Course Proposal and Overview MUS 488: Special Topics in Museology: Re-Thinking Museum Collections for the 21st Century (Cross listed with CHID 498 and AH 400)

Course will be open to second-year museology students, art history graduate students, and select CHID students. Registration will be by add code only. Art history graduate students will need to enroll for two credits of independent study and will be assigned additional coursework.

Schedule: Ten three-hour sessions on Mondays; all meetings at the Frye Art Museum.

The hands-on assignments are a critical component of this course. Sessions are held on Mondays, when the Museum is closed to the general public and students have the collections to themselves for study and reflection. These collections are available for viewing only during the designated course time, and any additional specially arranged time. Due to the limited staff time and security access issues, it is not possible to make- up missed assignments that require special access to the collections. Attendance is, therefore, mandatory. Students are of course welcome in the public areas of the Frye during regular hours of operation.

Introduction Museology and art history developed in tandem in the 19th century. Much has changed in both disciplines—in theory and in practice—since this foundational moment. How might museum collections be rethought to retain their relevance and dynamism in the 21st century?

The Frye Art Museum Collections as a Case Study Through its exhibition, collections, and programs, the Frye Art Museum engages audiences, challenges perceptions, and engages dialogue about representational art in all its complexities, past and present.

From nineteenth-century European paintings to cutting-edge contemporary art in diverse mediums, the Frye Art Museum’s collections and exhibitions provide distinctive explorations of representational art in an intimate and innovatively designed setting. Admission to the museum will always be free to the public thanks to the generosity of Seattle entrepreneur Charles Frye, whose nineteenth-century German and Austrian paintings form the core of the Frye’s permanent collection. Opening its doors in 1952 and accredited by the American Association of Museums in 2003, the Frye offers more than 11,000 square feet of exhibition space for exhibitions of historical and contemporary art and welcomes a minimum of 100,000 visitors a year.

This seminar provides the unique opportunity to work hands-on with original works of art in the Frye Art Museum collections during an important phase of the Frye’s reevaluation of its core purpose, mission, values, and goals. The Frye, with its small collection of almost 1,500 objects, offers students a rare and manageably-scaled test case for re- thinking museum collections in the 21st century. The primary goal of the course will be to rethink the current categories of the Frye Art Museum’s collections through a careful consideration of a series of contingencies such as: the museum’s mission, history, local and national niche, and commitment to “representational” art. In order to achieve this primary goal, students will be guided through a series of topical investigations and projects that address these and other contingencies. Notable topics and projects include: articulating a working definition of the term representational art that can encompass the core of the Frye’s founding collection as well as provide meaningful links between the founding collection and permanent collections and between collections and temporary exhibitions; bringing into focus the specific issues the Frye faces concerning the future acquisition and deaccessioning of artworks, as well as fundamental stewardship issues related to collections management; and, thinking of the Frye museum as a space of representation and developing exhibition ideas with this in mind.

MUS 488: Special Topics in Museology: Re-Thinking Museum Collections for the 21st Century. (Cross-listed with CHID 400 and AH XXX)

Instructors: Robin Held, Chief Curator/Director of Exhibitions and Collections Frye Art Museum [email protected] Kolya Rice, Art Historian [email protected]

Course description: This seminar provides the unique opportunity to work hands-on with original works of art in the Frye Art Museum collections during an important phase of the Frye’s reevaluation of its core purpose, mission, values, and goals. The Frye, with its small collection of almost 1,500 objects, offers students a rare and manageably-scaled test case for re- thinking museum collections in the 21st century. The primary goal of the course will be to rethink the current categories of the Frye Art Museum’s collections through a careful consideration of a series of contingencies such as: the museum’s mission, history, local and national niche, and commitment to “representational” art. In order to achieve this primary goal, students will be guided through a series of topical investigations and projects that address these and other contingencies. Notable topics and projects include: articulating a working definition of the term representational art that can encompass the core of the Frye’s founding collection as well as provide meaningful links between the founding collection and permanent collections and between collections and temporary exhibitions; bringing into focus the specific issues the Frye faces concerning the future acquisition and deaccessioning of artworks, as well as fundamental stewardship issues related to collections management; and, thinking of the Frye museum as a space of representation and developing exhibition ideas with this in mind.

Readings: Unless otherwise noted, all course readings are contained a course reading packet that can be purchased at .

Course Requirements: 1. Active participation in class. Please note: active participation assumes that you thoroughly read and think about course materials in advance of class meetings, and that you meaningfully contribute to discussions. 2. Six team projects/essays concerning course topics: Due 1/15, 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, (2) 2/26 2. Final Project: Written proposal, defense and presentation of recategorization of the Frye Art Museum’s collection. Due: 3/16

Grading: Participation: 20% Team projects/essays: 10% each (60% of total grade) Final Project: 20%

Course timeline and reading assignments: AD= assignment due.

1/8 Introduction to the course and the Frye Art Museum: What was/is a museum? •Karl E. Meyer, “The American Hybrid,” The Art Museum (1979): 17-57. •Donald Preziosi, “Collecting/Museums,” in Critical Terms for Art History (1996): 281-291. •Beth Lord, “Philosophy and the Museum,” Museum Management and Curatorship 21 (2006): 79-87. • American Association of Museums, “The Accreditation Commission’s Expectations Regarding Institutional Mission Statements, (2004). •Various missions statements and excerpts from Collection Management Plans: Frye, SAM, Henry, Speed, Strong, San Jose, MoMA, Tate, Met, and others. •Optional: Neil Harris, “The Gilded Age Revisited: Boston and the Museum Movement, American Quarterly (Winter 1962): 545-66.

1/15 Martin Luther King Holiday: (Optional? Different date?) Class Meeting Donor Memorial/Collector’s Museums and the specific case of the Frye •Vera L. Zolberg, “The Collection Despite Barnes: From Private Preserve to Blockbuster,” in Art in Museums (1995): 94-108. •Marjorie Schwarzer, “Riches, Rivals and Radicals: The Collectors Who Shaped the American Museum,” Museum News (Jan/Feb 2006): 36-41. •Various unpublished documents from the Frye (Nancy Stoaks research,Walser Greathouse notes, etc). AD: Team paper offering a critical analysis and comparison of various mission statements.

1/22 “Representational” art: towards a working definition. •Excerpts of Walser Greathouse’s unpublished notes and interviews. •Nancy Stoaks, Unpublished notes on the development of the notion of representational art at the Frye Art Museum, 1952-2006 (Directors Walser Greathouse; Kay Greathouse; Richard West; Midge Bowman). •Richard West, “West Words,” in Frye Views (Spring 1999): 2. •T.H. Benton, excerpt from An Artist in America (1951): 314-319. •Thomas Craven, “Modernism.” in Men of Art (1933): 491-513. •Summers, D. “Representation.” in Critical Terms for Art History (1996): 3-16. •Brian Wallis, (excerpt) “Introduction.” Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation (1984): xi-xvi. Optional: Russell Ferguson, (excerpts) The Undiscovered Country (2004).

1/29 Museum Collections: Stakes and strategies of categorization. Guest Lecture by Chiyo Ishikawa, Deputy Director of Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture on Seattle Art Museum Collections. •Review Mission statements and excerpts of CMPs. • Robin Held “Curatorial Strategies for Bringing the Frye to the Center of the Discourse on Representational Art” (2005), and various introductory exhibition texts from recent shows at the Frye. • “Frye Art Museum: Exhibition Policy” (March 1, 2006) •Harold and Susan Skramstad, “Dreaming the Museum,” Museum News (March/April 2005): 52-55. •Unpublished documents on the current categorization of the Frye Founding and Permanent collections. AD: Team paper that both summarizes the traditional notion of “representational art” and advances an expanded working definition.

2/5 Discussion: Possibilities for recategorization of the Frye Founding Collection. AD: Team paper that outlines and defends new categories for the Founding Collection.

2/12 Recategorizing with the Permanent Collection in mind. Introducing the question of future collecting directions/deaccessioning •James B. Gardner and Elizabeth Merritt, “Collections Planning: Pinning Down a Strategy,” Museum News (July/August 2002). •AAM policy guidelines for deaccessioning. •Excerpts from the CMPs of various museums outlining policies on collecting/deaccessioning. •Marie C. Malaro, “Deaccessioning: The American Perspective,” in Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift (2004): 331-340. AD: Team paper that outlines and defends new categories for Founding and Permanent collections.

2/19 President’s Day Holiday: No Class

2/26 Exhibition strategies Meeting will discuss the exhibition objects from the Permanent Collection and/or loaned objects with the Founding Collection, as well as complementary exhibitions in the adjacent galleries (Viewpoint Gallery, Graphics Gallery, and Greathouse Galleries 1 and 2). Review: Robin Held, “Strategies for Bringing the Frye to the Center of the Discourse on Representational Art,” and various introductory exhibition texts by Held for the Frye. •Frye memorandum concerning the exhibition of objects from the Permanent Collection, and loaned works, within the Collection Galleries. AD: Students will propose exhibition ideas, either AD: Team paper that argues either for or against future collecting, future collecting directions, and consider specific objects for deaccessioning. 3/5 The Museum as a space of representation •Review: Lord, “The Museum and Philosophy” and Preziosi, “Collecting/Museums.” •Michael Conforti, “Museums Past and Museums Present: Some thoughts on Institutional Survival,” Museum Management and Curatorship (vol.14, no.4 1995): 339-55. •Lisa Corrin, “Mining the Museum: Artist look at Museums, Museums Look at Themselves,” in Mining the Museum (1994): 1-22. •Elizabeth Brown, 150 Works of Art (2006). •Optional: Fred Wilson, Jane Lusaka and John Strand, “Fred Wilson: Learning to Speak Museum,” Museum News (January/February 2006): 44-50. •Optional: David Carrier, “On Entering the Louvre,” Museum Skepticism: The History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries (2006): 17-38. •Optional: Mieke Bal excerpts from Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis (1996).

3/9 Teaching from the Frye Art Museum collections Guest Lecture: Jill Rullkoetter, Director of Education and Audience Development, Frye Art Museum Falk, J.H. and L.D. Dierking. 1992. The Museum Experience. Falk, J.L., and L.D. Dierking, eds. 1995. Public Institutions for Personal Learning: Establishing a Research Agenda. Washington, D.C: American Association of Museums

3/16 AD: Final proposal, defense and presentation of students’ recategorization of the Frye collection.