Abstract
Gabe Wilson, Curator of Exhibitions & Collections at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, and I have developed a course for Appalachian State University that provides first-semester college students training in artwork analysis (critical thinking), research at the college level, and rhetorical decision-making. Each student is assigned a newly-acquired artwork that museum staff haven’t yet had a chance to study. The student researches artist, artwork, medium, style, etc., and fills a research portfolio with relevant articles from university databases. Students know they are launching the museum’s file on the artwork and that they have access to scholarship that museum staff does not due to museum budget limitations, so they are highly motivated to succeed in their research. Each student writes a paper that summarizes their research findings and analyzes the artwork; this paper is also included in the portfolio. Finally, in consultation with Mr. Wilson, students write 100-word labels text to be mounted in installations and read by potentially thousands of museum visitors. This daunts them in a wonderful way, causing students to weigh every word’s rhetorical effects on prospective museum-goers. Students earn credit for the required introduction to college writing course and for the required first-year seminar, and BRAHM receives abundant scholarship on their newest acquisitions. Those interested in experiential learning, multi-disciplinary learning, service-learning, museum-university collaboration, label text writing, and, above all, engaging young people with the work of museums might be interested in the study.
Presenters
Audrey FesslerSenior Lecturer, English, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Museum-University Collaboration, Experiential Learning, Engaging College Students, Leveraging Research
