GWSS 325 A: Black Feminist Art and Performance

This course explores how black artists from around the world create work that engages with feminist concerns about identity and power. We cover artists working in a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, new media, dance, and performance. Short, creative assignments are meant to build skills in experiencing and interpreting art, and to provide creative outlets of producing knowledge about that art.

Learning Objectives

• Become familiar with Black artists from around the world
• Develop skills and vocabulary for describing the formal elements of art and interpreting their meaning in culturally, historically, and geographically specific contexts
• Practice writing short pieces of arts writing that balance subjectivity and objectivity
• Practice synthesizing information in written and visual means, researching and pitching a synthesis of ideas (in the form of a proposed art exhibition of the students’ own choosing)
• Learn key concepts of feminist and queer analyses of identity and power; learn to integrate these concepts into creative thinking and projects