JAN 108 - Experiencing Museums

Type:  In-Person
Course Meeting Days & Times:  MTuThF, 12:00 PM-2:30:00 PM

Instructor(s): Manter, Lisa & Spero, Susan
Email: lmanter@stmarys-ca.edu
Fee: $150

Course Description:  Museums reflect a community’s culture and are places for lifelong learning. In this class you will experience museums through on-site visits, in-class discussions and lectures. As you develop your museum literacy skills and improve your visual intelligence, you will enjoy your visits more and be able to creatively engage with the objects you encounter. By practicing basic interpretative skills, you will also build the confidence to approach any object or exhibition. In addition to exploratory weekly reflections where you can reflect and ask questions, the two larger assignments for the course will provide a place for you to show off your newly-honed interpretive abilities in two different ways. The “Art Back” assignment provides a chance to creatively respond to a particular object or exhibit. The “Reading for an Other” allows you to use the insights you have learned throughout the term to craft an experience for an imagined visitor. This course is fully in-person and requires some travel to museums in the Bay Area. Students must be able to travel to and attend museum tours in person.

Please note: Our 3 site visits to off-campus museums will typically last twice as long as a typical class period, so we will only meet 2 days on campus each week when we have off-campus museum visits. Students will need to have flexible schedules to be able to budget time for these required museum visits and the travel time to those sites. Though there will only be one 5-hour off-campus visit per week, due to the different schedules of the museums, students need to be available between 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesday for these required visits.

Please note the class will meet:  Week 1: W, Th, F. Week 2: M, T, TH, F. Week 3: T, W, Th, F. Week 4: M, T, Th, F.

Prerequisites & Notes
None

Credits: 3