Final Assignment for HIST 469 (Spring 2013):
You may do this project with one other person. I will assume that both people worked equally on the project unless I hear otherwise (in joint projects, you will be asked to evaluate the input of the other participant), and each of you will get the same grade. The final project counts toward 25% of your final grade.
Note the following due dates:
Proposal due on April 10
Bibliography and resource sheet due on April 24
Final project due on Sunday, May 19 at 11:00 AM
Your assignment for the final project is to design a gallery or other limited or defined space in a museum. Any proposals that plan to be larger than this (i.e. designing a museum) will need my approval.
I’ll need the following information. Each of the questions should be answered; if it is not relevant to your project, just note that.
1. What kind of museum is the gallery in? Specify either the name of an actual museum (e.g. Great Lakes Science Center, Allen Memorial Art Museum) or the type of museum (art, ethnography, natural history, etc.). Tell me whether this is a temporary gallery (and, if so, how long it will be up), or a permanent gallery (and tell me why it should become a permanent part of the museum). If you are suggesting putting a gallery in an actual museum, please provide me with a short description of the museum. The museum could be anywhere, not just in the United States.
2. Provide approximately a one-page (or more, if needed) design of the room noting approximate size (are you talking about a 50 ft x 100 ft room, smaller or larger? Provide a layout of the room on your design: where will the cases be (if you have cases), where free-standing artifacts, where are there chairs, other objects in the room or exhibit, etc. Draw arrows to suggest the narrative flow of the design, if you have one. [I am not at all concerned with your technical accomplishments as architects or designers here – just make sure that the layout is clear enough so that I can make out what’s going on.]
3. Specify what the gallery is about (i.e., the topical theme: butterflies; AIDS; imperialism; the human face; etc.). Tell me something about why you have selected that topic. The selection (hopefully) will have something to do with what you want to provide to the visitors, not just what you’re interested in. The galleries/rooms you are designing are intended to be open to the public, not somewhere to store a personal collection that makes sense only to you.
4. Specify the main purpose of the gallery.
5. What are the theories of knowledge/learning/education that have helped you organize and plan your exhibit/gallery?
6. If relevant, discuss the relationship of the gallery to the overall museum. If the gallery works against the nature of the museum as a whole, explain why it should be included there at all (e.g. a gallery on the machine in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; etc.). If the gallery is to be different in organization and design than the museum around it, tell me about how the museum is organized and what design principles you are challenging in your space.
7. Design one single exhibit in the gallery: one case, one interactive device, etc. Specify what it would look like (with a drawing if you can or want), what it would include (nature of the artifact, use of other media [sound, visual, smell]), write out a label for the exhibit and/or the textual panel that would go with it if you choose. (Text doesn’t have to be used, but if it is, I want to see what it would say.) Describe the artifacts you would use as clearly as possible. Finally, explain the goal of that specific exhibit and how it fits in with the goals of the gallery.
8. Specify any input you would seek prior to designing the gallery or writing its script; any way that visitors could interact with the gallery while they were in it; the way you would seek (or if you would seek) visitor response at the end.
9. If you expect controversy regarding the exhibit, how would you plan for it and cope with demonstrations that might occur during the time the exhibit is running.
10. All galleries require funding, and I’m going to assume that yours does as well. If you think the gallery will be extremely expensive (e.g. you want to bring together all the remaining parts of the Parthenon in one huge exhibit), tell me where you would find the money. If you expect a public museum to fund it out of its own internal funds, specify that and suggest why the directors of this museum might think this is a good thing. Do you imagine that the search for funders will pose any problems in terms of the content of your exhibit?
11. Finally, one very important part of your project is a “theorization” of your gallery that refers back to the materials we have read this semester. Your choice of artifacts, interactives, labels, flow, design, etc., should all be supported by some reference to museum practices that we have discussed and read about. I expect this part of the project to be 4-5 pages in length.
There is no overall page limit or recommendation for this paper (except for point #11). You should answer all the questions unless they are not relevant to your specific project, but don’t feel that you are limited by these questions. You may add any additional information that you want or feel is necessary to support your project.
Please ask me if you have any questions.
PROPOSAL due on April 10: As a way to get you to begin to think about this topic, I’ll need a 2-3 sentence proposal by April 10. This doesn’t have to be any more complicated than the following: “I am planning to construct a gallery on the history of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in the Allen. I will mostly be using artifacts from the collection itself and supplementing them with artifacts as needed from other collections. My main purpose here, at least I think, is to show museum practice as a changing target that reflects a series of imperatives and narratives: the purpose of a college-linked museum, the purpose of a college education, the manner in which education is supposed to take place, the way in which the museum collects objects, etc.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY/RESOURCES due on April 24: What are the main theories and discussions of museum practice are motivating and enlightening your project? Your bibliography and list of resources should include those articles, books, and other resources that you are finding most useful in this project. This is somewhat different than a research bibliography that you would prepare for a “normal” history research paper, since I am most interested at this point in the basic way you are orienting your work. This will involve mostly theory or other issues about museum practice. If you are working on galleries in standing museums, you should be providing bibliography about the museum itself.
FINAL PROJECT due on May 19 at 11:00 AM. No extensions granted unless you ask for an official incomplete.
You may do this project with one other person. I will assume that both people worked equally on the project unless I hear otherwise (in joint projects, you will be asked to evaluate the input of the other participant), and each of you will get the same grade. The final project counts toward 25% of your final grade.
Note the following due dates:
Proposal due on April 10
Bibliography and resource sheet due on April 24
Final project due on Sunday, May 19 at 11:00 AM
Your assignment for the final project is to design a gallery or other limited or defined space in a museum. Any proposals that plan to be larger than this (i.e. designing a museum) will need my approval.
I’ll need the following information. Each of the questions should be answered; if it is not relevant to your project, just note that.
1. What kind of museum is the gallery in? Specify either the name of an actual museum (e.g. Great Lakes Science Center, Allen Memorial Art Museum) or the type of museum (art, ethnography, natural history, etc.). Tell me whether this is a temporary gallery (and, if so, how long it will be up), or a permanent gallery (and tell me why it should become a permanent part of the museum). If you are suggesting putting a gallery in an actual museum, please provide me with a short description of the museum. The museum could be anywhere, not just in the United States.
2. Provide approximately a one-page (or more, if needed) design of the room noting approximate size (are you talking about a 50 ft x 100 ft room, smaller or larger? Provide a layout of the room on your design: where will the cases be (if you have cases), where free-standing artifacts, where are there chairs, other objects in the room or exhibit, etc. Draw arrows to suggest the narrative flow of the design, if you have one. [I am not at all concerned with your technical accomplishments as architects or designers here – just make sure that the layout is clear enough so that I can make out what’s going on.]
3. Specify what the gallery is about (i.e., the topical theme: butterflies; AIDS; imperialism; the human face; etc.). Tell me something about why you have selected that topic. The selection (hopefully) will have something to do with what you want to provide to the visitors, not just what you’re interested in. The galleries/rooms you are designing are intended to be open to the public, not somewhere to store a personal collection that makes sense only to you.
4. Specify the main purpose of the gallery.
5. What are the theories of knowledge/learning/education that have helped you organize and plan your exhibit/gallery?
6. If relevant, discuss the relationship of the gallery to the overall museum. If the gallery works against the nature of the museum as a whole, explain why it should be included there at all (e.g. a gallery on the machine in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; etc.). If the gallery is to be different in organization and design than the museum around it, tell me about how the museum is organized and what design principles you are challenging in your space.
7. Design one single exhibit in the gallery: one case, one interactive device, etc. Specify what it would look like (with a drawing if you can or want), what it would include (nature of the artifact, use of other media [sound, visual, smell]), write out a label for the exhibit and/or the textual panel that would go with it if you choose. (Text doesn’t have to be used, but if it is, I want to see what it would say.) Describe the artifacts you would use as clearly as possible. Finally, explain the goal of that specific exhibit and how it fits in with the goals of the gallery.
8. Specify any input you would seek prior to designing the gallery or writing its script; any way that visitors could interact with the gallery while they were in it; the way you would seek (or if you would seek) visitor response at the end.
9. If you expect controversy regarding the exhibit, how would you plan for it and cope with demonstrations that might occur during the time the exhibit is running.
10. All galleries require funding, and I’m going to assume that yours does as well. If you think the gallery will be extremely expensive (e.g. you want to bring together all the remaining parts of the Parthenon in one huge exhibit), tell me where you would find the money. If you expect a public museum to fund it out of its own internal funds, specify that and suggest why the directors of this museum might think this is a good thing. Do you imagine that the search for funders will pose any problems in terms of the content of your exhibit?
11. Finally, one very important part of your project is a “theorization” of your gallery that refers back to the materials we have read this semester. Your choice of artifacts, interactives, labels, flow, design, etc., should all be supported by some reference to museum practices that we have discussed and read about. I expect this part of the project to be 4-5 pages in length.
There is no overall page limit or recommendation for this paper (except for point #11). You should answer all the questions unless they are not relevant to your specific project, but don’t feel that you are limited by these questions. You may add any additional information that you want or feel is necessary to support your project.
Please ask me if you have any questions.
PROPOSAL due on April 10: As a way to get you to begin to think about this topic, I’ll need a 2-3 sentence proposal by April 10. This doesn’t have to be any more complicated than the following: “I am planning to construct a gallery on the history of the Allen Memorial Art Museum in the Allen. I will mostly be using artifacts from the collection itself and supplementing them with artifacts as needed from other collections. My main purpose here, at least I think, is to show museum practice as a changing target that reflects a series of imperatives and narratives: the purpose of a college-linked museum, the purpose of a college education, the manner in which education is supposed to take place, the way in which the museum collects objects, etc.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY/RESOURCES due on April 24: What are the main theories and discussions of museum practice are motivating and enlightening your project? Your bibliography and list of resources should include those articles, books, and other resources that you are finding most useful in this project. This is somewhat different than a research bibliography that you would prepare for a “normal” history research paper, since I am most interested at this point in the basic way you are orienting your work. This will involve mostly theory or other issues about museum practice. If you are working on galleries in standing museums, you should be providing bibliography about the museum itself.
FINAL PROJECT due on May 19 at 11:00 AM. No extensions granted unless you ask for an official incomplete.