Week 1: 29 July 2024
An Introduction: Ways of seeing, Ways of writing
Dr Yvonne Low 

This seminar introduces the unit, assessments and learning outcomes. We will explore art writing as a critical ‘curator’s’ tool and to consider more expansively the function of writing in exhibitions and the wider museum industry. What does it mean to write purposefully, ‘plainly’ or creatively in a gallery and museum? How does art writing change the way we engage with and see art? 

Readings:

. Surface, Mary Hall and Ryan, Nathalie. ‘Developing close looking, creativity, and community through writing and art’, Journal of Museum Education 43, no. 4 (2018): 356-364.
. Sabeti, Shari. ‘Writing creatively in a museum: tracing lines through persons, art objects and texts’, Literacy 50, no. 3 (2016): 141-148 

Week 2: 5 August 2024
Engaging with Audience
Dr Jennifer Blunden 

There are many different audiences that visual art curators and programmers must engage with through written text. This ranges from not just external visitors of different demographics, but written communication with colleagues and industry. It is important to know who your audience is, be clear on what your objective is in communicating with them, including what you want to say and what you want them to know. We will look at how a specific exhibition narrative with clear conceptual positioning, can be best communicated through the different forms of writing needed in the context of an exhibition display. This week we look at effective modes of different audience engagement, including some practical examples of exhibition catalogues.

Readings:
. Jane Deeth ‘Engaging Strangeness in the Art Museum: an audience development strategy’, Museum & Society, 10 no. 1 (Mar 2012): 1-14. Download Jane Deeth ‘Engaging Strangeness in the Art Museum: an audience development strategy’, Museum & Society, 10 no. 1 (Mar 2012): 1-14.
. Megan Kidd, ‘Labels, the Audience Experience and Curatorial Strategy in Art Museum Exhibitions’ academia.edu.au

Week 3: 12 August 2024
Art Writer’s Toolkit Part 1
Dr Jennifer Blunden 

In this and the following session, we will take a close-up look at how writing makes meaning. We will explore some key concepts about language and show how they can be used as powerful tools for creating and critiquing different types of museum texts – powerful in the sense of ‘sharpening our eyes’ so we can see more clearly the implications in meaning of choices we make in language, and use those insights to create, shape, deconstruct and talk about written texts with greater precision and delicacy. In this first session we will explore the concept of ‘meaning’ itself, and how text interacts with other modes such as image, artefact, design and space in various museum contexts.

 Readings: 

. Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. ‘Changing Values in the Art Museum: Rethinking Communication and Learning’,International Journal of Heritage Studies 6, no 1 (2000): 9–31
. Hoskin, Dawn. ‘Creating the New Europe 1600–1815 Galleries: Writing Labels and Gallery Text’, V&A Museum blog. View at https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/creating-new-europe-1600-1800-galleries/labels-gallery-text?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxKfrn7ib5wIVRpWPCh3jWQpNEAAYASAAEgLaMfD_BwE

Week 4: 19 August 2024
Art Writer’s Toolkit Part 2
Dr Jennifer Blunden 

This session will delve more deeply into the qualities and features of written language, and how they can be ‘flexed’ to suit different contexts and audiences. We will look at structure and flow of meaning, the impact of specific word choices and order, ‘active’ language and the power of verbs, what ‘accessible’ means in terms of writing, and the critical relationship between talking and writing.

Readings:
. Sword, Helen. ‘Verbal Verve’ and ‘Noun Density’, The Writer’s Diet, chapters 1& 2, Auckland: Auckland University Press (2015), pp 5–28 
. Williams, Gilda. ‘Practical “How-To”s’, How to Write about Contemporary Art, chapter 4, New York: Thames & Hudson (2015), pp 68–105 

Week 5: 26August 2024
Blogs and Biographies: Making (Art) History Interesting!
Dr Yvonne Low

Platforms such as Khan Academy and SmartHistory are highly popular sites designed to educate both broad and targetted audience on the rich and dynamic histories of art spanning the historical and the contemporary. Often written by specialists, these entries are written journalistically with the aim of making history interesting, as opposed to dull and prosaic! Students will be introduced to their first assignment (due in Week 6) and will have the opportunity to develop a piece of writing on an art object of their choice. Students will focus now on developing biographical narratives. Artists’ biographies is a popular genre of writing and does much to give visibility to artists who may be left out from canonical art histories. Often diverse and dynamic (no one person’s life is ever the same as another!) students will examine current examples such as projects initiated by AWARE and others.

Resources/Readings:
. View examples on AWARE, https://awarewomenartists.com
. Goodman, Dena, and Emily Talbot. “Documenting Art, Writing Biography: Construction of the Silvestre Family History, 1660–1868.” Journal of Family History 40, no. 3 (2015): 277–304.
. Butlin, Judith F. “Archives - an Invaluable Resource: Writing a Biography - Alternative Sources of Information When There Are No Personal Archives.” History of Economics Review 78, no. 1 (2021): 60–69.
. View examples on smarthistory: The center for public art history, https://smarthistory.org
. Williams, Gilda. How to Write About Contemporary Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.

Week 6: 2 September 2024
Art, Objects and their Stories [Site Visit: Chau Chak Wing Museum]
Dr Yvonne Low

We will visit the Chau Chak Wing Museum and explore the exhibitions that are currently up. More details of the exhibitions we will be examining will be provided. We will be discussing your second assignment on the Audio Guide this week. 

Activity and details will be provided on Canvas before the Seminar.

Week 7: 9 September 2024 
The Art of ‘Guided Looking’  
Dr Yvonne Low 

For this seminar, we will explore strategies of social inclusion in a museum context so as to offer a rich and rewarding experience to all visitors. What does it mean to engage audience meaningfully in a primarily visuo-centric environment? We will explore a range of strategies used by curators to engage visitors, and to expand their experiences; we will discuss the benefits of incorporating Audio Description (AD) in Standard Audio Guides (SAG) and we will look at current audio tours offered by the AGNSW to gain an insight to current practice. We will then apply these strategies to the writing and designing of an audio-guide for Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Readings:
. Hutchinson, Rachel and Eardely, Alison. ‘Inclusive museum audio guides: ‘guided looking’ through audio description enhances memorability of artworks for sighted audiences’, Museum management and curatorship 36, no. 4 (2021): 427-446. 
. Hadley Bree, and Rieger, Janice. ‘Co-designing choice: objectivity, aesthetics and agency in audio-description’, Museum management and curatorship 36, no. 1 (2021): 189-203.  

Week 8: 16 September 2024
[Workshop and Site Visit] Audio-Guide Development
Dr Yvonne Low

This is an opportunity for students to research on the object of their choice, and to develop an outline for their guided tours. Students will meet first at CCWM from 10-11am, where they will consider spatially how the tour will be conceived across the gallery and visualise the display of the art/object chosen. In the respective tutorials, the students will share their plans and obtain feedback from their peers and tutor. They will have the opportunity to develop a draft of their audio guide.

Week 9: 23 October 2024
Representation, Voice and Agency
Dr Jennifer Blunden

In this seminar we consider some of the debates and issues that face museums and galleries today, and, as writers, our role and responsibilities relative to these broader community contexts and expectations. We will focus on issues around representation, voice and agency, particularly in relation to contexts of decolonisation and gender, and in terms of content, process and impact.

Readings:

. Coombes, Annie & Phillips, Ruth. ‘Introduction: dynamics of democratization and decolonisation’ in Coombes, Annie & Phillips, Ruth (eds), Museum transformations: decolonization and democratization, Wiley Blackwell, Hokoben NJ & Chichester UK, 2020.
. Janke, Terri, First Peoples: A roadmap for enhancing Indigenous engagement in museums and galleries, Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMAGA), 2018. View at https://www.amaga.org.au/shop/first-peoples-roadmap-enhancing-indigenous-engagement-museums-and-galleries-hardcopy-version
. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. ‘Twenty-five Indigenous projects’, (chapter 8) in Decolonising methodologies: research and Indigenous peoples, Zed Books, London & New York, 2012 

Week 10: 11 October 2024
[Site Visit/Public Holiday] Art Gallery of New South Wales: Developing Narratives (Self-Guided)
Dr Yvonne Low

Because this seminar coincides with the Public Holiday, students will be provided a self-guided pack to visit the AGNSW any time during the term break or in Week 10. Time will be allocated in Week 11 for discussion of visit. 

Activity sheets will be provided (TBA).

Readings: 
. Sambrani, Chaitanya. ‘New lanterns for old: how far can Australian engagement with Asia transcend old shibboleths? How new are the perspectives offered by the ‘New Asian Galleries’ at the Art Gallery of New South Wales’, Meanjin 63, no. 2 (2004): 65. 
. Ajioka, Chiaki. ‘Representation of Japanese Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ in Educating in the Arts The Asian Experience: Twenty-four Essays, ed. Lindy Joubert (Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2008) 103-120. 

Week 11: 14 October 2024
Finding the Critical Voice
Dr Yvonne Low

How does a critical perspective help provide ways to view, appreciate, understand and enjoy art and culture? This week, the role of the critical voice will be explored particularly in relation to the visual arts. Art criticism is a process of responding to, interpreting meaning, and making critical judgments about specific works of art or objects. Looking to the core steps of describing, analysing, interpreting and evaluating, we address the balance needed to provide a comprehensive analysis through these points of consideration.

Readings:
. James, B. “Writing Critically in Visual and Performing Arts.” Changing Education (Geelong, Vic.) 3, no. 1 (1996): 20–21.
. Daichendt, G. James, and G. James Daichendt. Artist Scholar: Reflections on Writing and Research. Bristol: NBN International, 2011.

Week 12: 21 October 2024
[Workshop] Researching for your Essay (Final Assignment development)
Dr Yvonne Low

This week draws on the skills and knowledge/issues that we have been developing over the weeks. This is planned as a three-hour workshop, with the third hour optional for students to stay and develop their drafts / outline. We will discuss the importance of incorporating primary/secondary research in Exhibition reviews and Catalogue essays - this may include interviews with artists to substantiate and balance viewpoints etc. It is also important to keep in mind who the audience is and to pitch tone of the piece of writing appropriately. In this workshop, students will examine a range of examples so as to develop cohesive and structured essays.

More resources will be made available on Canvas.

Week 13: 28 October 2024
A Coda: Developing your professional writing portfolio 
Dr Yvonne Low

In this final seminar together we will briefly review and reflect on key skills and concepts developed throughout the unit to take stock of everything that we have learned; honing and refining our writing skills does not end with this course. If anything, you might see this as a beginning. This seminar serves as nutshell, offering you (1) some final practical advice for the 'real world' industry and how to get your writing out there, (2) note-taking skills to add to your researching process and acquiring knowledge (have you been taking good notes?) and (3) lastly some useful suggestions on how to write "shapely thoughts", paragraphs that are meaningful (are you reporting or analysing)?  

Readings/Resources:
. Mark Tredinnick, the little red writing book, (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2016), 218-254.
. James Elkins, What is interesting writing in art history? (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 2014).
. “What the experts said: Making it in arts journalism”, The Guardian, 9 Dec 2010, accessed on 12 Jun 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/careers/what-the-experts-said-making-it-in-arts-journalism