Atkins, Robert.  ArtSpeak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1945 to the Present.  Second edition.  New York: Abbeville Press, 1997.

This course will be taught from the instructional website: www.theslideprojector.com.   Lecture presentations, assignments, and other course materials will be available to students at this site, and you will need to access it regularly.  Please let the instructor know if you do not have internet access.

Students are required to submit six worksheets of their choice worth up to 10 points each. Credit is earned for effort and completeness – incomplete assignments will NOT earn points. Worksheets are available at www.theslideprojector.com on the "Worksheets" page.

Up to two extra credit worksheets may be submitted for 10 points each. Worksheets requiring students to watch a movie are only worth extra credit points.

Each student will be assigned to a "Learning Community" that will work together to complete writing assignments and activities designed to develop art writing skills that combined, are worth a maximum of 120 points for each participant. Communities will first develop descriptive strategies to effectively articulate what they are seeing when looking at a work of art and then will become familiar with art historical methodologies that are commonly used to interpret works. Next, each community will complete a scavenger hunt at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art and view an exhibition of relevant works made after 1945 in order to write a review of one of the works seen in person. Specific exhibitions are recommended on this syllabus. Finally, community members will team up to edit each other's research paper rough drafts.

Group assignments function best when community members are accommodating with their time, interested in working together and open to feedback from their peers. Students will be encouraged to rely on their communities and to be responsible constituents themselves. Once each community assignment is completed, each student will be asked to submit a Community Assessment worth 5 points each. The instructor will only consider allowing individual students to submit independent assignments once a sincere attempt has been made at remedying any miscommunications within their group.

Students are required to write a Research Paper that adequately covers a topic relevant to this course. The paper should reflect extensive research as well a basic understanding and application of descriptive techniques and art historical methodologies. The paper must follow MLA guidelines, and at least three different, credible sources of information originating in print should be cited within the paper. In preparation, students will be required to submit a Topic Report, Source Report and Paper Plan, each worth 5 points. The paper itself is worth a maximum of 85 points.

We will often consider provocative and challenging subject matter in this class and must therefore agree to respect each other’s views and identities.  Our diverse backgrounds and opinions are assets and no student shall be made to feel inferior or uncomfortable because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or physical/ intellectual abilities.

Please DO NOT text message during class.  If you need to attend to an important message, please leave the classroom and return when you can fully commit your attention to the class discussion.

You may turn one assignment in one class day late.  The late assignment will not be marked down, however any assignments turned in more than one class late, or in addition to the one accepted assignment, will NOT receive credit.

The instructor’s mailbox is located on the third floor of the Center for the Arts building A (a.k.a. “the new art building” and CAA) in the Art Department Office, CAA 302.  If you cannot attend a class when an assignment is due, but can deliver the assignment to my mailbox NO LATER than 12 hours before the next class begins, I will not consider your assignment late.

Please DO NOT complete assignments in class.  Assignments should be turned in at the beginning of class.  Any work done during class will NOT be given credit.

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated.  If the instructor finds evidence of cheating or plagiarism, the offending student will not receive credit on the assignment in question and further action may be considered.

Students should plan on spending three hours reading, fulfilling assignments and studying for class for every hour spent in the classroom.  That’s at least 135 hours of Art 6 study this semester! 

All course work (except the Final Exam) must be submitted by the last day of lecture. NO COURSE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER 3:20 PM ON DECEMBER 9!!!

Grades will be available online by January 4.

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Wignall Museum

August 23 - September 25

John Baldessari: Pure Beauty

LACMA

through September 12

The Artist's Museum: LA Artists 1998 - 2010

MOCA Geffen

September 19 - January 24

Separation Anxiety

Wignall Museum

October 11 - November 13

Catherine Opie: Figure and Landscape

LACMA

through October 17

Selections from the Permanent Collection

UCLA Hammer Museum

through January 30

The Artist's Museum: LA Artists 1998 - 2010

MOCA Grand Ave

October 31 - January 31