Global Foundations
Exhibition Paper Assignment
4-5 pages
You are the curator of a small art museum in the mid-west. The owner of a large construction company – with an eye toward generating some good pr – is planning to sponsor a small art
show in one of the three museums in your state.
To win this impressive opportunity, you are requested to submit a proposal for the exhibition you would mount in your museum.
The sponsor is interested in the Middle Ages, and wants you to conceive of a 1-room
exhibition with 6-10 works of art. He would like you to select representative objects that
reflect the diversity of the Medieval Period both in Europe, and in the East.
This is your golden opportunity! A chance to bring together great works of art from any
museum you want, to introduce your community to some culture – and hopefully generate some revenue for the museum.
This assignment – write your proposal.
Tell me which works you would choose and why. What will be the theme of your exhibition,
the thread that ties them all together? How would you display them? How do the works relate to each other? What do you want people to take from your show? Are there any points you are trying to make? Would you have labels? Brochures? A video? Souvenirs? All up to you.
You may submit either a paper or a powerpoint; be sure to give references or illustrations of
the works you choose.
You should choose works in various styles from multiple points in the Middle Ages and
multiple cultures, but they should date from this time period, i.e., 300-1300 AD, and they
should center around a particular theme – power, war, women, costume, etc.
A few additional notes:
A few notes on the assignment
You can do either a paper or a powerpoint; the text should be approximately 800-1000 words either way.
If you are selecting something not in the textbook, please include either an illustration or a
link, and in any case, be sure to identify the works fully (artist, title, date, etc.)
Your exhibition will work better if you find something very specific to focus on, and your text should explain what the rationale for that selection is – why did you choose that work, and how does it fit into the overall theme you would present with your show.
Two good sources for pictures are the Met’s website (www.metmuseum.org (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)) or a database called Artstor that you can access from the library’s site (it is a subscription database, so you have to go through the Montclair library site to access it). Neither site has a particularly good search engine, but they both have lots of images, so they are useful for starting out.
If you have any questions, have trouble finding images, or want to run your idea by me, just let me know.
