Virtual Black Cultural Art Events

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General suggestions include virtual attendance at a public reading of poetry, fiction, &/or other literature; virtual attendance at a public festival, play, &/or music performance; virtual attendance at a public museum. 

 You might check out the Tacoma Art Museum for exhibits by and/or about black culture. You might also check out the NW African American Museum listed below.

Northwest African American Museum (Links to an external site.)

www.naamnw.org/‎Northwest African American Museum, NAAM … Northwest African American Museum 2300 SOUTH MASSACHUSETTS ST SEATTLE, WA 98144 206-518-6000 …Google+ page (Links to an external site.) · Be the first to review (Links to an external site.) 2300 S Massachusetts St  Seattle, WA 98144, United States
+1 206-518-6000

This Virtual Black Cultural Art Event Exchange: Use this optional forum to share ideas of upcoming, interesting virtual cultural art events to attend in preparation for the upcoming Mid-term Black Cultural Art Report in Week 5. When choosing events, you will need to choose events at which an art by black artists is highlighted that you will define and describe. When attending these virtual black cultural art events, you’re asked to note specific, concrete details of the art, the artists, the audience or intended audience, and the place. It is especially important to describe the concrete details and to consider what they reveal. Who are the people that make up the intended audience? Who are the artists? What are the materials and message of the art? Where is the art displayed and who has access to this place, particularly in non-pandemic times? What can you tell about race, class, and gender? Be specific. If people of all races, classes, genders, sexual orientations are the intended audience, describe concretely who you would expect to see. For instance, is the intended audience primarily, say 90% (or some other %), one race/class/gender/sexual orientation or another? What details would you note regarding class and gender? What would be the cost of the art and entry to view/experience the art? What are the labels used to name the genre of the art? Is it folk art? Fine art? “Alternative” art? How might all of these relate to what you’re reading in our text? How might these relate to a history of institutionalized hierarchies of so-called norms, oppressions, and advantages and disadvantages? 

You will need to develop details that show. You’ll need to consider what you’ve read about race, gender, sexual orientation, and class, and discuss these in shaping both the event (the art as well as the participants) and your experience of the event. You might also consider the function of the art in relation to race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. You’ll need to clearly identify what you see as the art, the artists, the audience (other visitors or attendees intended to view the art), and the place. 

Things to consider in choosing an event:

Our text focuses primarily on race, providing a context of the definitions, history, laws, personal and systemic effects and actions that shape how we come to think of and be affected by those ideas. For some of us there will be information that is new and even shocking, presenting many opportunities for rethinking what we have come to believe. The intent in this class is to read and discuss these ideas, all the while keeping in mind the study of humanities, which includes the study and practice of art. Over the course of the quarter we will be paying attention to the presence and role of art in our own and in others’ lives. What is it we (both individually and culturally) label as art? Perhaps it’s a thing: a painting, a song, a novel, a poem, a sculpture, a ceramic bowl, a mask, a quilt, a basket, a building, etc. Perhaps it’s an action: the landscaping: the landscaping of a private and/or public space, the painting of a home or building, a ritual, the decorating of interior spaces. Or perhaps it’s a way of acting, as in “the art” of relating to others, to living, to playing a sport, to being a student, to resolving conflict, etc.

The point in virtually attending black cultural art events for this class is to experience art in terms of race, class, gender. In choosing a black cultural art event, you will need to define the art you want to experience, and, once virtually viewing the event, you will need to note details of what you see as the art, the artists, the other intended observers, and the place at which the event occurs. Furthermore, your observations of the art, artists, other intended observers, and place are to reflect specific details of race, class, and gender.

In short, it is up to you to choose the specific events, keeping in mind that what you see as art, in the context of race, class, and gender, must be central to the event. It would also be good to choose an event that is in some way new to you.

As stated in the syllabus, you will be writing a mid-term formal black cultural art report on both course assignments and attendance this quarter at two black cultural art events. In preparing for this, students are to have visited at least two varied black cultural art events of your choosing prior to Week 5. As suggested, you might visit a museum, a poetry or other book reading (check local bookstores, the University of Washington, the Hugo House, etc., for any virtual events they are offering), an art gallery showing, a cultural festival, a music concert, a play, or other black cultural art event, including any that may be held virtually through the Ft. Steilacoom and Puyallup campuses. Check your local papers, public bulletin boards, as well as this black Cultural Art Event forum on the discussion forum.

When you go to whatever you’ve chosen, consider what you’ve read about race, and consider this in shaping both the event and your experience of the event. Note that it can be helpful to take notes on the spot. While notes are informal writing, the Mid-term Black Cultural Art Report you submit to me is considered formal writing, which you will develop with detail, logic, and polished clarity.