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Unit outline_

ARHT6932: Ways of Curating: Exhibitions and Display

Semester 1, 2023 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Exhibitions are the key medium through which art is displayed and interpreted as a prominent and diverse part of contemporary culture. This unit engages with current exhibitions in Sydney art museums and art spaces to interrogate textual, theoretical, and exhibition-based strategies. Students will critically engage with ways of thinking about curating from decolonisation, globalisation and communities, to historical, narrative, biographical, feminist, queer and activist models as they relate to current exhibitions in situ. A range of curatorial appraches will be analysed alongside historical and current art exhibition critique.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit Art History
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
None
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator Donna Brett, donna.brett@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s) Terence Smith, terence.smith@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s) Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, bronwyn.bailey-charteris@sydney.edu.au
Type Description Weight Due Length
Assignment Exhibition Review
review/critique
40% Week 07
Due date: 03 Apr 2023 at 23:59
2500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO2 LO3 LO4 LO1
Assignment Research Project Essay
Research Project
60% Week 13
Due date: 26 May 2023 at 23:59
3500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO2 LO3 LO4 LO1

Assessment summary

Detailed information can be found in Canvas

Assessment criteria

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 Exhibition making and Curatorial practice: The Exhibitionary Complex Seminar (2 hr) LO1
Week 02 Exhibition and Display: Old and New Seminar (2 hr) LO4
Week 03 The Anatomy of an Exhibition Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO4
Week 04 Thinking Curatorially Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2
Week 05 Decolonising the Museum: Strategies and Discourse Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3
Week 06 Indigenous Modes of Curation Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO4
Week 07 Other Approaches: Feminist Curatorial Strategies and Queering the Art Museum Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3
Week 08 Activating Collections: Interventions and Time Seminar (3 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 09 Distraction, Spectatorship and Wretched Screens Seminar (2 hr) LO2 LO4
Week 10 Spaces for Art Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO3 LO4
Week 11 Spectatorship and Audiences Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 12 Reviews and Critique Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 13 QandA Discussion Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance is compulsory. This unit will be run primarily at the Art Gallery of NSW. Remote access is limited to offshore students only.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Terry Smith, ‘The Australian Art Exhibitionary Complex’, in The Australian Art Field: Practices, Policies, Institutions, edited by Tony Bennett, Deborah Stephenson, Fred Myers, and Tamara Winikoff (London: Routledge, 2020).

Steven Miller, The Exhibitionists: A history of Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney: AGNSW, 2022), chapters 2 and 19.

Michael Brand, ‘Introduction’, in Michael Brand ed., The Sydney Modern Project: Transforming the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney: AGNSW, 2022).

Terry Smith, Thinking Contemporary Curating (Independent Curators International, 2012), Preface and chapter 1.

Terry Smith, Thinking Contemporary Curating (Independent Curators International, 2012), chapter 2.

Cara Pinchbeck, ‘Yiribana … This Way’, in Michael Brand ed., The Sydney Modern Project, chapter 3.

Stephen Gilchrist, ‘Indigenous Curatorial Interpellations: Insistence and Refusal’, in The Australian Art Field: Practices, Policies, Institutions, edited by Tony Bennett, Deborah Stephenson, Fred Myers, and Tamara Winikoff (London: Routledge, 2020), chapter 18.

Nicholas Chambers, ‘Between here and there: collecting and displaying modern and contemporary international art’, in Michael Brand ed., The Sydney Modern Project, chapter 6.

 Terry Smith, Thinking Contemporary Curating (Independent Curators International, 2012), chapter 4.

Justin Paton, ‘Something always not seen’, in Michael Brand ed., The Sydney Modern Project, chapter 14.

 

Isobel Parker Philip, ‘Looking forward: contending with the contemporary’, in Michael Brand ed., The Sydney Modern Project, chapter 13.

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Demonstrate a strong understand of exhibition curatorial strategies
  • LO2. Articulate critical analysis of exhibition making through written and verbal communication
  • LO3. Undertake detailed research and articulate complex ideas
  • LO4. Understand the role of exhibition making in contemporary culture at the intersection of art, curating exhibitions, historical and contemporary critical reception

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This unit has been redesigned to enable close analysis of curatorial, exhibition and display strategies.

This unit is designed to analyse and critique exhibition and display methodologies and practice at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Over the duration of the course we will consider a diverse, yet focussed range of questions that will lead us through the North and South galleries to consider curatorial strategies of the past and present.

Additional costs

only public transport

Site visit guidelines

Site Visits to the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Disclaimer

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