AMST 296 - Art and an Archive

0.5 unit(s)

(Same as ART 296) The Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art claims to be “the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.” Its vast holdings include original materials such as diaries, scrapbooks, letters, manuscripts, financial records, preliminary sketches, photographs, films, and recordings. The Archives also boasts the largest collection of oral histories anywhere on the subject of art. Its Oral History Program has sought and sustained the distinctive voices and memories of artists and other cultural workers in more than 2,300 oral history interviews since its establishment in the 1950s; and this program persists. Collection specialists continue to seek sources that document the stories at the heart of artmaking in the US; two recent oral history initiatives include the Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project (2016-18) and the Pandemic Oral History Project (2020). In this collaborative, project-based workshop, we immerse ourselves in the Archives’ online resources, paying particularly close attention to the in-depth oral histories, life stories, and other firsthand accounts by visual artists. Together, we closely analyze sources, freshly interpret artwork, piece together stories, and engage key questions of interpretation, evidence, and the limits and possibilities of an archive.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.

Second six-week course.

One 2-hour period.

Not offered in 2023/24.

Course Format: INT