GWSS 325 A: Black Feminist Art and Performance

Black Feminist Art & Performance

This course explores how black artists from around the world create work that engages with black 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 spending time with art, describing and interpreting art, and creating connections between art and some of the most pressing issues of everyday life. The final project—pitching an exhibition you could hypothetically (or really!) curate—is a creative outlet for using art to create a larger conversation.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the quarter, you will hopefully be able to:

• Identify the elements of art and interpret their meaning in culturally, historically, and geographically specific contexts
• Describe major tenets of Black feminist theory and use Black feminist thought to interpret artwork 
• Compare and contrast different genres of arts writing 
• Produce your own interpretations and critiques of artworks, including how they are exhibited and written about
• Create a proposal for an art exhibition reflecting your interests and creative vision while incorporating the artists, artworks, and ideas encountered in class

MATERIALS & PROCEDURE

Organization

Each week of the course is organized around a material that helps us tell a larger story about black feminist art and performance (e.g. "Fiber Arts: Materializing Identity & History"). You will thus be introduced to the materials and methods artists work in, and learn how to create connections between the materiality of art and the symbols, narratives, and concepts that art can convey. Each class period will also include a technical, vocabulary component, where you learn to identify, define, and describe elements of art.

The class is in many ways lecture-based: my goal is to use lectures to help frame and contextualize the materials, to give you "case studies" that help you flesh those materials out, and to provide new/supplementary information. We will often take 10-30 minutes simply to look at, write about, and talk about works of art. We will also break up the lecture structure with short, low-stakes moments of engagement: Q&A, personal writing and reflection, and chats with peers about specific works of art.

Materials

We will be reading a variety of texts, including academic articles, exhibition catalogue essays, and short art reviews to longer academic articles. We will also occasionally listen to podcast episodes and watch video clips. Each class session, you'll be expected to have read between 40 and 50 pages and/or a related combination of text, audio, and audio-visual materials. (This is consistent with 300-level courses in the GWSS department.)

Everything is available on Canvas in PDF format, hyperlinked to a website, audio, or visual material.

All lecture slides will be uploaded to the relevant "Weekly Overview" by the end of each week. 

ASSIGNMENTS

Your final assignment is to pitch an art exhibition that you would curate—and to be a good curator you have to be able to describe art (what does it look and feel like?), to frame and contextualize art (how is it connected to larger histories, practices, and/or conversations?), and to do so using clear and compelling language (what is your voice?). Course assignments are scaffolded to help develop and enhance your skills in each of these domains. You will be introduced to key concepts and then practice identifying and describing key concepts; you'll learn to describe art and then to describe and interpret that art using course concepts; you'll learn to identify key issues in exhibiting art and then interpret curatorial and exhibition decision-making; lastly, you'll learn how to put your skills together while and harnessing your own creative vision and voice.

Comprehension Check — 2 quizzes @ 7.5 points each — 15 points total

Early in the quarter you will have two short quizzes that help you solidify important definitions and frameworks that will carry you through the rest of the quarter: the elements of art and interpretation. 

These are untimed, "open book" quizzes that are meant, above all, to ensure that you yourself have a solid grasp of the "basics," which we will continue to flesh out over the course of our time together. To be successful, you'll have to draw on assigned readings as well as lecture content.

Flash Reviews — 2 reviews @ 7.5 points each — 15 points total

You will write short, 100-word close readings of a single work of art that you encounter in class lectures or readings. Pick something that compels you, for whatever reason. In each Flash Review, you’ll describe the formal elements of the work in as much rich, lush, detail as possible. You'll want to focus on "pure description," though it may make sense to create a connection between the work’s formal construction and something you are thinking about within and/or beyond this classroom space (e.g. how the color palette conveys a particular mood)

This writing should embrace the concept of “flash”: a bright, quick, burst of energy. The writing should at the same time be considered and intentional. Imagine you are describing something you love to someone you love: you’ve got to paint a picture.

The word count is firm: if you go over or under the word count, you'll get a Revise & Resubmit request.

Exercise in Being a Critic — 15 points 

Part of the work of appreciating art is communicating about that art. In this assignment, you step into the shoes of the critic in order to produce knowledge about art and ideas that you are interested in. You'll do a close reading of 1 work, or 2 works in conversation, providing rich description of the work and creating connections to specific themes and concepts found in course materials.

Your goal is to create knowledge about the work and concepts you’re interested in. To do this, you'll have to become as familiar as possible with the artist in question. Do a bit of research into the artist and their practice, reading writing about them and/or about the mediums, techniques, histories, contexts, and genealogies they may work in. This will ensure that you are well-informed enough to take on the responsibility for producing knowledge about them.

You can select from the following outputs to complete this assignment (and/or suggest an output not listed below). The word counts and timelines are firm: if you go over or under the word count, you'll get a Revise & Resubmit request. Apart from that, here are some general guidelines to abide by:

Written for Digital and/or Print (e.g. art review, artist profile) — 750 words. Write as if you’re going to be published in an online or in-print art publication that tons of people are going to read. Needs to be well-written and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium (e.g. you will hyperlink to a resource or footnote, depending on the kind of publication style you are writing in).

Written & Illustrated for Print (e.g. an exhibition guide) — 500-750 words, high quality images (be effective and efficient regarding the number of images). The format and tone will change depending upon your proposed outlet and audience: an exhibition guide meant to be distributed at a museum may be very different than a zine meant to be handed out a zine-fest. 

Short-Form Video (e.g. TikTok)— 5 minutes (either single video or broken up across multiple videos). Must include audio and image of works. Should be casually scripted, geared toward information and education. Needs to be well-produced and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

Long-Form Video (e.g. video podcast) — 10 minute, single-video. More scripted than short-form video, can have more focused conversation. Imagine someone is watching your video as part of a longer series on art appreciation. Needs to be well-produced and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

Report from the Field — 20 points total

You’ve got to take yourself on an art date that also functions as research for your own curatorial pitch. On this art dates you want to simply spend time with yourself amongst art but you also want to learn more about how art is curated, installed, and discursively framed. 

Research a local art gallery or museum that will have black art on view this quarter. You must visit the museum/gallery when it has black art on view, no exceptions; you will have to research the artists and exhibits on view to glean this information!

When on site, you want to pay attention to the art but you want to pay specific attention to how the exhibition is framed: What does the curator’s statement tell you? What does the wall text tell you? What decisions did they make about where and how the work was installed? What is the flow between and across the work? What is the lighting like? What were successful connections between the discursive framing of the work and the work itself?

Your site visit report can be in whatever tone or style of writing that feels natural and, importantly, useful for you and reflective of your thinking. When in doubt, the report should be somewhere between a note to self and an actual report that might help someone else understand what’s happening in the exhibition and how they themselves might take that information to create their own show.

The report should be 750-900 words and should include:

• Description of the exhibition and particular curatorial choices that struck you
• Description of how key works and concepts worked well
• Curatorial choices that felt successful to you and why
• Curatorial choices that you would have done differently and why

This is not a big word count: your writing should be focused and concise.

We will go together to the Henry Art Gallery to learn some of the ropes of being in an art exhibition space! (This class visit to the Henry, and the Henry in general, cannot be used your Report from the Field assignments.)

Art spaces to consider:

• Arté Noire/Onyx Gallery
• Wa Na Wari
• Made Space
• Northwest African American Museum
• Taswira
• Jacob Lawrence Gallery

You can turn in your report at any time before Week 7.

Curatorial Pitch — 35 points

Propose a group exhibition featuring at least 4 artists encountered in class materials and/or lectures. Research exhibitions you have visited and/or other exhibitions of black art in order to understand the format, tone, and content of exhibition descriptions.

Your pitch should include:

• 400-word curatorial statement that frames and contextualizes the themes of exhibition, details about the specific artists, themes, and concepts the exhibition dialogues with. This is not a huge amount of space, so you've got to be focused, concise, and direct will also illustrating the richness of the exhibition.
• List of specific works to be included, with all correctly formatted identifying information. You should have at least 4 artworks in your exhibition but that is the bare minimum; depending on the size/shape of your exhibition space, it is highly likely that you will need more than 4 artists or more than 1 work per artist to fill your space. 
• 3-5 sentence "wall text" labels meant to provide information, context, prompts, guidance, etc. for the exhibition visitor. Must have at least 4 wall texts—if you have an exhibition of more than 4 works, which you should, you do not need to make wall texts for every single piece of work.
• Design of the layout of how the work will be installed in the exhibition space (must choose a real space or design your own gallery space). Can be hand-drawn. Can also use a program like Floorplanner.
• Selection of 3-4 scholars or artists encountered in class whose writing you would commission for the exhibition catalog, with 3-5 sentences describing what you’d like them to address and why. Essentially an annotated bibliography. If you select artists to be a part of your bibliography, they must be artists who have a demonstrated writerly profile—do not select artists who do not have ample writing about theirs or other people's work.
• A short biography describing your curatorial interests. Read examples of curators' bios for guidance. 

Compile everything into a single PDF or link to a website where you are hosting your exhibition design and information. 

Extra Credit

You can get a 2 extra points by going out in the world to see art and reflecting upon what you've seen. Go see an exhibition, performance, or artist talk, you can submit a photo of yourself at the event plus a 350-word piece of writing describing your time there. The writing doesn't have to be fancy; make the reflection useful to yourself and relevant to the course, as possible; make me believe that you were actually there and not trying to grift a few extra points. (Your documentation cannot be from the art date you take yourself on for the Report From the Field.) 

Max 5 art trips for 10 total points. Be measured and intentional with this extra credit. Don't, like, skip a bunch of class and assignments and go running around the art world and calling it flipping the classroom or something.

GRADES & DEADLINES

Grading a student's knowledge can be all but impossible using the 4.0 grade scale that requires us to translate critical engagement into numbers. This is especially the case when we're in a class like this, where the goal is to develop and enhance your critical thinking skills. We are all bound by this GPA-based grading system (it affects everything from our financial aid to our mental health) but there are ways to push against it in order to, hopefully, lessen your stress and, ideally, more accurately describe the hard work you put in to being a present student.

That is why your work in this course is assessed using a version of ungradingLinks to an external site.. You won't receive letter grades for your individual assignments; instead, your work will be given full points, half points, or zero points. All assignments will contain a "rubric" to guide your understanding of what full, half, and zero points looks like.

If you receive half points, you can revise and resubmit your work for the chance to receive full points. You have 7 days from the date that I submitted your grade to submit a revision. There is no guarantee that I will re-grade work that is submitted beyond this 7-day period.

If you do not turn in an assignment, or do not satisfy the rubric's standards for receiving points, you will receive 0 points. You can submit assignments late and I will grade them using standard grading procedure. Pay close attention to the 7-day revise-and-resubmit schedule, however—if you submit work too late in the quarter, I cannot guarantee that I will grade a revision.

Your final grade is calculated by adding your total points, and your total points correspond to a GPA on the GWSS Grade ScaleLinks to an external site. 

Late Work

You can turn in late work, within reason. The deadlines exist so that I can manage my workload and so that you have guidelines for managing your own workload. If you think you will rush to catch up on a bunch of work, communicate with me so that I can plan my workload accordingly.

That said, any and all late assignments are due by week 8. If you submit late work in week 8 and you receive half points, I cannot accommodate a revision. You can certainly submit late work after week 8 but if you get half or zero points, I will not accommodate revisions for full possible points.

Grade Appeal Procedure

A student who believes that an instructor erred in the assignment of a grade, or who believes a grade recording error or omission has occurred, should first discuss the matter with the instructor, before the end of the following academic quarter. If the student is not satisfied with the instructor's explanation, the student, no later than ten days after his or her discussion with the instructor, may submit a written appeal to the chair of the department, with a copy of the appeal also sent to the instructor. Within ten calendar days, the chair consults with the instructor to ensure that the evaluation of the student's performance has not been arbitrary or capricious. Should the chair believe the instructor's conduct to be arbitrary or capricious and the instructor declines to revise the grade, the chair, with the approval of the voting members of his or her faculty, shall appoint an appropriate member, or members, of the faculty of that department to evaluate the performance of the student and assign a grade. The dean and Provost should be informed of this action. Once a student submits a written appeal, this document and all subsequent actions on this appeal are recorded in written form for deposit in a department or college file. (UW Student Guide, General Catalog, Grading)

Incompletes

Taking an “incomplete” (I) for this class is strongly discouraged and will be allowed only under extraordinary circumstances with prior arrangements. UW has a new Incomplete policy: If you are within three weeks of the end of the quarter, you can request an Incomplete grade from your instructor. Please refer to UW's policies regarding Incompletes for full details.

ACCESSIBILITY

This particular class may not give you the kind of individualized attention that can best serve your learning needs, let alone make you feel engaged and connected. There are some things I'll try to make sure happen in our time together:

• Feel free to get up, move around, take rest breaks as much as you need during our time together.
• If you need to eat something, please be conscious of other people's sensory experience and allergies. Feel free to step out if you need to take a food break.
• We will take a 10 minute break in the middle of class to give everyone a minute to reset
• All lecture notes and scripts and lecture slides will be posted to Canvas following each class session (they will be uploaded to the relevant week/module).
• Do not email your instructor(s) if you need to miss class—you don't need to justify not coming! However, if you are having a long-term interruption in your daily goings on, please do let us know if it feels relevant.
• We will sometimes watch media together. I will work within the constraints of the relevant media and classroom technology to provide the right lighting, sound, and captioning (when possible). All media clips will be made available after class.

OTHER POLICIES