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Virtual Exhibition as a Teaching Tool
Virtual Exhibition as a Teaching Tool
Session summary
Session summary
Led by Alla Myzelev and Ilene Sova
In 2021, two professors working in different institutions and countries (the USA and Canada) began to think about launching a co-taught course, recognizing that the online teaching space allowed the unique experience of the borders between the countries to be eroded. They decided to do a collaborative teaching project anchored in decolonial approaches to art education.
The learning outcomes for the class were centred on the creation of an online virtual reality exhibition titled “Looking Out while Looking In”. This included the paintings created by the studio students and the virtual space curated by the students in the Museum Studies Minor program. The collaboration between the two groups created an existing way of connecting and processing what communities collectively experienced during the C19 pandemic. The artwork and the exhibition design by the emerging curators dealt with the issue of isolation and COVID-related lifestyle changes as they relate to equity and inclusion.
This research/conference presentation seeks to contextualize our experience of teaching the international class and co-curating the show with the students in a non-hierarchial and student-centred format. We investigate the potential of such collaboration and online exhibitions as a tool that allows for decolonial pedagogies, accessibility and increased diversity. For instance, the experience of these two groups working in a diverse intercultural group provided valuable access to equity and inclusion in the arts. Through online interviews, conversational prompts, virtual studio visits, and inclusive critique design, students were able to reach a deeper understanding of personal narratives across cultures and across borders.
Bios
Bios
Ilene Sova is the Ada Slaight Chair of Contemporary Painting and Drawing at OCAD University. Ilene’s painting practice focuses on social change with a feminist focus on creating a dialogue around anti-oppression. She is also heavily involved in the areas of arts advocacy, community activation, and promoting pluralism in the arts. In particular, Ilene has worked with both Harbourfront Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario to do training in diversity and equity practices. This work was incorporated into the development, implementation, and delivery of arts curricula. Due to this work, Ilene was invited to sit on the board of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario.
Alla Myzelev is an Associate professor and a Chair of the Department of Art History and Museum Studies at SUNY Geneseo where she teaches courses in modern and contemporary visual culture. She is currently exploring opportunities that Digital Humanities and Virtual Reality provide for teaching museum studies and art history. She has published extensively on feminism, activism, and material culture and is the author of Architecture, Design and Craft in Toronto 1900-1940: Creating Modern Living (Ashgate 2016). and editor of the essay collection Exhibiting Craft and Design: Transgressing the White Cube Paradigm (Routledge 2017). Myzelev is currently editing a book on art activism in areas of political conflict and working on the manuscript on fashion and masculinity in the Soviet Union.
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