Investigating the Engagement of College Students in an Activist Exhibition Fierce-Browed and Head-Bowed: Bay Area Asian American Movement
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Investigating The Engagement Of College Students In An Activist Exhibition Fierce-Browed And Head-Bowed: Bay Area Asian American Movement by Danielle Alexandra Coates B.F.A in Art and Visual Technology, May 2013, George Mason University A Thesis submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Exhibition Design May 19, 2019 Thesis directed by Andrea Hunter Dietz Assistant Professor of Exhibition Design © Copyright 2019 by Danielle Alexandra Coates All rights reserved ii Dedication The author wishes to dedicate this work to her parents. This is our degree. iii Acknowledgments The author wishes to acknowledge the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education at George Mason University and Kylie Stamm for inspiring her research into the Asian American Movement and Christopher Kardambikis for guidance on the printmaking studio and activities. iv Abstract of Thesis Investigating The Engagement Of College Students In An Activist Exhibition Fierce-Browed And Head-Bowed: Bay Area Asian American Movement The present document will investigate the engagement of college students in an activist exhibition through the topic of the Bay Area Asian American Movement. The narratives of the movement will be organized by the locations around the Bay Area, beginning on the college campuses then expanding to San Francisco’s Chinatown- Manilatown. Each content section has a brief description of the narratives that will be presented to the visitor and their flow within the exhibition. The exhibition will explore the development of the Asian American Movement through the perspective of college students and young adults. The audience for this exhibition is college students. Interviews were conducted with four undergraduate students from George Mason University to better understand their museum visitation, social and political engagement, and their free time. In addition to the interviews, activism on college campuses will also be addressed. The site of the exhibition will be at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, which is very accessible to UC Berkeley students. The exhibition will transform the museum’s Gallery One to an open floorplan with a printmaking studio in the center. To inform the design of the exhibition four precedent exhibitions were analyzed, highlighting key takeaways which will inspire aspects of this exhibition. The narrative device of the exhibition is the characteristic of activists prints. The narrative device will inform the design and interpretive strategies to create impactful moments throughout the exhibition which will inspire community. The narrative experiences of college students from the Asian American Movement will empower visitors and cause them to draw v parallels to their own experiences. The layout of the exhibition will facilitate community building through visitors working with their hands creating prints and zines together in an open studio. vi Table of Contents Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. iv Abstract of Thesis .............................................................................................................. v List of Figures ........................................................................................................... vii Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 History of “Serve the People” ........................................................................................ 1 Audience Overview ............................................................................................................ 3 Why College Students? .................................................................................................. 3 Target Audience ............................................................................................................. 5 Student Profiles ............................................................................................................... 6 Paula Alderete, Senior, Global Affairs ........................................................................... 6 Gia Ha, Senior, Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering .......................... 7 Jose Lopez, Junior, Information Technology ................................................................. 7 Hannah Mitchell, Senior, Secondary English Education ................................................ 8 Audience Engagement .................................................................................................... 8 Site Selection ...................................................................................................................... 9 Site Analysis ................................................................................................................. 12 Other Sites Considered ................................................................................................. 12 Design + Content Precedents ............................................................................................ 13 All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 ............................................................. 15 Disobedient Objects ...................................................................................................... 16 Into Action .................................................................................................................... 17 Content: Bay Area Asian American Movement ............................................................... 17 Curatorial Goals ............................................................................................................ 22 Design Plan + Strategies .................................................................................................... 23 Arts Activism and Printmaking .................................................................................... 23 Narrative Device + Interpretive Strategies ................................................................... 25 Design Strategies .......................................................................................................... 27 Design Elements ........................................................................................................... 28 Exhibition Experiential Journey ................................................................................... 29 vii Narratives of the Asian American Movement ............................................................... 29 Hands-On Experience .................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 36 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 43 Interviews / .................................................................................................................... 43 Figures ........................................................................................................................... 73 viii List of Figures Figure 1 Exterior of Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive ........................................... 73 Figure 2 Ground Floorplan of the BAMPFA ...................................................................... 73 Figure 3 Interior of Gallery One, BAMPFA ...................................................................... 74 Figure 4 Exterior of Oakland Museum of California ........................................................... 74 Figure 5 Kearny St. San Francisco, outside of the International Hotel ............................ 75 Figure 6 Title Treatment for Serve the People ...................................................................... 75 Figure 7 Title Treatment for Roots ....................................................................................... 76 Figure 8 Installation view of wall display and cases in Roots ............................................ 76 Figure 9 Installation view of wall display, cases, and hanging in Roots .......................... 77 Figure 10 Installation view of wall display and case in Serve the People ......................... 77 Figure 11 Reading interactive in Serve the People ........................................................... 78 Figure 12 Installation view of Emory Douglas’ work ...................................................... 78 Figure 13 Video installation in All Power to the People .................................................. 79 Figure 14 Large scale graphic of federal document in All Power to the People .............. 79 Figure 15 Large scale text of Ten Point Plan in All Power to the People ........................ 80 Figure 16 Visitor posing in Huey Newton replica chair in All Power to the People ........ 80 Figure 17 Entrance treatment of Disobedient Objects ....................................................... 81 Figure 18 “How To” artist’s instructions