By Nicole Findlay
Banished are the days when students of art history settled in dark lecture halls illuminated by flickering slides projecting the works of long-dead masters.
This fall, students entering Maureen Korp’s First-Year Seminar will have direct exposure to Ottawa-based artists. They will learn by looking at works created by professional artists who live, work, and show their art in the Ottawa-Gatineau region
Korp, an instructor of Art History in the School for Studies in Art and Culture, developed the seminar, entitled Special Studies in Art History – Visual Literacy, around Ottawa’s art scene. This is the fourth year she has given it.
“One day when I was in grad school, I looked up from my books in the Rutgers library and realized it had been weeks, months maybe, since I’d talked to an artist or, for that matter, actually looked at art with my own eyes,” said Korp. “Yet, that was what had inspired me to study art history –conversations about art in an artist’s studio.”
Over the coming term, her students will interact directly with local artists either in their studios or through exhibits hosted in galleries and artist-run centres. Students are assigned to write a series of art critiques based on a number of themes. These include critiques of “bad public art,” good or bad art found in a gallery, and two, three and four-dimensional works found in galleries located throughout the city.
In their exploration of Ottawa, students learn the difference between public and private-for-profit galleries and exhibition spaces.
The seminar will help to bring art to life, while teaching students to think and write critically.
Over the next three months, This Week @ FASS and Carleton Now will publish a selection of these critiques, giving readers a look at Ottawa’s artists through the students’ eyes.