Muralism from the Museum to the Street ______
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Muralism from the Museum to the Street ________________________________________ Course Number: VISST-300-16 Professor: Monica Bravo, PhD Class Meetings: Tuesdays 12-3 PM Email: [email protected] Classroom: Grad Center room 3 Office Hours: SF Library Tues. 11-12 and by appt. Course Description: Murals are typically large and often made for public consumption, whether displayed outside or indoors. Unlike many other forms of painting, a mural is literally part of a wall rather than created on a free-standing support such as a canvas or board. Site specificity is thus an essential part of a mural’s context. San Francisco is home to a number of important twentieth-century murals whose content is political and activist. This course will trace muralism’s history in San Francisco with an emphasis on Mexican, Chicanx, and women’s contributions. We will make several site visits to murals by Diego Rivera, Coit Tower, the Women’s Building, as well as contemporary graffiti in the Mission. This class encourages students to think big—either in terms of scale and/or social impact—about their own artmaking practices. Juana Alicia, La Llorona’s Sacred Waters, 2004. York and 24th Street, the Mission, SF. Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: • Identify various materials and techniques used to create murals, and understand their relatives benefits and drawbacks. • Apply the tools of formal analysis and critical visual thinking to murals, both familiar and unknown (visual literacy). • Critically evaluate textual analyses about murals in terms of their context, rhetoric, use of evidence, and interpretations. • Assess and critique differing perspectives on key debates regarding the content of murals in public spaces. Prof. Monica Bravo Syllabus- Muralism 1 • Understand how their work and that of their peers relates to muralism, either in terms of scale, site, or stakeholders. Readings: All readings will be made available as PDFs on our course Moodle site. I recommend reading the texts in the order listed below each week’s heading. Average required reading for this course is 40 pages per week. Field trip: We will be taking various field trips during our regularly scheduled class session, and travel time will be accounted for to fit within our 3 hours. These sessions are NOT optional. You may have transportation, but not admission, costs associated with these visits. Please speak to me privately if the transit fees represent a financial hardship. COURSE ASSESSMENTS ______________________________________________________________________________ Grading Policy with Important Dates: Attendance and Participation 15% Throughout course Oral Presentation (10 minutes) 10% Student selected Written Reading Response 1 (2-3 pages) 10% Student selected Written Reading Response 2 (2-3 pages) 12% Student selected Teach-in about Borders Written Reflection (1 page) 5% March 17 Exhibition or Site Analysis (4-5 pages) 15% April 7 Mural Design and Written Justification (4-5 pages) 25% April 28 Student Mural Design Presentation (10 minutes) 8% April 28 or May 5 All grades will be tabulated mathematically (that is, on a 100% scale) during the semester and converted to a letter grade at the end of the course. Grading Scale Description: A 93-100 Outstanding A- 90-92 Very good B+ 87-89 B 83-86 Good B- 80-82 C+ 77-79 C 73-76 Satisfactory C- 70-72 D+ 67-69 D 60-66 Below average, marginally acceptable F 59-0 Below average, not acceptable Attendance and Participation: Attendance at all class meetings is required, as material is routinely covered in lecture and discussion that does not appear in the readings. Students are further expected to actively participate in class, which may take the form of asking questions, contributing comments, small group work, completing short in-class writing exercises, etc. You should prepare for class by completing the required reading and/or viewing assignment before Prof. Monica Bravo Syllabus- Muralism 2 arrival, taking notes, and critically thinking about the material (including perhaps how it relates to your own practice or that of your contemporaries). I understand that not everyone is comfortable answering or asking questions in a large group: you can show me you are still participating by taking notes, paying attention to your peers, and actively listening. Behaviors that will adversely affect your participation grade include being on your phone for extended periods, engaging with your laptop more than the class, being out of the classroom outside of the break, falling asleep, or chatting with peers off-topic. Good attendance and participation are forms of professional practice and community—key learning outcomes at CCA. Two latenesses of more than 10 minutes will equal one absence. One unexcused absence is ok: more than one unexcused absence will result in reduction of attendance and participation grade by half a letter grade (e.g. B+ to B). An excused absence is one you discuss with me in advance and receive permission to take. Excused absences are typically reserved for family emergencies that require you to leave town, extended hospitalization, and similar matters that can be verified. Nonetheless, I appreciate knowing if you will be absent for any reason. If any situation is repeatedly interfering with your ability to attend class, please discuss it with me as soon as possible. Oral Presentation (10 minutes): Effective oral communication is a central learning outcome of the Visual Studies program. Each week, beginning in the second week of class, one or two students will present an example of contemporary muralism relevant to the week’s readings. Email your example to me ([email protected]) by 10 AM before class in the form of a JPEG, URL, PowerPoint, Keynote, etc. Each presentation should be approximately ten minutes long, with time after for discussion. Please limit all time-based examples to a maximum of three minutes. There are no make-up presentations (unless you have cleared this with me in advance). I am happy to talk with you about your ideas for the presentation. Consider these presentations as opportunities to connect our historical and theoretical readings with contemporary practices, and try to choose examples that extend, update, challenge, contradict, or otherwise engage with the examples already given to us in our readings. You should research the mural you have chosen and try to find out everything you can about it. The in-class presentation of your example should include the following: 1) A careful and expressive description of the mural; 2) Why you chose this particular mural; and 3) How the mural relates to the week’s reading. The talk should be well organized and concise, giving appropriate background information on the subject. Consider bringing in a book of the muralist’s work to pass around and preparing a few discussion questions. Classmates will ask questions and offer appropriate feedback. *You may not sign up to do an oral presentation for the same weeks as your written reading responses.* Written Reading Responses (2-3 double-spaced pages, 12 point font x 2): During our second class meeting, students will sign up to write TWO short papers responding to the assigned readings for a particular week. Students should write a thoughtful, thesis-driven essay structured around analyzing one or two key questions or terms rather than write a book-report style summary. You should address two or more of the assigned texts. Students may be called upon to help push discussion forward on dates for which they have submitted reading responses. You must e-mail your paper to me at [email protected] in the form of a Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google Document before the start of class, even if you are unable to attend class or are running Prof. Monica Bravo Syllabus- Muralism 3 late. *You may not sign up to write reading responses for the same week as your oral presentation.* Teach-in about Borders and Migration Written Reflection (1 double-spaced page, 12 point font): CCA is organizing a teach-in about Borders and Migration on March 9 and 10. Participation in the event in some capacity is mandatory during our class session on March 10. Some students will elect to participate in a community mural workshop while others will attend talks and other programming. You will write a one-page, double-spaced reflection about your experience and submit it via email to [email protected] in the form of a Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google Document before the start of class on March 17, even if you are unable to attend class or are running late. Exhibition or Site Analysis (4-5 double-spaced pages, 12 point font): Students have the option of visiting either Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving at the de Young Museum (opens March 21, ticket cost) and writing an exhibition analysis of the show, or visiting the WPA-era murals at the Beach Chalet on Ocean Beach (open daily, free) and writing a site analysis. Your analysis should describe what the exhibition or mural program is about and how the items/artworks on view support the exhibition’s premise. The review will include observations on the purpose, organization, text, and specific artworks in the show, particularly as they relate to major themes of the course. The exhibition and site analysis do not require outside research. You must e-mail your paper to me at [email protected] in the form of a Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google Document before the start of class on April 7, even if you are unable to attend class or are running late. Mural Design and Written Justification (4-5 double-spaced pages, 12 point font): For this assignment, you will design a mural on a theme of your choice using whichever medium you prefer (paint, software, digital projection, photographs, etc.).