Leslie Todd, Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies
The Center for Teaching Mini-Grant along with support from my department (Art, Art History, and Visual Studies) enabled me to take seventeen students from my two courses this semester to the Frist Museum of Art in Nashville to see the exhibit entitled “Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500-1800, Highlights from LACMA’s Collection.” This was a very special opportunity for us because it is rare for an art exhibit related to my field to come within driving proximity of campus. The mini-grant covered the Sewanee motorpool expense and lunch for the students.
Once we arrived, I gave the students each a handout with four activities corresponding to their course (ARTH 353 Early Modern Art of Latin American and ARTH 343 Visualizing the Other in Early Modern Latin America). Overall, this handout asked them to circulate through the entire exhibit several times and spend time with all the images in different ways to take full advantage of our time there. Given that the trip was planned for the end of the semester, I did not need to educate them about any of the objects because they already had learned about them, though I did take the opportunity to draw their attention to specific images when the occasion arose.
- In all courses I teach, I require students to write a visual analysis. This semester I asked them to select an image from the exhibition catalogue. One activity that was the same for all students was to re-read their visual analysis papers with my comments before the trip, find the image they wrote about, and respond to questions asking how they may have changed their argument or observations upon seeing the image in person.
- A second activity that was the same for both classes was to find two images within the exhibit that represented each of the following we learned about this semester: terms, styles, and subjects/ideas.
- For ARTH 353, the two additional activities asked them to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibition overall and to observe any images that may support their final poster project.
- Similarly, the final two activities for students in ARTH 343 asked that they assess how “the other” is represented in the exhibition and to take the time to assess if any of the images would be useful to support their final research paper argument. One student began openly discussing her research paper with fellow classmates to get more opinions on the images she planned to assess.
Students responded very positively to the exhibit and seeing the images in person. The most common comment was surprise at the size of the images and how that dramatically transformed their impression of the pieces. Many students also noted a shift in their impression of individual works based on the colors, brush strokes, luminescent qualities (through the use of gold leaf and shell inlay) and other detail of the pieces such as fine weaving. They often commented that it shifted how they understood the work required to achieve such detail and why the original colonial viewer would revere such images (in the case of the religious imagery) and rely on art in the ongoing processes of identity formation. They all left with a greater appreciation of the importance of seeing images in person to fully understand them. Ultimately it was a wonderful bonding experience for us as a learning community coming together in a united interest in Spanish American visual culture. A few photos of the day are on the Sewanee Art History Instagram. The exhibit remains open until January 28. I highly recommend it!