Assignments

Reading Papers (15% each, 30% of final grade total)

Each student is required to choose two class sessions with readings (one from before Fall break and one from after Fall break) to write a reading paper of no more than 1000 words. These papers should be uploaded to Blackboard by 1:00pm on the day of that session. If you cannot turn in your paper by 1pm in advance of our class meeting, you must choose to write for another session. These short papers might explore an analytic or historiographical issue raised in the readings or engage the ideas in the readings based on previous readings or conversations. Papers should seek to draw some connections between multiple readings. You may write for any two sessions you wish as long as one of them takes place before October 18 and one takes place after. Students who write papers for a particular session will be expected to play an active role in class discussion and facilitation. Further guidelines are available here.

Museum in the News Presentation (5% of grade)

Once during the semester, you will give a short, informal presentation on a contemporary news story or controversy about museums. Presentation topics can, but do not have to, relate to the topic of the readings on the day you are presenting. Presenters should inform the class about something interesting going on in the museum world and should aim to connect current events in the museum world to issues, questions, or themes that we have discussed in class. Presentations should be no more than 5 minutes.

You can find interesting coverage of museums in the mainstream press, but might also look at more specialized sites such as:

American Alliance of Museums (https://www.aam-us.org)

MuseumNext (https://www.museumnext.com/article/category/news/)

AP News: Museums (https://apnews.com/hub/museums)

The Art Newspaper: Museums (https://www.theartnewspaper.com/keywords/museums)

Click here to sign up for a date for your presentation.

Two Museum Critiques (15% each of final grade, 30% total)

Each student will write two museum critiques of 1200-1500 words over the course of the semester. In these critiques, you will be practicing the observation and analytical skills modeled by Margaret Lindauer in her article, “The Critical Museum Visitor” (which we are reading for our first class session).

You must write your first review about either the Cleveland Art Museum or the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. You must write your second review of either the Great Lakes Science Center or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The first museum critique is due on Friday, October 14 by 5pm. The second is due on Friday, November 18 by 5pm. Turn in critiques by uploading them to the course blackboard site.

More detailed guidelines for the museum critique are available here. You can find a few examples of museum critiques from a previous iteration of History 435 here.

Final Project (30% of total grade)

As a final project for History 435, you will work in group of four students to propose a and theorize a new museum or to propose a major revision of an existing museum. Each group should include people who have taken one of the other cluster courses and students who are only enrolled in History 435. You will be charged with proposing a concept for a new or revised museum, justifying its importance, theorizing its mission and design, articulating its mission and collections policies, explaining its social function and its funding, and designing at least one of its exhibits. The goal of this assignment is for you to bring together ideas and evidence from the course readings to propose a museum and an exhibit that 1) shows an understanding of the different forms and functions of museums in society; 2) that is attentive to the ways in which museums relate to objects, construct narratives, and serve communities; and 3) that addresses concerns about how museums and their practices have been exclusionary or colonialist.

Groups will be assigned based on broad interests and student’s involvement in other cluster courses. Groups will be required to turn in a preliminary proposal by Sunday, October 30 and an update and bibliography by Sunday, November 20. The project itself will be due at the time of our regularly scheduled final exam, at 7pm on Wednesday, December 21. Each group will give a fifteen-minute presentation to the class about their museum during our scheduled exam time, 7pm-9pm on December 21.

You can express your interests for the process of deciding upon groups on this planning document. Further guidelines about the final project are available here.