AHY 3309 - Socially Engaged Art Practice

Credits: 4
Socially Engaged Art Practice examines a worldwide contemporary art current, emergent since the early 1990s, as it has been theorized under different concepts and practiced in  various forms. Socially engaged art practitioners focus on difference, division and inequality in society and seek to engender a productive dialogue on pertinent social and political issues  affecting marginalized communities. The course is thematically organized and divided into two major parts. In the first part of the semester, the course addresses art historical  genealogies such as Dada and Russian Constructivism, the Situationist International in Europe and the Harlem Renaissance, the Womanhouse and the Art Worker’s Coalition in the US.  n the second part of the semester, it focuses on practices after 1989 and it brings together different theoretical approaches and case studies from Europe and the US. Through  assigned readings, journal entries, in-class discussions, formal and informal presentations and group work, the course will engage students in thinking critically about topics such as: Public Art, Place and Dislocation in the Contemporary City; Community, Site and Audience Engagement; Participation and Collaboration; Ethics and Aesthetics; Types of Collaboration across Communities; and Curators, Institutions and Exhibitions of Socially Engaged Art.

 
Note: Field Trip Fee $40
McDaniel Plan: Multicultural