Contribute

Art History Teaching Resources thrives through peers sharing resources with each other and the ensuing debate on effective pedagogies for teaching art history to undergraduates.

So, you have a successful outline for a response paper assignment? Think your syllabus is tried-and-tested? Willing to share your great lecture on Islamic architecture? The goal is to develop a community of teachers that use the materials, and also re-populate the site with resources of use to their peers. You can contribute by emailing teachingarthistorysurvey@gmail.com with any materials you’d consider sharing. You can also post comments and extend the public discussion on all aspects of teaching on the AHTR journal.

Why?

The project began in the Art History department at the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, in early 2011. There was no standard set of resources for art survey teachers at CUNY, and most new teachers went through the stressful process of “reinventing the wheel,” creating their own lectures, PPTs, and other teaching materials. AHTR streamlines this process, connects with other similar endeavors, and forms a community of peers. It provides a basic springboard for teachers of the art history survey, offering detailed thematic lesson plans, ready-made PPTs, and templates for syllabi and assignments for the global art history survey. In this way, instructors can focus on adding their own specialist emphases to the AHTR materials and developing their teaching strategies—not prepping basic materials that already exist.

There is no “perfect” way to teach the art history survey, and the survey itself is a contentious beast—what other models might exist to introduce undergraduates to visual culture? The site is meant to support emerging teachers as they take their first steps, and—by providing a starter kit to lessen the panic—to give teachers room to innovative new pedagogical models.

 

 

How does this work?

You have expertise certain areas. We would like to share your basic survey-level lesson plan for this area on the website, or a general class activity, media resource, or engaging reading you’re willing to contribute. Whichever way you teach, please consider sharing a tried-and-tested lesson plan, PPT, classroom exercise, a link to great resources, or non-traditional image clusters to the site for others to use. The site is based on a peer-populated model—all content is available to members, and access is (and always will be) free. Materials are organized by chapter (for teachers who use an outline like Stokstad’s) and also by theme (for teachers who choose a non-chronological approach). The site contains a core set of teaching resources, which are available for download and to which other teachers are invited to submit their own “best of” examples.

 

To underscore, this is a collaboratively-authored site and all documents are a jigsaw of specialized knowledges coming together in an open-source peer-populated format.

Workshops

The production of workshops covering aspects of pedagogy is an integral part of this project and has in past sessions been generously supported by a grant from the John Rewald Foundation. Each workshop leader is experienced in teaching the art history survey in a classroom setting and will offer a tailored thematic lecture plan in their area of specialization based on a limited number of key objects/sites.

Spring 2015 Workshops

Ø February 2015 – CAA Panel “What have you done for Art History lately?”

Paper at the annual CAA conference. 3rd-floor West Ballroom on Friday, February 13, 2015, 2:30-5:00pm.

Title: Building Community/Valuing Academic Labor: Art History Teaching Resources

Abstract: Our proposal is a collaborative presentation about the power–and still underutilized potential–of collective and shared pedagogy. Art History Teaching Resources (AHTR) is a peer-populated platform for art history teachers founded in 2011 visited by teachers in over 80 countries worldwide. Pedagogy is an activity often seen as secondary to other academic work, yet it constitutes the bulk of academic labor. This labor is frequently gendered, with senior, research academic positions statistically more often male and pedagogy-centered activity female. Pedagogy is, historically, also perceived as subordinate to publishing. Through collaboration and peer support, AHTR rethinks conversations around pedagogy and collegiality in the academy. Our presentation shares our imperfect model with the view of inspiring further collaboration and initiatives, learning more about what we can do for our field.

Spring 2013 Workshops

Ø February 13-16, 2013 – Introducing Art History Teaching Resources

Event at the annual CAA conference for a poster presentation on AHTR. Come use the site & give us your feedback.

Fall 2012 Workshops

Ø  Friday November 16 – Contemporary Art

Leader: Andrew Capetta, Lecturer, Parsons The New School For Design

Ø  Friday September 28 – What is a Learning Community?

Leaders: Maya Jiménez, Assistant Professor of Art History, and Cheryl Hogue Smith, Associate Professor of English, both at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

Spring 2012 Workshops

Ø  Friday March 16 – Japanese Art

Leader: Joseph Loh, Managing Museum Educator, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ø  Friday March 2– African Art

Leader: Genevieve Hyacinthe, Assistant Professor of Art History, SUNY Purchase

Ø  Friday February 24– Korean Art

Leader: Soyoung Lee, Assoc. Curator, Asian Art Department, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ø  Friday February 17 – Creating Meaningful Museum Response Assignments

Leader: Karen Shelby, Assistant Professor of Art History, Baruch College