Unit 4 Project: Curate!

Curate!: Create a Virtual Art Exhibition

DUE: Friday, December 4
10 points / 10% of final grade
Post your project to your Group Discussion Board in CANVAS
A curator builds and cares for a museums collection. They also conduct research, develop exhibitions, recommend
purchases, write catalogue essays, and work with the rest of the museum staff to engage the public. Try on the role of
curator by creating an exhibition in the Google Art Project. http://www.googleartproject.com.

Learning objectives

Take the historical, thematic, and design skills learned throughout the semester and employ them to create
your own art exhibition.
Learn more about the role of a curator and the multitude of decisions they have to make when putting
together an exhibition.
Effectively explain curatorial choices through both theme and context.
Gain access to museums around the world through the utilization of Google Art Project and elucidate the
positives and negatives of digital art collections versus brick and mortar institutions.

What to Do
1. EXPLORE AND FAMILIARIZE
For this assignment you will become a virtual curator of an art exhibition using the Google Art Project, a
part of the Google Cultural Institute, a project in which hundreds of museums, cultural institutions, and
archives have partnered with Google to host the worlds cultural treasures online. The site is available here:
http://www.googleartproject.com or here: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project.
Go to the website and familiarize yourself with its capabilities.
2. CREATE AN ENGAGING THEME
After spending time exploring the available artworks and museums, you are required to choose 7-12
artworks for your virtual exhibition. There are a variety of ways you could approach creating your
exhibition. You can approach it by style, subject matter, relation to historical events, artists use of material
and form. It can be a simple approach (i.e. Springtime), or something more complex (The Cycle of Life or
Good and Evil). Additionally, you can refer to the thematic chapters in Part 4 of your textbook if you need
further ideas.
How are the works connected? Do not simply choose artworks at random. Rather, determine how the
works you choose have similarities or work together visually or thematically. Think about the order in
which you select works for display.
Anything on the Google Art Project website is available to be chosen (there are hundreds of museums,
cultural institutions, and archives to browse). However, choose works from at least three different
venues. Finally, you need to decide on which order you want the works displayed.

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Unit 4 Project: Curate!

3. SHARE YOUR EXHIBITIONS URL LINK AND EXPLAIN YOUR CHOICES

Obtain your URL link and post it within a thread to your Groups Discussion Board. Instructions on
how to obtain the URL link to your exhibition are discussed at the end of this document.
Within your discussion post, you must also explain your choices by answering the following:

What is the title of your exhibition?

What is your theme? Why did you choose the works you did? Please write a thorough response
in paragraph format, explaining your choices. Please go beyond: I picked them because I liked
them - this type of brief explanation will result in a reduced grade.

Identify one specific work from your collection (artist, title, medium, dimensions) and discuss how
it exemplifies your chosen theme. Additionally, in what period of art and historical context was
this particular artwork made? (see Part 3 of your textbook for help in identifying artistic periods).
Briefly, how does it reflect this cultural context in which it was made?

4. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

In addition to answering the above question prompts, you must answer the following:
a) In Unit #3 you visited a physical museum. This may have been your first visit to a museum or you
may have visited many before that. From your experience, do you think that virtual museums such
as those in the Google Art Project are comparable to physical museums? Why or why not?
b) In your opinion, are there any negatives that arise from such virtual/digital exhibitions such as the
GoogleArtProject.com website? What positives are there to virtual museum exhibitions? Explain.
5. FINALLY, VIEW YOUR FELLOW GROUP-MATES WORK.
You are NOT required to respond to your group-mate posts for this final assignment. Of course, everyone
enjoys feedback, so feel free to engage with others!

How to Use the Google Art Project Website

1. In order to save images and view other user galleries you must login with a Google email (gmail).
Click the Sign In button at the upper right of the screen. Most USF email accounts are already linked to Google
and can be used (try using your USF email address within the Google Art Project sign in page). If this doesnt
work, you must create a new Gmail account if you do not already have one.
2. Google Chrome and Firefox have been found to be the best internet browsers for this project. Some browsers
may not fully support all aspects of the www.googleartproject.com website.
3. Click Artworks in the top menu bar. Explore and search using various criteria (e.g. collection, medium, date,
keyword, etc.).
4. When you find an artwork of interest, click the Add Item
icon located above the image.
This will save the image to your user profile. Continue finding artworks of interest and adding them to your
profile.
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Unit 4 Project: Curate!

5. Click My Galleries (upper right hand side of the screen) to manage your collection. Then, create a New gallery
from saved items. Add a title to your gallery.
6. After you have created a new gallery in step #5, ensure that your gallery is PUBLIC!
Click private gallery (default) on the upper area of the screen to change the status to
public. You want to see the Public Button with an open lock icon. This is very important.
7. Click the View in Site button on the upper right hand side of the screen (see circled area in screenshot
below). You will now see your gallery as the public will see it.
8. Now copy the URL link in the address bar. Alternatively, you can Share it using the icon at the bottom of
the screen and EMAIL the link to yourself. Give the link a moment to become active. Check the link. Note:
Disregard any of the other share options (Facebook, Twitter, etc).
9. Include the URL link to your gallery/exhibition within your discussion post. See the circled URL below.
Your link should look something like this: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/user-gallery/marta-ssample-exhibition/yQKS-TKW9hddLA?projectId=art-project

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Unit 4 Project: Curate!

TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS:
Ensure your gallery is public (not private). Ensure you are logged into the Google Art Project Website.
Are you using Google Chrome? If not, please try it.
Still having problems? As a last resort, you may simply copy/paste the individual URL links or images
of each artwork and create a list within your post.

IMPORTANT:

You are responsible for checking your URL link to make sure it works.

I cannot stress this enough. ENSURE YOUR LINK IS PUBLIC. If it is not public, then we
cannot view it. Failure to provide public link will result in a reduced grade.

TIP: To double check your link, ask a friend if they can open your URL or try viewing it in a
different browser window after logging out of both your USF email and the
GoogleArtProject website.

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Unit 4 Project: Curate!

Rubric for Curate Project :

There is no minimum word requirement. However, your project will be evaluated based on the cohesiveness of
your collection, your thoroughness in explaining your choices and your response to all the questions and steps
above. Your project and response will also be evaluated for its use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Focus

Clarity and
Support for
Ideas

Mechanics

10 points

8-9 points

Follows all direction.

Stays on topic all of the
time. Collection is
thematically cohesive and
original. Was not overly
reliant on images from one
or two collections.
Explanation for thematic
choice is eloquent and
thorough and
demonstrates
thoughtfulness in
approach. Supports all
points with examples and
explanations.
Uses proper spelling,
punctuation, grammar in
all posts 100% of the time;
no texting language.

Follows most of the

directions. Stays on topic
most of the time.
Collection is thematically
cohesive but limited to
only one or two museum
collections.
Explanation for thematic
choice is good, but could
use slight elaboration.
Supports some points
with examples and
explanations.

Follows some, but not

all, directions. Stays on
topic some of the time.
Collection is not quite
thematically cohesive.

Collection is not cohesive

does not show evidence
of thoughtfulness in
creation.

Explanation for thematic

choices is too brief,
needs much more
elaboration. Supports
few points with
examples and
explanations.

Does not seem to

understand the
assignment very well.
Does not provide
additional explanation of
points.

Uses proper spelling,

punctuation, grammar in
all posts most of the time.

URL link to collection

works properly as
requested in the
instructions.

URL link to collection

works properly as
requested in the
instructions.

Uses proper spelling,

punctuation, grammar in
all posts some of the
time.
Collection and response
is provided but does not
align completely with
what is requested in the
assignment instructions.

Uses poor spelling,

punctuation, grammar in
all posts most of the time.
URL link is not included
or does not work (i.e.,
links to a private gallery,
links to one artwork and
not the entire collection).

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7-6 points

1-5 points