Course Description
Examination of the history of African Americans’ relationship to both art and natural history museums. Topics will include protest, institution building, and art collecting. Through a combination of museum sociology, art history, and Black history, students will gain a clearer understanding of the politics of art.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In addition to completing the readings and exams required of undergraduates, graduate students will be asked to: (1) write one book or exhibition review; (2) complete a 20-page research paper; and (3) present their research as a lecture. Graduate students are also expected to attend special discussion sections.
Athena Title
African Americans & the Museum
Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite
Any AFAM or ARHI or ARTS or HIPR or HIST or CMLT or CLAS or POLS or SOCI or PSYC or COMM course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about African-Americans' relationship to art and history museums by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of African Americans in museums shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward ethnicity, race, gender, and civil rights, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
- 1. Experiences and Struggles of African American Artists
- 2. African American Women in the Museum
- 3. Museum Sociology
- 4. An Education in Museums for Everyday People
- 5. African American Opinions of the Art Museum
- 6. African and African American Opinions of the Natural History Museum
- 7. The Museum and Repatriation Debates
- 8. Art Museums and Race
- 9. The Politics of Belonging
- 10. Integration of Mainstream Museums
- 11. “Culturally Centered” Museums
- 12. Arts of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements
- 13. The Black Arts Movement
- 14. Black Art/Artists in the South (North Carolina, Georgia, New Orleans)
- 15. Black Art/Artists in the West (Los Angeles)
- 16. “Reading” Black Art and Connecting to Larger Struggles in African American Life
- 17. Black Art and HBCU’s
- 18. Race and Science in the Museum
- 19. Black Artists’ Relationship to the Black Community
- 20. Black Artists En Vogue
- 21. Black Art Collectors
