Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies Minor Requirements
2024 - 2025 Catalog
Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies minor
A minor in cultural heritage and museum studies requires completion of at least 21 credits from seven courses. In meeting the requirements of this minor, a student may not use more than nine credits (three courses) that are also used to meet the requirements of another major or minor.
- Take ARTH 146
- Take one course chosen from ARTH 101, 102, 130, 131, 140, 141, 170
- Take one course chosen from HIST 230 or 200-level ARTH courses
- Take ARTH 398 or 453
- Take three additional courses: ARTH 125, 243, 245, 257, 274, 276, 288, 347, 356, 383, 398, 453; CHEM 156; CLAS 200, 338; SOAN 210, 211, 286, and, when appropriate, SOAN 291
- Required course
- ARTH 146 - Introduction to Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies: Problems of Ownership and Curation
FDR HU Humanities Distribution Credits 3 Cultural heritage objects are powerful artifacts to own, display, and even destroy. But why? This introductory course explores the ways art and cultural heritage objects have been stolen, laundered, purchased, curated, and destroyed in order to express political, religious, and cultural messages. Case studies and current events are studied equally to shed light on practices of looting and iconoclasm. Some of the questions we consider: What is the relationship between art and war? Under what conditions should museums return artifacts to the country/ethnic group from which the artifacts originated? What role do auction houses play in laundering art objects? What nationalist agendas are at work when cultural heritage objects are claimed by modem nation states or terrorist groups?
- Take one course chosen from:
- ARTH 101 - Survey of Western Art: Ancient to Medieval
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 Chronological survey of Western art from the Paleolithic Age through the Middle Ages in Italy and Northern Europe. Examination of cultural and stylistic influences in the art and architecture of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Consideration of distinct interests of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Europe. Focus on major monuments and influential images produced up to circa 1400.
- ARTH 102 - Survey of Western Art: Renaissance to the Present
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 Chronological survey of Western art from the Renaissance through the present. Topics include the Renaissance, from its cultural and stylistic origins through the Mannerist movement; the Baroque and Rococo; the Neoclassical reaction; Romanticism and Naturalism; the Barbizon School and Realism; Impressionism and its aftermath; Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, and the Postmodern reaction to Modernism.
- ARTH 130 - African American Art
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 This course focuses on the creative production, contemporary reception, and critical interpretation of African American art from the colonial period to the present. While visual representations of and by African Americans provide the content for this course, the broader issues they raise are applicable to images, objects, and structures from a variety of cultures and civilizations. Indeed, this course will engage at least three general themes central to art historical and visual cultural studies generally: 1. Cultural encounters within colonial contexts; 2. Constructions of "race" and "blackness" within African American art; and 3. Conceptualizations of "blackness" as it underpins "Modernism" in 20th-21st century.
- ARTH 131 - Art of the African Diaspora
FDR HA Credits 3 This course offers a broad survey of the influence of African art on art around the world. Students will learn new modes of thought and variety of ideas pertaining to the dissemination of African people, culture, and art globally. Students will demonstrate historical and cultural understanding of representative visual arts related to the African and African American art. Students will analyze and interpret representative examples of visual arts, using discipline-specific terminology and methods.
- ARTH 140 - Asian Art
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 A survey of artistic traditions from South (including the Himalayan region), East, and Southeast Asia from roughly the 1st to the 18th centuries CE. The course focuses on a wide range of media - including architecture, sculpture, painting, textiles, and book arts - that serve a spectrum of religious and secular functions. The broad temporal, geographic, and topical scope of this course is meant to provide students with a basic understanding of not only the greatest artistic achievements and movements in Asia, but also the historical and political contexts that gave rise to these extraordinary pieces of art.
- ARTH 141 - Buddhist Art of South and Central Asia
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 This course investigates the multivalent world of Buddhist art from South and Central Asia, particularly areas that now fall within the modern-day boundaries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China, Tibet, and Nepal. We study the nascent forms of Buddhist imagery and its ritual functions from the Indo-Pak subcontinent, focus on monumental sculpture and cave architecture of Central Asia (Afghanistan and the Tarim Basin) and issues of iconoclasm, and study the art and iconography of the Himalayas, as well as current-day production and restoration practices of Tantric Buddhist art.
- ARTH 170 - Arts of Mesoamerica and the Andes
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 Survey of the art and architecture of Mesoamerica and the Andes before the arrival of the Europeans, with a focus on indigenous civilizations including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca. Art is contextualized in terms of religious, social, political, and economic developments in each region under discussion. The class includes a trip to the Virginia Museum of fine Arts in Richmond or the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.
- Take one course chosen from:
- HIST 230 - Discovering W&L's Origins Using Historical Archaeology
FDR SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution Credits 3 Same as SOAN 230. This course introduces students to the practice of historical archaeology using W&L's Liberty Hall campus and ongoing excavations there as a case study. With archaeological excavation and documentary research as our primary sources of data. we use the methods of these two disciplines to analyze our data using tools from the digital humanities to present our findings. Critically, we explore the range of questions and answers that these data and methods of analysis make possible. Hands-on experience with data collection and analysis is the focus of this course, with students working together in groups deciding how to interpret their findings to a public audience about the university's early history. The final project varies by term but might include a short video documentary. a museum display, or a web page.
or
200-level ARTH courses
- Take one course chosen from:
- ARTH 398 - Seminar in Museum Studies
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 Prerequisite ARTH 102 or ARTH 140 This seminar explores the rich history, evolution, and contemporary practices of museums, considering their role in the 21st century. Topics include social justice, decolonization, the implications of digital technology, theory and methodology, exhibiting strategies, and the ethics of collecting. Students will undertake a major exhibition plan focused on themes of identity, belonging, reclamation, and honor. They will learn essential skills such as developing a curatorial plan and conceptualizing the exhibition through design, interpretation, and installation. Field trips to museums will complement classroom learning, providing students with firsthand exposure to museum practices and inspiring creativity in their own projects. An additional course fee is required, for which the student is responsible after the seventh week of the winter term. For previous ARTH 398 projects see: Chaos in Color and Mohammad Omer Khalil: Musings.
- ARTH 453 - Internship in Arts Management
Credits 3 Prerequisite instructor consent Supervised experience in an art gallery, art dealership, museum, or auction house approved by the Art and Art History Department. Requires written exercises and readings, in addition to curatorial projects devised in advance by the instructor and student. May be repeated for credit. May be carried out during the summer.
- Take three additional courses chosen from:
- ARTH 125 - The Business of Contemporary Art
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 Same as BUS 125. This course combines finance, tax policy, marketing, economics, and art history to provide a 'nuts-and-bolts' view of how the contemporary art world operates. Appropriate for business students with an interest in contemporary art as well as museum studies and art history majors who wish to gain an understanding of business concepts in the art world, the course serves as preparation for students who may anticipate acquiring art for personal or business investment/use, serving on a museum board, pursuing employment in the art world, or advising high wealth clients on business matters related to art. Each topic begins with an overview of general principles before reviewing applications to the art world. For example, discussion of charitable giving covers the general tax rules of charitable deductions before discussing the specific rules related to art and museums. Additional course fee.
- ARTH 243 - Imaging Tibet
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 An examination of images and imaging practices of the early 1900s to the present in order to define and analyze the ways in which both Western and Asian (particularly Tibetan and Chinese) artists have imagined Tibet and its people.
- ARTH 245 - Ancient Cultures, New Markets: Modern and Contemporary Asian Art
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 This course examines the art movements of the last one hundred years from India, China, Tibet, and Japan primarily through the lenses of the larger sociopolitical movements that informed much of Asia's cultural discourses: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Socialism, Communism, and Feminism. We also address debates concerning non-Western 20th-century art as peripheral to the main canons of Modern and Contemporary art. By the end of the course, students have created a complex picture of Asian art/artists, and have engaged broader concepts of transnationalism, as well as examined the roles of galleries, museums, and auction houses in establishing market value and biases in acquisition practices. Meets simultaneously with ARTH 394B-01. Students may not register or receive credit for both.
- ARTH 257 - Dutch Arts, Patrons, and Markets
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 During the 17th century, the practices of making and buying art boomed as never before in the Dutch Republic. With the creation of the first large-scale open art market, prosperous Dutch merchants, artisans, and civil servants bought paintings and prints in unprecedented numbers. Dutch 17th-century art saw the rise of new subjects, and landscapes, still lifes, and scenes of daily life replaced religious images and scenes from classical mythology. Portraiture also flourished in this prosperous atmosphere.
- ARTH 274 - Art and Revolution: Mexican Muralism
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 A survey of public monumental art produced by Mexican artists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros in Mexico and the United States from 1910 to the 1970s. Lectures focus on art that promotes social ideals and the role that art played in building a new national consciousness in Mexico. Students also examine the impact of Mexican muralism throughout Latin America and the United States. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor.
- ARTH 276 - Chicana/o Art and Muralism: From the Street to the (Staniar) Gallery
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 This class examines the process by which Chicana/o artists have garnered public attention and respect, taking their artworks from the peripheries of the art world to museum and gallery spaces. Using the half-mile long mural entitled The Great Wall of Los Angeles as a connecting thread, this class considers the broad theme of identity creation and transformation as expressed by Chicana/o artists from the 1970s to the present. This course fulfills the Arts and Humanities requirement for the LACS minor. Open to all students.
- ARTH 288 - Chinese Export Porcelain and the China Trade, 1500 to 1900
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 This course covers the development and history of Chinese export porcelain made for the European and American markets and its role as a commodity in the China Trade. Students examine Chinese export porcelain from several different perspectives, including art history, material culture, and economic history.
- ARTH 347 - Forget Me Not: Visual Culture of Historic and Religious Memorials
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 This class analyzes the visual material of memorial sites that shape social identity. Whether simple or elaborate in their construction, these creations allow people the space to connect with and/or honor a person or event from the historic or even mythological past. This global and thematic examination of memorials considers three primary foci: the built environment of a memorial; the performative role of visitors; and the function of memory at these sites. No prerequisites. Appropriate for students of all class years.
- ARTH 356 - Science in Art: Technical Examination of 17th-Century Dutch Paintings
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 Prerequisite instructor consent A survey of 17th-century Dutch history, art history, politics, religion, economics, etc., which links the scientific analysis of art to the art and culture of the time. The course begins on campus and then history, etc., will occur for a few days in Lexington and then proceed to Center for European Studies, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. Students visit numerous museums, hear guest lectures from faculty at Universiteit Maastricht, and observe at conservation laboratories at some of the major Dutch art museums. Students are graded by their performance on two research projects involving presentations and journals. Though students are not required to learn a world language to participate in the program, they are expected to learn key phrases in Dutch as a matter of courtesy to citizens of the host country. Spring Term Abroad course.
- ARTH 383 - Digital Florence
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 This course invites students to participate in and contribute to the Digital Humanities project Florence As It Was: The Digital Reconstruction of a Medieval City. We consider how the built environment of Florence influenced--and was in turn influenced by--the culture, society, art, and history of the city. Students learn to translate historical, scholarly analysis into visually accessible formats, and collaborate on the "Florence As It Was" project, contributing to the digital mapping, data visualization, and virtual-reality reconstruction of medieval Florence.
- ARTH 398 - Seminar in Museum Studies
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 4 Prerequisite ARTH 102 or ARTH 140 This seminar explores the rich history, evolution, and contemporary practices of museums, considering their role in the 21st century. Topics include social justice, decolonization, the implications of digital technology, theory and methodology, exhibiting strategies, and the ethics of collecting. Students will undertake a major exhibition plan focused on themes of identity, belonging, reclamation, and honor. They will learn essential skills such as developing a curatorial plan and conceptualizing the exhibition through design, interpretation, and installation. Field trips to museums will complement classroom learning, providing students with firsthand exposure to museum practices and inspiring creativity in their own projects. An additional course fee is required, for which the student is responsible after the seventh week of the winter term. For previous ARTH 398 projects see: Chaos in Color and Mohammad Omer Khalil: Musings.
- ARTH 453 - Internship in Arts Management
Credits 3 Prerequisite instructor consent Supervised experience in an art gallery, art dealership, museum, or auction house approved by the Art and Art History Department. Requires written exercises and readings, in addition to curatorial projects devised in advance by the instructor and student. May be repeated for credit. May be carried out during the summer.
- CHEM 156 - Science in Art
FDR SC Science, Math, CS Distribution Credits 3 Prerequisite instructor consent This course develops students' fundamental understanding of certain physical, chemical, biological, and geological concepts and utilizes that vocabulary and knowledge to discuss 17th-century Dutch art. The emphasis is on key aspects of optics, light, and chemical bonding needed to understand how a painting works and how art conservators analyze paintings in terms of conservation and authenticity, using techniques such as X-ray radiography, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Raman microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, infrared microscopy, infrared reflectography, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, UV-vis spectroscopy, UV photography, and laser ablation methods. When possible, the course develops modern notions of science with those of the 17th century in order to see how 17th-century science influenced 17th-century art.
- CLAS 200 - Greek Art & Archaeology
(ARTH 200)
FDR HA Fine Arts Distribution Credits 3 An introduction to ancient Greek art and archaeology. We encounter some of the greatest works of art in human history, as we survey the development of painting, sculpture, architecture, and town planning of the ancient Greeks. We encounter the history of the people behind the objects that they left behind, from the material remains of the Bronze Age palaces and Classical Athenian Acropolis to the world created in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquests. We also consider how we experience the ancient Greek world today through archaeological practice, cultural heritage, and the antiquities trade.
- CLAS 338 - Pompeii
FDR SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution Credits 3 The site of ancient Pompeii presents a thriving Roman town of the first century AD, virtually frozen in time by the devastating eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. In this course, we examine Pompeii's archaeological remains-public buildings, domestic architecture, painting, artifacts, inscriptions, and graffiti-in order to reconstruct the life of the town. We also consider religion, games and entertainment, politics, and the structure of Roman society.
- SOAN 210 - Field Methods in Archaeology
FDR SL Lab Science Distribution Credits 4 This course introduces students to archaeological field methods through hands-on experience, readings, and fieldtrips. Students study the cultural and natural processes that lead to the patterns we see in the archaeological record. Using the scientific method and current theoretical motivations in anthropological archaeology, students learn how to develop a research design and to implement it with actual field excavation. We visit several field excavation sites in order to experience, first hand, the range of archaeological field methods and research interests currently undertaken by leading archaeologists. Students use the archaeological data to test hypotheses about the sites under consideration and produce a report of their research, which may take the form of a standard archaeological report, an academic poster, or a conference-style presented paper.
- SOAN 211 - Laboratory Methods in Archaeology
FDR SL Lab Science Distribution Credits 4 This course introduces students to archaeological lab methods through hands-on experience, readings, and fieldtrips. Students process and catalogue archaeological finds ensuring they maintain the archaeological provenience of these materials. Using the scientific method and current theoretical motivations in anthropological archaeology, students learn how to develop and test hypotheses about the site under consideration by analyzing the artifacts they themselves have processed. We visit several archaeology labs in order to experience, first hand, the range of projects and methods currently undertaken by leading archaeologists. Students then use the archaeological data to test their hypotheses and produce a report of their research, which may take the form of a standard archaeological report, an academic poster, or a conference-style presented paper.
- SOAN 286 - Lakota Land Culture, Economics and History
FDR SS4 Social Science - Group 4 Distribution Credits 4 Prerequisite ECON 100, ECON 101, ECON 180, or ECON 180A Same as ECON 286. This class focuses on the cultural, economic, and historical dimensions of the Lakotas' (Titonwan tawapi ) ties to their lands as expressed in their pre- and post-reservation lifeways. It includes a 10 day field trip to western South Dakota to visit and meet with people in the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations and the Black Hills.
and when appropriate
- SOAN 291 - Special Topics in Anthropology
Credits 3-4 A discussion of a series of topics of anthropological concern.
Take: