Field Experience.

To document your engagement on the DC Field Experience you will produce a sketch plan and write a 300-600 word essay about a single room in the museum or gallery.

Art exhibitions are carefully designed by museum professionals to help viewers come to a greater understanding of art and eventually get out of the way for more visitors to enter. As we go through the Freer and Sackler Galleries, think about learning and flow. Pay attention to the many ways the gallery setting helps you learn about individual objects and larger themes.

Your plan must indicate the objects on display, cases (if relevant), and preferred paths through the space. As you plan your essay, think about what you learn from the didactic wall texts. Consider how the labels for individual works interact with the longer texts and the larger theme of the exhibition. Can you discern how the curator chose the grouping of art objects in the room – and to what degree do you think the selection is clear to viewers who aren’t moving slowly and planning an essay? Your room may also have signage on the walls, significant color choices for walls, floors, and cabinetry, careful arrangement of cases occupying the middle of the floor, or other subtle techniques of museology. Integrate these elements into your discussion. Come to a conclusion about the effectiveness of the room.

Due to your writing colleague on Friday, November 11th, in place of the previously announced journal entry, which would have been submitted to your professor on November 18th.