Blog Prompts

Instructions

Below, you will find the weekly blog prompts. Please scroll down to find the appropriate prompt for any given week. These prompts will appear on Mondays and will be due by Sunday. You are welcome to complete them at any point during the week depending on what is required from the prompt. Some posts will be about visits you take independently, others about class visits both to places and from guests. Many will ask you to share one or more images along with your written work.

Original Weekly Blog Posts

Each week, for the first six weeks, you are expected to respond to the corresponding weekly prompt and answer any questions posed in that prompt by creating your own post under the corresponding blog page (on the left). These prompts will be open-ended in nature and there is not an inherently right or wrong answer to them. You must respond to five of the six prompts to receive full credit. Posts should be approximately 300 words long each. Posts will be due on Sunday nights according to the dates and times listed in the syllabus.

Peer Blog Comments

Before class begins on the Wednesday of each week, you are expected to have responded to at least one of your peers’ blog posts for the previous week. These replies should be approximately 75-100 words each. When replying to your peers, choose from one of the ideas below:

  • Discuss a different perspective that you considered when you answered the questions
  • Add further examples of what they discussed in their response
  • Ask a question about their response and explain why you have that question
  • Provide a contrasting example to what they wrote about in their response
  • Do not just agree!

Similar to the Weekly Blog Posts, you must complete these comments five of the six weeks throughout the class. You can reply to a post even if you skipped making a post in a particular week.

Prompts

Week 1: Being a Critical Museum Visitor at a NYC Museum

This week you are expected to visit one of the larger New York City museums (the Met, MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney, or Museum of the City of New York, for example). In your blog post for this week, be sure to tell us which museum you visited, when, and with whom (if applicable). Please also answer at least three of the following questions as part of your response.

      • Had you ever visited this museum prior to this assignment? If so, how did it compare? If not, what was your initial reaction?
      • What is your relationship to art and/or museums, in general?
      • How much of the museum were you able to explore? How much time did you spend with the different exhibits you did see?
      • Which art forms stood out to you at this museum and why do you think that is?
      • Which exhibits/artifacts stood out to you or resonated with you the most? Why?
      • How did you prepare for your visit to this museum?
      • How were your expectations met or subverted by what you experienced at the museum?

Additionally, recalling what you learned from Lindauer’s article, how did you incorporate being a “Critical Museum Visitor” into your experience? Feel free to incorporate a quote if it makes sense to do so. If you do cite it with the MLA in-text citation format: (Author page).

While a photo is not required for this blog post, it’s a good habit to develop, and you are encouraged to include one if it connects with the questions that you answered.

Week 2: Visit to the Alice Austen House

Share a photograph that you took during the workshop at the Alice Austen House and discuss how it relates to the photos that Alice Austen took. What are these photos’ connections to community? This could be Alice’s community, your own, or that of other people. If none of the photos you took seem to capture community to you, consider what that photo means to you, as a visitor to a historic house museum, vs. what the photos taken by Alice in the same locations might have meant to her, being taken in her home/yard.

Week 3: Visit to the Society of Illustrators

This week you are expected to visit the Society of Illustrators on your own (or with a classmate or two if you prefer!). In your blog post, you can do one of two things:

      • Reflect on how this space is similar or different from that of the larger museum you visited. How does it compare to the Alice Austen House space? What exhibits are on display at the moment? Find one piece of art that evokes some sort of emotion in you and take a picture of it. Explain what it makes you feel and why you think this is. What was it about this specific image or series of images that resonated with you?
      • Take a picture of one of the illustrations that sparks a narrative in your mind. Write a short creative piece (short story, poem, skit, dialogue, etc.) that you think goes with that image. Are there characters or a narrator? What is being said? What actions are being taken? Is there a plot, and if so, what is it? You can take this in any direction you think makes sense for the image that you have chosen.

Week 4: Class Visitors – Julio Anta or Queer Van Kult

For this week’s blog post, you have the option to either reflect on the conversation with graphic novel author Julio Anta from last week or the cofounders of Queer Van Kult from this week. If you asked any questions during their visit, how did they respond? How did their answer change or reinforce your understanding of the topic? If you didn’t ask a question, what question might you ask them now if you had the chance to go back? Alternatively, do you think that their discussion as a whole changed or reinforced your interpretation of their work or your understanding of the artforms with which they work? Give an example. No photo is required this week, but can be included if you have one.

Week 5: Finding Public Art around You

Public art is everywhere! Especially in New York City. For this week’s blog post, I want you to locate a work of public art or a public art exhibit that stands out to you and take a picture. This art could be located in your neighborhood, near your past or future campus, or something you saw on your commute. It could be in a park, on the subway, on a building, on the ground, or really just about anywhere ––as long as it’s publicly accessible! The only other restriction is that it is not connected with our visit to the Highline. Share where you found this art and why it piqued your interest. Was there any placard or description with the art? What, if any information could you find about this public art? What do you think is the importance of public art overall?

Week 6: Protest Art

Upload an image of the collage you created in class. Explain the cause you are supporting and why you included the different elements you did into your collage. What does this cause mean to you? What message do you want to share with your audience? How did the article that you chose to read play into your overall collage design (title, quotes, images, etc.)? Why did you include the specific images and words that you chose into your visual?

What other elements would you have incorporated if you had access to different supplies? Is there anything you would have done differently if you had more time to create this work?