Unit Assignments
Unit I Essay : Experiencing Public Art
For this assignment, you will select a public sculpture that interests you. Public sculptures include any work displayed in public with the goal of being accessible to everyone outside of a museum or building. Write an essay about an outdoor sculpture that you have seen in person. If you are unable to photograph a local sculpture, please locate one from your community or neighboring city using the Internet, and be sure to visit it.
You must be sure to choose a sculpture that you have seen in person so that you can give your description of what you felt when you experienced it. Take a photograph of the sculpture, and include your photo with this essay. If you are unable to take a photograph, locate one from the Internet. Include the photograph of the artwork on the fourth page by pasting the image into a Word document along with your written essay.
Address the following points in your essay:
Title, artist, and location of the artwork.
How would you describe the artwork?
Why it is there, and what (or who) does it represent?
What was the source of the funding for this artwork?
How did you feel about it the first time you saw it?
Do you feel the same about it now?
Formatting:
Title page (1 page)
Written Essay (2 pages)
Image(s) (1 page)
References (1 page)
Use Times New Roman font. Double space all lines, and indent the first line of each paragraph. Your title page should be correctly formatted with a running head and page number listed in the header area. Include your title, name, and school centered on the title page. Your written essay should contain at least three paragraphs (including introductory and conclusion paragraphs). Your last page will have the word "References" centered at the top.
All sources used, including the textbook, must be cited and included on the reference page. When you use a statement from a source, you need to credit the source in this format: (last name of author(s), year) at the end of the sentence before the period.
For direct quotes, use quotation marks, and add the page number to your citation. An example of a citation for a quotation from page 5 of our textbook would be (Frank, 2014, p. 5).
Additionally, information you obtain from an outside source must be included on the reference page. If you would like additional assistance with APA, click here to access the CSU Citation Guide.
Unit II Assignment : Art Gallery: Selecting a Theme and Gallery Pieces
Throughout this course, you will be working toward completing your course project, an art gallery. This project will be a PowerPoint presentation that you will build upon with each unit. After each unit, you will review your instructor's feedback and revise your presentation accordingly.
For your first assignment, you will select a theme and five works of art for your art gallery. You will carry this theme throughout the course, and your additions for each unit will all relate back to this selected theme. Using your textbook, select a theme. You can select an artist, a historical period, or a type of art. It can be modern or traditional. Select a theme that interests you-one that you would be interested in learning more about. Once you have a theme selected, select five works of art that fall under that theme. You can use multiple works of art created by the same artist.
You will find a few examples of themes in the list below:
Scenes depicted, such as war landscapes, water, or mountains
Topics such as horses, flowers, or religion
Types of art, such as graphic art, comic art, or photographs
Techniques such as murals or sculptures
Begin by opening the "Course Resources" tab to find the template provided for your art gallery. In the course, you should see a tab on the left blue bar labeled "Course Resources" located under the COURSE CONTENT heading. Once you open the template, save it to your computer to complete. You will use this template throughout the course as you build your art gallery. Read the instructions for each assignment carefully to see which slides to complete. Be sure to add your own creative elements, including the background and graphics. You may also add more slides.
For this portion of the presentation, you should complete at least nine slides of the template that include the following:
Title slide: Include the title of your presentation, your name, the university's name, and the date.
Introduction slide 1: Include why this theme interests you and what you hope to learn, using complete sentences.
Introduction slide 2: Include the title of your theme and a brief overview of the theme. Use supporting facts and complete sentences.
Artwork slides: Complete the five artwork slides. Include a visual of the artwork along with its title, artist, date, media (materials used in the artwork), and artwork citation.
Reference slide: You must use at least your textbook as an outside source. Be sure to follow APA format for all sources used, including the textbook and artwork.
Unit III Assignment : Art Gallery: Visual Elements
For Unit III of your art gallery presentation, you will be adding descriptions of the visual elements you observe in the artworks you placed in your art gallery. The purpose of this unit assignment is to demonstrate that you can apply what you learned about visual elements to your gallery artworks.
Begin by reviewing your Unit II feedback and making any necessary revisions.
Place one Visual Elements slide directly after the artwork it describes.
Next, research the elements using Chapter 3 of your textbook.
Make sure you describe all of the visual elements from Chapter 3 using complete sentences. Questions to consider are included below:
o Line: Describe what kind of lines are in the artwork (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, thick, thin, etc.). What do the lines do? Do they lead your eye to something?
o Shape: Describe what kind of shapes are in the artwork and where they appear. Are there circular shapes in clouds, rectangular shapes in buildings?
o Light: Where is the light coming from? What is it highlighting?
o Color: What colors are used? Are the colors bright, tints, muted? Are they different shades of one hue?
o Texture: Is there a pattern on some area in the artwork? Is there a paint texture such as impasto?
o Mass: Is the artwork heavier in one area?
o Time: Is there anything in the artwork that gives the sense of time? Is it a daytime or nighttime scene?
o Motion: Is motion depicted? Are people walking, running, floating, or climbing toward something?
You must use at least your textbook as an outside source. Be sure to follow APA format for all sources used, including the textbook. When adding your own opinion or observation, you will not need a citation as it is an original thought.
Unit IV Assignment : Art Gallery: Principles of Design
For Unit IV of your art gallery presentation, you will be adding descriptions of the principles of design you observe in the artworks you placed in your art gallery. The purpose of this unit assignment is to demonstrate that you can apply what you learned about design principles to your gallery artworks.
Begin by reviewing your Unit III feedback and making any necessary revisions to the descriptions of the visual elements.
Next, research the design elements in Chapter 4 of your textbook.
Place the Design Principles slide directly after the Visual Elements slide describing each artwork.
Provide a detailed description of the design principles in each artwork, using full and complete sentences. For design principles, make sure you describe how the artist used most or all of the ones in Chapter 4: unity and variety, balance, emphasis, directional forces, contrast, repetition and rhythm, and scale and proportion.
Questions to consider are included below:
o Unity: What elements work together to make a harmonious whole?
o Variety: What creates diversity?
o Balance: Is it symmetrical or asymmetrical?
o Emphasis: What is the focal point?
o Directional forces: What are the paths for the eye to follow?
o Contrast: Where do you see contrasting elements in the artwork?
o Repetition and rhythm: Is an element repeated?
o Scale and proportion: Are the objects in proportion to each other?
You do not need to cite a source if it is your observation. Only cite a source if you are using information that someone published. Be sure to use APA formatting for all outside sources.
Unit V Assignment : Art Gallery: Critique
For Unit V of the art gallery presentation, you will again be adding to your PowerPoint presentation.
For this segment, you will be adding a critique of your gallery pieces and explaining how and if they fit into each of the art criticism theories discussed in this course. Art criticism theories (formal, contextual, and expressive) help art historians and critics categorize art. An artwork will not represent a theory, but a theory can lead to a better understanding of the artwork.
Begin by reviewing your Unit IV feedback and making any necessary revisions.
Next, research the three art criticism theories listed in Chapter 5 of your textbook and the Unit V Lesson. Be sure to use APA format.
Use the template slides labeled "Art Criticism Theories."
Complete three (3) slides, one for each of the art criticism theories: formal, contextual, and expressive.
For each slide, address the following:
Describe the art criticism theory.
Tell why you feel this theory is the best fit for the artwork.
Tell how the theory explains one of your gallery artworks.
Explain how the purpose and structure of the work relate to this theory.
Unit VI Assignment : Art Gallery: Background
For Unit VI of your art gallery presentation, you will be adding a written description of the background information on your artworks to your PowerPoint presentation.
Be sure to review your Unit V feedback and make any necessary revisions. Next, research the background and details of your artworks using your textbook, the course content, and the CSU Online Library.
For this segment, use the slides in the art gallery template labeled "Background." You will need one for each artwork. You may include more than one idea on each slide, but please do not overload the slides with information. Be sure to address the following:
Describe the time period of the artwork.
Include information on the artist of the artworks.
Include facts that relate to your selected art pieces. For example, if your artwork depicts a war, it may be helpful to give information about that war.
Be sure to use APA format during this assignment. It is important to give credit to the source that provided your information. At the end of a sentence where you have information from a source, add a citation. The citation should consist of the author or authors' last name(s) and the year of publication. For our textbook, it would be (Frank, 2014). If it is a quotation, add a page or paragraph number. For example, an in-text citation for a quote from your textbook would look like this: (Frank, 2014, p. 119). Place the full reference for the source on the References slide at the end.
Unit VII Essay
For the Unit VII Essay, you will visit an art museum of your choice. You may visit one in person or take a virtual tour via the Internet. Below is a list of museums that offer virtual tours that you may want to review for this assignment. Please note that you are not limited to this list:
Louvre
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery
You may select a virtual tour from this list or use the list included under the Websites tab in the Art Appreciation Libguide in the CSU Library at this link. Please include the name and location of your museum in your introductory paragraph.
For this essay, write about two artworks from the periods we read about in Unit VII: Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionist, or Post-Impressionist periods.
For each piece, address the following:
Include the title, artist, date, medium, and scale.
Describe the artwork.
Describe the artist's role in his or her society/community.
What do you think is the artist's message?
What are the cultural significances of this piece?
What historical elements are included in this piece?
Formatting:
Your essay will be at least five pages in length and include the following:
Title page (1 page)
Written Essay (2 pages)
Image(s) (1 page)
References (1 page)
Use Times New Roman 12-point font. Double space all lines, and indent the first line of each paragraph. Your title page should be correctly formatted with a Running Head and page number listed in the Header area. Include your title, name, and school centered on the title page. Your written essay should contain at least three paragraphs (including an introductory and conclusion). Your last page will have the word "References" centered at the top.
All sources used, including the museum, must be cited and included on the reference page. When you use a statement from any outside source, you need to credit the source in this format: (last name of author(s), year) at the end of the sentence before the period.
Unit VIII Course Project : Art Gallery: Commentary
For Unit VIII, the last segment of your art gallery course project, you will be adding a comprehensive statement to your PowerPoint presentation and finalizing your segments from the previous units. You will submit the entire presentation, including those portions from previous units, for a final grade.
Begin by reviewing your Unit VI feedback and making any necessary revisions. In your comprehensive statement, present the last words on your art gallery. Summarize your thoughts and convey the larger implications of your art gallery. This is an opportunity to succinctly answer the "So what?" question by placing the presentation within the context of research about the topic you have investigated. Be sure to demonstrate the importance of your ideas. Do not be shy. The comprehensive statement offers you a chance to elaborate on the significance of your findings.
For this segment, use the slides in the art gallery template labeled "Comprehensive Statement." A minimum of three PowerPoint slides are required; however, you are welcome to add as many as you feel you need. You may include more than one idea on each slide, but please do not overload the slides with information.
Be sure to address the following in your comprehensive statement:
Describe what you learned about art in general.
Describe what you learned about the art criticism theory.
Describe what you learned about art's role in society.
Citations and references are not a requirement for this section, but if you choose to use outside sources, they must be cited and referenced accordingly.
Although you do not need to add any new sources for the commentary section, you will need to ensure all APA guidelines are followed for the presentation as a whole.