GWSS 325 A: Black Feminist Art and Performance

This course explores how black artists from around the world create work that engages with feminist concerns about identity and power. We cover artists working in a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, new media, dance, and performance. Short, creative assignments are meant to build skills in experiencing and interpreting art, and to provide creative outlets of producing knowledge about that art.

Learning Objectives

• Become familiar with Black artists from around the world
• Develop skills and vocabulary for describing the formal elements of art and interpreting their meaning in culturally, historically, and geographically specific contexts
• Practice writing short pieces of arts writing that balance subjectivity and objectivity
• Practice synthesizing information in written and visual means, researching and pitching a synthesis of ideas (in the form of a proposed art exhibition of the students’ own choosing)
• Learn key concepts of feminist and queer analyses of identity and power; learn to integrate these concepts into creative thinking and projects

COURSE MATERIALS

We will be reading a variety of texts from short art reviews to longer academic articles. Each class session, you'll be expected to have read between 40 and 50 pages. This is consistent with 300-level courses in the GWSS department.

ASSIGNMENTS

Your final assignment is to pitch an art show that you would curate—and to be a good curator you have to be able to describe art (what does it look and feel like?), to frame and contextualize art (how is it connected to larger histories, practices, and/or conversations?), and to do so using clear and compelling language (what is your voice?). The assignments all work to develop and enhance your skills in each of these domains: you will practice describing and interpreting art vis-a-vis relevant course concepts, and harness your own creative voice to do so.

Flash Reviews — 2 reviews @ 5 points each — 10 points total

2 weeks in a row you will submit short, 100-word close readings of a single work of art that you encountered in class lectures or readings. In each review, you’ll describe the formal and symbolic elements of the work in as much rich, lush, detail as possible—though you can take a few words to create a connection between the work’s formal construction and something you are thinking about within and/or beyond this classroom space.

This writing should embrace the concept of “flash”: a bright, quick, burst of energy. The writing should at the same time be considered and intentional. Imagine you are describing something you love to someone you love: you’ve got to paint a picture.

Your reviews will be public to the class, posted as a discussion board.

Exercise in Being a Critic — 2 exercises @ 15 points each — 30 points total

Part of the work of appreciating art is communicating about that art. In this assignment, you step into the shoes of the critic in order to produce knowledge about art and ideas that you are interested in. You'll do a close reading of 1 work, or 2 works in conversation, providing rich description of the work and connecting it to specific themes and concepts found in course materials. The goal is to create knowledge about the work and concepts you’re interested in. To this end, you'll have to do a bit of research into the artist and their practice, ensuring that you are well-informed enough to take on the responsibility for producing knowledge about them.

You can select any output to complete this assignment (including an output not listed below) but here are some general guidelines to abide by:

Written (e.g. art review, artist profile) — 750 words. Write as if you’re going to be published in an online or in-print art publication that tons of people are going to read. Needs to be well-written and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

Short-Form Video (e.g. TikTok)— 5 minutes (either single video or broken up across multiple videos). Must include audio and image of works. Should be casually scripted, geared toward information and education. Needs to be well-produced and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

Long-Form Video (e.g. video podcast) — 10 minute, single-video. More scripted than short-form video, can have more focused conversation. Imagine someone is watching your video as part of a longer series on art appreciation. Needs to be well-produced and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

Visual (e.g. painting) — You can create a work of art that engages with your 1 or 2 reference works and the themes and concepts from the class. You’ve got to figure out what your citational practice is. Needs to be well-considered and cite relevant materials in a manner consonant with the medium.

You can turn in both assignments at any point Weeks 3-9.

Report from the Field — 25 points total

You’ve got to take yourself on an art date that also functions as research for your own curatorial pitch. On this art dates you want to simply spend time with yourself amongst art but you also want to learn more about how art is curated, installed, and discursively framed. 

Research a local art gallery or museum that will have black art on view this quarter. You want to pay attention to the art but you want to pay specific attention to how the exhibition is framed: What does the curator’s statement tell you? What does the wall text tell you? What decisions did they make about where and how the work was installed? What is the flow between and across the work? What is the lighting like? What were successful connections between the discursive framing of the work and the work itself?

Your site visit report can be in whatever tone or style of writing that feels natural and, importantly, useful for you and reflective of your thinking. When in doubt, the report should be somewhere between a note to self and an actual report that might help someone else understand what’s happening in the exhibition and how they themselves might take that information to create their own show.

The report should be 750-900 words and should include:

• Description of the exhibition and particular curatorial choices that struck you
• Description of how key works and concepts worked well
• Curatorial choices that felt successful to you and why
• Curatorial choices that you would have done differently and why

This is not a big word count: your writing should be focused and concise.

We will go together to the Henry Art Gallery to learn some of the ropes of being in an art exhibition space! (This class visit cannot be used your Report from the Field assignments.)

Art spaces to consider:

• Arté Noire
• Wa Na Wari
• Made Space
• Northwest African American Museum
• Taswira
• Henry Art Gallery
• Jacob Lawrence Gallery

You can turn in your report at any time Weeks 3-7.

Curatorial Pitch — 35 points

Propose a group exhibition featuring at least 4 artists encountered in class materials and/or lectures. Research exhibitions you have visited and/or other exhibitions of black art in order to understand the format, tone, and content of exhibition descriptions.

Your pitch should include:

• 400-word curatorial statement that frames and contextualizes the themes of exhibition, details about the specific artists, themes, and concepts the exhibition dialogues with. This is not a huge amount of space, so you've got to be focused, concise, and direct will also illustrating the richness of the exhibition.
• List of specific works to be included, with all correctly formatted identifying information. You should have at least 4 artworks in your exhibition but that is the bare minimum; depending on the size/shape of your exhibition space, it is highly likely that you will need more than 4 artists or more than 1 work per artist to fill your space. 
• 3-5 sentence "wall text" to accompany each work, meant to provide information, context, prompts, guidance, etc. for the exhibition visitor. Must have at least 4 wall texts—if you have an exhibition of more than 4 works, which you should, you do not need to make wall texts for every single piece of work.
• Design of the layout of how the work will be installed in the exhibition space (must choose a real space or design your own gallery space). Can be hand-drawn.
• Selection of 3-4 scholars or artists encountered in class whose writing you would commission for the exhibition catalog, with 3-5 sentences describing what you’d like them to address and why. Essentially an annotated bibliography. If you select artists, they must be artists who have a demonstrated writerly profile—do not select artists who do not have ample writing about theirs or other people's work.
• A short biography describing your curatorial interests. Read examples of curators' bios.

Compile everything into a single PDF or link to a website with all of the information. Your final pitch is due May 29.

GRADES

Grading a student's knowledge can be all but impossible using the 4.0 grade scale that requires us to translate critical engagement into numbers. This is especially the case when we're in a class like this, where the goal is to develop and enhance your critical thinking skills. We are all bound by this GPA-based grading system (it affects everything from our financial aid to our mental health) but there are ways to push against it in order to, hopefully, lessen your stress and, ideally, more accurately describe the hard work you put in to being a present student.

That is why your work in this course is assessed using a version of ungradingLinks to an external site.. You won't receive letter grades for your individual assignments; instead, your work will be marked as complete or incomplete and you'll receive short, narrative feedback on completed work. 

An assignment will be marked complete if it is turned in, meets the requirements of the assignment details, and demonstrates close consideration of the materials in question. Completed assignments receive full points.

Should you turn in an assignment but the work be deemed unsatisfactory, you will be be marked incomplete and receive half points. You will be given the opportunity to revise your assignment and resubmit it in order to receive full points. There are a few reasons why your submitted work may be deemed unsatisfactory and marked incomplete:

• It is clear that you did not attend lecture or engage with the assigned materials. This may look like you simply not referencing these materials, or that you exclusively or mainly reference materials from outside of the course.
• You engage with course materials but seem to really misunderstand the ideas and concepts at play. 
• You will not be assessed based on language or punctuation—but if language barriers or a complete lack of grammatical norms makes it difficult if not impossible to understand the meanings you're trying to communicate, you may be asked to revise and resubmit your writing.

If you do not turn in an assignment it will be marked incomplete and you will receive no points. You can turn in late work—if you do, it will be assessed according to the information outlined above. Please be considerate (and patient) in turning in late work. If you think you will rush to catch up on a bunch of work, let your TA know so that they can plan their workload accordingly.

Your final grade is calculated by adding your total points, and your total points correspond to a GPA on the GWSS Grade ScaleLinks to an external site.. For example, if you complete enough assignments to get 90 points, you will receive a 3.4.

Deadlines

The assignment deadlines are there so that the instructors can manage their workloads, and so that you have guidelines for managing your own workload. You will not, however, be penalized for turning in late work— any and all late or revised assignments are due by June 5.  Please be as considerate as possible so as to not cram and overload us with late and last-minute work! Final grades are due to the university by June 11, getting everything in by the 5th will allow us time to go through late work at a reasonable pace.

Grade Appeal Procedure

A student who believes that an instructor erred in the assignment of a grade, or who believes a grade recording error or omission has occurred, should first discuss the matter with the instructor, before the end of the following academic quarter. If the student is not satisfied with the instructor's explanation, the student, no later than ten days after his or her discussion with the instructor, may submit a written appeal to the chair of the department, with a copy of the appeal also sent to the instructor. Within ten calendar days, the chair consults with the instructor to ensure that the evaluation of the student's performance has not been arbitrary or capricious. Should the chair believe the instructor's conduct to be arbitrary or capricious and the instructor declines to revise the grade, the chair, with the approval of the voting members of his or her faculty, shall appoint an appropriate member, or members, of the faculty of that department to evaluate the performance of the student and assign a grade. The dean and Provost should be informed of this action. Once a student submits a written appeal, this document and all subsequent actions on this appeal are recorded in written form for deposit in a department or college file. (UW Student Guide, General Catalog, Grading)

Incompletes

Taking an “incomplete” (I) for this class is strongly discouraged and will be allowed only under extraordinary circumstances with prior arrangements. If you have any concerns about this class, instructor, or a teaching assistant, please see us as soon as possible.

An Incomplete is given only when the student has satisfactorily participated in this courses’ online components and assignment details until within two weeks of the end of the quarter, and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control. A written statement of the reason for the giving of the Incomplete, listing the work which the student will need to do to remove it, must be filed by the instructor with the head of the department or the dean of the college in which the course is given. (UW Student Guide, General Catalog, Grading)

ACCESSIBILITY

This particular class may not give you the kind of individualized attention that can best serve your learning needs, let alone make you feel engaged and connected. There are some things I'll try to make sure happen in our time together:

• Feel free to get up, move around, take rest breaks as much as you need during our time together.
• If you need to eat something, please be conscious of other people's sensory experience and allergies. Feel free to step out if you need to take a food break.
• We will take a 10 minute break in the middle of class to give everyone a minute to reset
• All lecture notes and scripts and lecture slides will be posted to Canvas following each class session (they will be uploaded to the relevant week/module).
• Do not email your instructor(s) if you need to miss class—you don't need to justify not coming! However, if you are having a long-term interruption in your daily goings on, please do let us know if it feels relevant.
• We will sometimes watch media together. I will work within the constraints of the relevant media and classroom technology to provide the right lighting, sound, and captioning (when possible). All media clips will be made available after class.

POLICIES

In an effort to create a safe online classroom environment, no one in this classroom as the right to download and distribute any writing, audio, and/or video produced by any members of the class, including the professor, on any online platforms or other public or private forums. Students who desire to download and distribute any writing, audio, and/or video produced by a member of the class must first solicit approval from the professor and from the student in question.

If one wants to download and distribute any writing, audio, and/or video made by members of the class due to a disability, please contact Disability Resources for Students and follow their processes for requesting accommodations. If someone is granted permission to download any writing, audio, and/or video made for any portion of any class, they agree that they do not have permission to reproduce or post the information to anybody, and do not have permission to reproduce or post the information on any online platforms or other public or private forums as doing so would infringe on the privacy rights of those represented in audio and/or video recordings. The person requesting permission to download any writing, audio, and/or video made for any portion of any class must also secure permission to distribute said material to online platforms or other public or private forums.

Academic Integrity

People often cheat or plagiarize because they don’t fully understand an assignment, or if they are feeling stressed or overwhelmed about the reading or your assignments (or by everyday life). Always make an appointment with me or your TA if you’re feeling overwhelmed. It’s very easy to learn to manage your time—but it also takes practice and sometimes requires guidance to learn how to do so.

That said, students at the University of Washington are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic conduct. Most UW students conduct themselves with integrity and are disturbed when they observe others cheating. The most common form of cheating is plagiarism, presenting someone else’s work as your own. The University of Washington takes plagiarism very seriously. Plagiarism may lead to disciplinary action by the University against the student who submitted the work. To avoid unintentional misconduct and clarify the consequences of cheating see the Student Academic Responsibility Statement at the following link:

http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf (Links to an external site.)

Concerns about a Course, Instructor, or Teaching Assistant 

If you have any concerns about a GWSS course, instructor or teaching assistant, please see the instructor or teaching assistant as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the instructor or teaching assistant, or are not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact GWSS’s undergraduate advisor (gwssadvs@uw.edu) or the chair of the department in Padelford B-110. 

Religious Accommodation Resources

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/).

Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious- accommodations-request/).

Disability And Accommodation Resources

Disability Resources for Students (Links to an external site.) offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.

It is the University of Washington’s policy to provide support services to students needing accommodations that encourage them toward self-sufficient management, including their ability to participate in course activities and meet course requirements.

Students requiring accommodation and support may contact Disability Resources for Students at 448 Schmitz Hall, through their website, or by calling them at (206) 543-8924 (voice) or (206) 543-8925 (voice/TTY). Let’s work together to facilitate your very best work in the course.

If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), please contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or http://www.disability.uw.eduLinks to an external site..