Alternatively, a student may not have physical access to a museum in his/her area and a virtual visit may be arranged with the instructor’s prior approval. Many museums have virtual visits, some are listed with the Google Arts and Culture project partners. Some of these have a virtual walkthrough and a Google Arts & Culture app is available for virtual reality tours. The following list contains examples of museum resources to explore and choose from:
The MET Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (Essays and Works of Art)
Google Arts & Culture:
Pergamon Museum, Germany
The British Museum, London
Acropolis Museum, Greece
The Catedral de Santiago Foundation, Spain
Grotte Chauvet/Chauvet Cave, France
Museo della Civiltà Romana, Italy
The British Library, London
Museum of Cycladic Art, Greece
Mev Museu d’Art Medieval, Spain
The report must discuss one artwork, including the style and time period in which the artwork was created. The report should be three to five typed pages saved in MS Word document or as a PDF. using MLA (Modern Language Association) format. It must include the information listed in the following outline:
Chosen Artwork
Name and location of the museum
Name of exhibition
Name of artist or group associated with if there is no artist name
Title of work
Dimensions of work
Media
Date or time period created
Art movement, period, or region if it is ancient
Place of origin
Manner of display
Description of Artwork
A description of the work (what does it look like, include things that would allow people to recognize it)
An analysis of the work
To understand how to analyze, two references should be researched before starting:
Introduction to art historical analysis (article from Smarthistory)
How to do a visual (formal) analysis (video from Smarthistory)
Elements of Art (describe types of lines, marks, tones, textures, colors, etc.)
Principles of Art (describe placement of elements, symmetry, movement, sense of weight, etc.)
Response to Artwork
Your personal reaction to the work (how do you feel when you see it, what does it remind you of, would it be difficult to replicate, etc.).
Additional interesting information (is there some background about the object we should know about such as materials it’s made of, how it came to be, or its utilitarian use).
Images
Proof of concept—you will need to take a selfie on location and/or informational literature such as a brochure or pamphlet from the exhibit or museum OR if using an alternative museum resource (with prior approval), provide the online URL of the location of the museum resources and/or virtual visit and a screenshot of the website it was obtained from.
Photo/card/slide of Artwork (if a work is not allowed to be photographed, research to find one, or find it in a brochure or other materials from the museum.) Any images obtained from online resources must provide proper credit and licensing whether it is a Creative Commons License or Public Domain.
References
The paper is to include:
Cover page with Title, location of the works chosen, date visited, and your name.
A well-written and edited three to five-page paper which is to be single-spaced, paragraph indented or double-spaced between paragraphs, 12 pt text in a serif font (either Georgia, Palatino, Minion, or Times/Times Roman).
Quoted material: No more than 15% of the written paper may be directly copied and included in the total work. The quoted portion must be cited in the bibliography.
The paper should include an overview of what the object or exhibition is about, the materials and techniques used in the work, your research into the background and history of the work, the work’s significance in the arts, and your personal observations about the work, such as what made you choose this work, how you feel about the work, how it impact you or others.
A page with images of the art, artifact, or an example of art from the exhibition printed either in color or black and white with caption labels.
A bibliography of references where you found your research.
