Reference no: EM133206658

Assignment: American Identity Curatorial Essay

A curator is an individual who organizes an exhibition by selecting works and placing them within a particular context or arrangement so as to create some kind of meaning. In any art exhibition, art is not randomly placed in a room. A curator intentionally placed each art piece in a meaningful order. In addition, a curator will write a curatorial essay explaining the value, purpose and meaning of the exhibition. Developing a context for an exhibition can include the use of thematic, conceptual, or formal approaches. Curators also write exhibiton essays for publications such as exhibition catalogs as well as other material that will enhance the audience's experiences with the exhibition.

For our unit assessment, the curatorial essay is a great opportunity to help a student communicate a position to an inquiry - or in this case, addressing an essential question. A curatorial essay can guide the way readers perceives your idea/position when using a collection of work. It's a chance to communicate directly with readers, help them understand your point of view when addressing the essential question. In other words, the museum art pieces is all the unit content. And the student get's to decide what is going to be in the essay that address the essential question.

When writing the curated essay for this assessment, it's good to keep some general guidelines in mind.

1. The essay should be a minimum 3-5 paragraphs. It can be helpful to follow a basic essay structure-for example, using the first paragraph to establish the overall answer and explanation to the essential question.

2. The following paragraph should provide the range of unit evidence that connect, and also should suggest the wider significance of your perspective of the essential question. If there's a particular unit source that was especially instrumental in the way you thought about the essential question, it might be interesting to describe that work in depth to draw the reader into your thought process.

3. You should also think about the style of the curatorial essay. You want to be specific enough when articulating your answer to the essential question to engage the readers, but avoid using personalized, editorial opinions that might alienate a reader, for not everyone has the same experience or prior knowledge of the unit. For instance, if there is a specific term that's essential to the theme of the unit, make sure to define it in your curatorial essay.

4. As is the case in this example, a thoughtful consideration of your readers can often help you articulate your ideas more clearly.

5. The most important element here is that you are addressing the essential question. Therefore, the chosen evidence must be addressing the essential question. We are not summarizing. We are addressing the essential question.

In general, you want an informative and persuasive tone, somewhere in between an academic paper and a newspaper article. That means no use of the word "I" or first-person observations. The samples below should help you get a feel for the appropriate tone.

Essential Question

According to the unit, why does the American master narrative limit the American identity?

Ideas?

1. What connections do you draw between the unit content that can address the essential question?

2. What shared ideas, themes, or positions can you bring our from the unit that address the essential question?

3. Here is a basic example - Curate: Sample of Curatorial Statement

Support

1. Feel free to collaborate with your Learning Squad or ask for help to proof read your work.

2. I am here for you to attend to any submission assistance.

REDO

If you receive a REDO, it's totally OK. Big deal. You get a second chance to resubmit. We will work together to get this project completed. Here is your process to REDO the project:

1. R- Reflect back at your process and think about how you can improve. Take note at what you need to improve. If it requires my assistance, Pronto me and we can set up a meeting via Pronto.

2. E- Edit your work. Most of all academic work is editing. Getting right the first time is VERY rare. So Editing can be very rewarding, for it enables scholars to take time to augment the project, or establish more clarity to the final curatorial statement.

3. D- Discover a new pathway, angle or approach to complete the progress forward. It's your second chance.

4. O- Observe any patterns that might leverage your progress in the course. Observe any obstacles and let me know if I can help or your own community of support. Observe your own learning opportunities.