Curator

CURATING AN EXHIBITION: PowerPoint Presentation Assignment
ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS:
For your Curator Project Assignment, you will need to “curate” an imaginary exhibition.
A curator is an overseer or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (such as a museum,
library, or gallery). A curator has many responsibilities, but this assignment is focusing
on the selection and interpretation of works of art.
You will be choosing artworks (that you may find in the course textbook or other course
materials) to group together for a hypothetical exhibition. Have you ever wondered,
when going through a museum or gallery, why certain works are placed next to one
another? Often works can be grouped according to a time period, a geographical area,
a stylistic movement, or a theme that transcends all of these. For this assignment,
you will be choosing a theme to design your collection or artworks around.
You will need to choose 6 to 8 works of art to include in your exhibition. The amount is
up to you – depending on what you are inspired by (you must have a minimum of 6
works, but you can choose up to 8 if you prefer). You will begin by deciding a theme for
your imaginary exhibition. You will choose one theme from the list provided (listed at the
bottom of this assignment).
● The theme you choose will be like a compass guiding you to what artworks
you decide to pair together. This theme will be the title of your exhibition,
after all. Think about what the theme means to you – I have provided phrases
that are open-ended enough to leave you plenty of room for interpretation.
After you develop an explanation about what this theme means to you, then
you can search for artworks that help communicate this idea.
● After you have chosen a theme, you will need to spend some time browsing
the possible works of art that we have studied. You will need to think about
which pieces fit into the theme that you have selected. You will eventually
narrow down your list and choose 6-8 final works to work with.
○ Your chosen artworks must be from a minimum of three
different stylistic movements.
■ You are welcome to explore other artworks to use in your
presentation beyond what is included in the course
textbook and content materials. However, you will need
to include the following information for any work of art:
the artist’s name (if known), the title of the artwork, the
year it was created, and the media/materials it is made
from.
● You will put together a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrates your
exhibition. The PowerPoint should state and explain your theme, show each
work of art individually, and finish with a slide that shows all of your artworks
(a group shot), and explains how the groupof art works with the theme you
chose.
PowerPoint File Guidelines:
● Your PowerPoint will need to include images of each artwork in your
exhibition. You may show multiple images of the same artwork (if it is a
sculpture or has different viewpoints, for example).
● When you have an image of an artwork, you need to include identification
information next to it. You should list the following information for each image:
○ Artist/creator (if known – if not, then put the culture or appropriate
identifier).
○ Title of work (this should be italicized).
○ Year work was created.
○ Media (materials the work is made out of)
● You should include an explanation for how each artwork goes along with your
theme. This written explanation can be done on the same slide as the image,
or you can choose to have a separate slide with the text on it. The
explanation is important for you to communicate your thoughts and the
reasons for how your artwork belongs in your exhibition – based on how it
goes along with your theme.
● At the end of your PowerPoint, you are required to have a slide that shows
all of the artworks together that will be in your exhibition.
● You should also have a final explanation (probably best in a separate slide)
where you talk about how the collection of all of your chosen artworks
expresses your theme – in a way that is different than how each individual
work does. Often, when artworks are paired together, they change
relative meaning. The group says something that the individual
artworks cannot say on their own. You will write about this and how it
incorporates the theme you have chosen. You will need to explain your
opinion of how each work adds a meaning to the collection or theme –
basically why each work of art was chosen to be in the exhibition.
– Remember, you have ample time to complete this assignment, and that will be taken
into account when I evaluate the quality of your work and the effort you have put forth.
Before you begin this assignment, you should look at the two sample/example
PowerPoint presentations that are in the Modules Section on Canvas. There are two
different PowerPoint examples of this assignment in the Module titled “Curator
Assignment Sample Presentations.”
IMPORTANT: You must use your own words when writing this assignment. It is
prohibited to plagiarize and copy information from other sources, including the internet
and books. If you include any quotes from another source, you must properly cite them
to give the recognition to the original source. Assignments will be checked for
plagiarism. If your writing contains more than 5% of duplicate content that is not
sourced, the assignment will receive an automatic F, as a failing grade.
If you do properly source material and include it in your paper, keep in mind that there
are limits to how many quotes you should include. This assignment calls for your
writing, and if you turn in a paper with multiple long quotes of other people’s words,
where these quotes account for the majority of your content, you will lose points. Citing
other material and including it in your assignment should be used only when you feel
that the quote specifically adds to your argument or description.
You must use complete sentences and proper grammar. This assignment involves
ample time given for completion. Remember to proof-read, use spell check, and if
necessary, submit your written content to writing tutoring resources. You will lose points
for spelling and grammar errors.
Possible Themes for Imaginary Exhibition:
“Troublemakers: Pushing the Envelope”
“Re-appropriation”
“Cultural Thieves: Taking from the Past and Repurposing for the Present”
“Classical Beauty: Looking Through the Mirror Into the Past”
“Masters of the World”
“Form Over Function”
● YOU MAY CHOOSE A DIFFERENT THEME THAT YOU HAVE COME UP
WITH ON YOUR OWN, BUT YOU MUST FIRST GET APPROVAL OF YOUR
THEME FROM THE INSTRUCTOR.