Assignment #2: Draft Museum/Art Exhibit
Assignment #2 Draft: Final Project on Public History. Proposal for a Museum or Art Exhibit
Decide on a theme to create a Latino Museum or Latino Art exhibition. Please research, read about, and assemble art pieces (photography, print, film clips, ceramics, jewelry, etc.) demonstrating your chosen theme and the Latino experience. Write a 5 page essay detailing what your exhibit will look like.
Length: 5 pages
Goal: Use the knowledge acquired in the course to construct a museum or art exhibit through the lens of a particular migration theme.
Your Task: Pretend you are an assistant at a museum or art gallery tasked to create an exhibit on Latinos in the United States. You must write a 5–6-page proposal detailing the theme of your exhibition, what pieces you would include in your exhibit, and the layout. You can build upon the previous assignment to consider your theme ideas, such as the immigrant journey, the encounter with American society, generational conflict, assimilation vs. acculturation, transnational connection, ethnic culture and identity, or human rights. You can also select topics we might cover in class, including but not limited to feminism, class, race, gender, identity, immigration, etc., and analyze the pieces from a cultural and social perspective within Latino culture.
Use at least five art pieces (photography, murals, print, film clips, ceramics, jewelry, etc.)
Assignment step-by-step:
Review your class notes and the research on the theme you chose to write about in your second assignment carefully. Make a shortlist of the main topics/themes/concepts that stood out to you.
Center your exhibit on a particular aspect or theme of the Latino experience that caught your attention, such as the migration journey, generational conflict, assimilation vs. acculturation, transnational connections, ethnic culture, identity, or human rights.
Consider the following questions to find a special “hook” for your unique story:
How do people express their ethnic identities through culture – i.e., music, food, art, dance, traditions, or material objects?
Is there a symbol of a culture or a material object that is especially important to this Latino group?
How does their identity relate to the different cultures they navigate?
Have they ever experienced conflict between their identity and American culture?
Looking at the pieces you selected, why are these pieces relevant to your show?
Describe the space in which you would present this work.
Name the artist (s) and the pieces.
Give some background on them, but it should not be the entirety of your paper.
Your paper should be more about explaining the significance of these pieces to the Latin@ community.
Your images should only take up a quarter of the page. I want at least four pages of actual written text.
Write a draft and submit it by the deadline. Make sure you include a bibliography in your draft.
Here is, I hope, some inspiration:
Paper Organization
I. Introduction: (1-2 paragraphs): Introduce the central theme of your exhibit story. I would suggest starting with an opening anecdote, memory, personal statement, or quote that captures the main point of your story and draws the reader’s attention.
II. Body (2-3 pages) Tell your story through the pieces you have selected. Follow a thematic approach that explores a particular topic in depth. Make sure you properly contextualize your story by providing historical details and accurate information.
III. Conclusion (1 paragraph): State the overall significance of your story and assess whether it conforms to or diverges from other narratives we have explored in the course.
The museum:Dominican Yorks/Hispanic Society of America
