Art 2 Curator Thematic Group Exhibition Project: Home

1. Select a Theme: Each group will choose a theme and sub-focus from the list below or develop your own from art you are interested in connecting! Your group must sign up for a theme and presentation date (see the sign-up link in Canvas for available slots). Please don't have duplicate themes within a class.

Theme ideas

• Food (as subject matter in still life, about food security/insecurity, art made from food, class)
• Shelter/architecture (homes, museums, sacral places of worship, palaces, government buildings, group living communities)
• Religious Art (deities, images of creators, the primordial couple, cathedral art, mosques, mandalas, prayer art, meditation, different world religions art)
• Death, Loss & Mourning (funerary monuments and burials, art about the afterlife, death, loss, and remembering the dead through art)
• Politics, Power, & War Art (monuments, protest art, depictions of violence and loss)
• Identity (figurative painting and or sculpture, body image through time, psychological depictions in art, feminism, gender, socio-economic depictions of class, sexuality, reproduction, mother/child imagery, depictions of family, clan or regional identity)
• Nature (landscape art, art made from natural elements, land art, the relationship between technology and human development, art of animals - fauna, representations of plants and/or flowers - flora, botanical studies)

2. Research & Individual Art Selection:

○ Look for articles about your theme or read thematic chapters from reference materials in class to fully understand the nuances of that genr,e then start to think about a niche within that theme that you’d like to zero in on. (For example, a sub-theme for Identity could be feminism, sexuality or body image)

○ Each student will individually select 3 artworks that fit the group’s chosen theme. For your original selection, make sure to include:

1. At least one Ancient through Renaissance work (before 1600 CE)
2. At least one historic masterpiece from 1600-1960s CE (Baroque through Modernism)
3. At least one contemporary work (post-1960s or by a living artist)

○ From all of the selections, the group will collectively choose 6-10 works for the final exhibition.

○ Each student will then write background information for one artwork from the selected pieces for exhibition, crafting a museum-style education label. This will include details such as title, artist, date, medium, and a brief description of the artwork’s relevance to the theme.

3. Research the background, significance, and how these pieces connect to the group theme. Work together to compile your findings into a <1 page write up as a brief of your show. One paragraph to introduce the theme of the exhibition and one closing paragraph to summarize the connection between the pieces selected. Each student will write their findings then combine their ideas into one final show summary.