Exchange e-mail addresses with one another during class. Then do some library or web-searching on your own in advance, e-mail one another with suggestions and websites and try to narrow your choices to 2 or 3 artists. This should be enough discussion for you to submit your proposal to me by Fri. April 9.

Meeting #1: decide which artist you will be working on, survey the books and related websites that you have collected, print out materials from the web. After doing some reading individually, discuss the work you have surveyed so far and try to decide what social issues you will focus on in analyzing the artwork. By the end of the meeting, decide which 3-4 images/selections you will include in your portfolio and decide who will write about which image.

Between meetings: draft an analysis of your chosen selection of the artist’s work (aim for a paragraph of about 250 words; the paragraph above describing “Stage 3” on this assignment sheet is about 250 words). Review the biographical and background information on the artist and think about which details would be important to include in your introductory paragraph.

Meeting #2: Exchange the drafts of your individual analysis, offer suggestions to one another for revision if necessary, come up with a thesis statement that unifies the individual interpretations that you have developed. You may decide to divide up the remaining tasks among your group members: (a) Write an introductory paragraph with biographical and background information to set up the thesis statement; (b) make color prints of the images; (c) collect everyone’s interpretive paragraph and type them into a single essay (or cut and paste from e-mail), proofread final draft; (d) collect all materials from everyone for the final portfolio, and type up any remaining information required (e.g. websites, full citation for books used, etc.