Blackboard

Instructor's E-mail

ART 254 is a short survey course of women artists. It takes into consideration the special challenges professional women artists faced from the medieval era through the nineteenth century, while outlining some of the issues relevant to artists of our own era. No previous knowledge of art history is required, but it is helpful if you have taken an art history survey course (ART 151 or ART 152) in order to understand the basic principles of art historical analysis. This course introduces students to the basic concepts of art history and provides you with the skills necessary to evaluate the historical and aesthetic contexts in which works were produced.

Below you will find all of the necessary information you need to participate in and complete this course. Please read each section carefully, as you will be expected to adhere to these guidelines throughout the semester.

Course Components

The course consists of the following components:

• readings accessible through the UNC Library Web site
• written lectures
• image viewing using an online database (ARTstor), Web sites and Blackboard postings
• weekly participation in the discussion forum
• two short-answer written assignments and one longer term paper
• a midterm exam
• a final exam.

[top of page]

Readings

Most lessons include reading from one or more essays. There are three resources for accessing the readings, and all are accessible through the UNC Library Web site: e-reserves, JSTOR, and Art Full Text.

E-reserves

For each of your e-reserves readings, a direct link to the library page will be provided in the lesson pages.

JSTOR

Start at JSTOR and follow the instructions below to access and print an article:

1. The JSTOR "Advanced Search" page will come up and the simplest way to access an essay is to type the author's name in the first box, "All of these words." Below this section is an area that says, "Narrow your search to." The first group, "These fields," has options: Click the "Author" box. Another way to narrow the search is to scroll down to "These disciplines and/or journals" and click the box that states "Art and art history." Go back up to the gray area and click "search."
2. Find the appropriate article and open it by clicking on the first (bold) line, which is the article title.
3. If you want to print or download the essay, there is only one way to do so and get the full page of text. If you err, you will get a page of text that cuts off on the right or left side.
4. To print an article, click the "Print" option in gray at the top of the page, and it will take you to a set of instructions. If you want good reproductions, just click "Proceed with printing." If you have read the article on your computer and feel you don't need to clearly see the images, click "Set your printing preferences" and choose "PDF economy." Click the button, "Set printing preference." Either way, return to the JSTOR session and click on your own computer's print button (or use a key command). If you hit the JSTOR "Print" again, you will find yourself going in circles.
5. To download an article, click on the "Download" option in gray at the top of the page, and it will take you to a set of instructions. In the middle box, titled "PDF Format (Recommended)" you will see options. If you want clear images, click on "PDF High Quality." If you have read the article on your computer and feel you don't need to clearly see the images, RIGHT click on "PDF economy." Click on "Save Target As..." and tell your computer where to save the article.

Art Full Text

Start at Art Full Text and follow the instructions below to access and print an article:

1. When the search page comes up, do a keyword search on "Flack" (this is the only reading assigned from this database) or conduct a more specific author search if you prefer.
2. Find the article, and note that on the left of the article title that there are two icons. One of these, when clicked, will pull up the full text of the article, which you can either read, print or download to your computer.

[top of page]

Web Site Resources

The following is a list of useful Web sites for learning more about artists or viewing additional images. The list is arranged from the most comprehensive and useful to the more specific:

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Organized according to century and searchable for individuals, the site includes biographies; click on a work in the collection, and it is reproduced with additional information on that specific work.

Artcyclopedia
Works organized within a chronological listing of names.

Women Artists in History
Listing by century (plus medieval). This site provides links to other sites. Danger: For example, it assumes the Bayeux Tapestry was created by women, which has not been proven. Also, not all the links are available to non-members. And you don't know if you will be getting just an image, just a biography, or both. But some fine links are available. It also lists names and dates without links, which is good comprehensive information.

Women's History
Site includes: Biographies of Notable Women, which is organized alphabetically. The site includes Ancient Egyptian and Asian notables, plus links to other sites. More non-artists than artists, but includes some personalities important to the course material, such as Sappho and Salome. Also includes a picture gallery, with women in period costume and statues of goddesses, as well as photos of some of the important women who figure in women's history, such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

Women Artists in North America
Has text in English, French, and Spanish. Through the “Search,” one can seek information from categories such as medium, decade or simply type in an artist's name, such as Frida Kahlo or Emily Carr. A list of images is available, and explanations in both textual and video form are available.

Mark Harden's Women's Archive
Includes a biography and selected images of work of the following artists: Emily Carr, Mary Cassatt, Helen Frankenthaler, Artemesia Gentileschi, Barbara Hepworth, Eva Hesse, Frida Kahlo, Judith Leyster, Joan Mitchell, Berthe Morisot, Elizabeth Murray, Alice Neel, Georgia O'Keeffe; also photographers including Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Margaret Bourke-White, Julia Margaret Cameron, Imogene Cunningham, Laura Gilpin, Dorothea Lange, Helen Levitt, Tina Modotti, Cindy Sherman.

Women Artists of the 20th Century
Brief biographies with links to more comprehensive information or images. Also, “links to sites on women artists” includes links to Vanessa Bell, Leonora Carrington, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Gwen John, Frida Kahlo, Laura Knight, Tamara de Lempika, Alice Neel, and Georgia O'Keeffe. The only confusing part of this site is how it distinguishes which artists go into which period sections. For example, why is Romaine Brooks, whose reputation was at its peak in the 1920s, and whose life spanned 1874-1970, listed in the 1940-1960 category?

Women Artists in Canada
Includes biographies, at least one reproduction, and suggested readings.

History of Women Artists
Includes links to everything from the National Museum of Women in the Arts to the Guerrilla Girls, and one devoted to women's self-portraits from the medieval period to the early twentieth century. A very comprehensive list. Also links to general resource sites, such as a glossary of art-related terms.

African-American Women Artists: A Selected Annotated Bibliography

Finnish Women Artists
With the publication of Frances Borzello's book on women's self-portraits and Margaret Barlow's beautifully illustrated publication on women artists, interest in the work of Scandinavian and Finnish artists is growing.

Women in the Middle Ages
Includes a great gallery of images, but little information.

Washington University
Slide lists and images from a class at Washington University, organized by time period. Includes Native American art, Middle Ages, Renaissance and the eighteenth century. The quality of images is not the best, however.

Female Surrealist Artists
Brief biographies and black-and-white reproductions of select works.

Contemporary Arab Women's Art
Stimulated by an exhibition, this site includes very brief biographies and a small gallery section. A new discovery for me, I encourage you to look at this beautiful collection of images. Its drawback is its brevity and small number of images, but it does list a book on the topic that is not too costly.

n. paradoxa
A feminist-theory based journal, available both online and in hard copy, this site provides links to its articles from a wide variety of writers on a wide variety of topics. What it lacks is a good subject search tool, but for those willing to browse the titles, gold may be mined.

Women Artists
Produced by the University of Wisconsin, this site is a hodgepodge of links to sites on women artists. Some are from exhibitions with many reproductions, others are university course sites, or lists of where women's art may be found. Useful, large, and time-consuming to scope out the resources.

North Carolina Women Artists Archives
Alphabetical listing by names of artists working in the state from 1900-1950 for whom material has been compiled and stored at the UNC Sloane Art library. Useful for Chapel Hill residents only.

[top of page]

Lectures

Each lesson contains written lectures that are designed to increase your knowledge of specific artworks, artists' backgrounds and artistic styles, and the historical context in which works were created. Material from the lectures may be used in the discussion forums, written assignments, and exams. For written assignments and exams, the lecture material should be cited just as you would cite a book, Internet source, or other published resource.

[top of page]

Image Viewing

Students will read about images and become familiar with images by different artists. Most of the images are organized into folders located through a course folder in ARTstor, a database available to UNC students. Other images not found on ARTstor but reproduced in the readings will be posted on Blackboard, listed in folders corresponding to the lesson number. On occasion, images from readings may be found only online and links will be included to those images. A list of Web sites is available to assist students who would like to see additional images or to help with the term paper. In many cases there are additional images reproduced in ARTstor that students may access by conducting a search.

ARTstor

Access ARTstor using the links in the lesson pages. The first time you visit the site will need to register. Click on "Enter the ARTstor digital library " button on the top right. Then click on "Need to register?" in the top right hand corner of the next page. Type in your e-mail address and create a password. Now, go to "Tools" and select "Access Shared Folder " from the drop down menu. Type in your first and last name and password. Click Register. You should be able to access the folder needed for this course under View Image Groups > Select a Folder > Select an Image Group once you complete these steps.

Once you access the ARTstor database, you will see a menu in green across the top. Note that there is a HELP option. Click "ARTstor HELP" and it will open on the "Getting Started" page. Here you can find your most simple questions addressed, so that you don't have to feel like you were left behind in the computer revolution. On the left side of the screen you will see a list of four topics, each with a small black book (an icon) on the left side of the words. The list includes "Overview," "How do I...," "Troubleshooting," and "Offline Image Viewer." Click on the "How do I..." and from the list of many possibilities, be sure to read (by double clicking on the appropriate phrase) the following:

• How do I...
• Register an account with ARTstor?
• Log on to ARTstor?
• Register for access to a course folder?
• Open an image group?
• View image data?
• Print images from ARTstor?
• Download images from ARTstor?

Problems enlarging ARTstor images or saving them to your hard drive

Double clicking on a thumbnail (small) image to enlarge it gives you access to other functions such as saving an image to your hard drive or a CD. Sometimes there is a problem enlarging an image, even though the function seems to work for a while. The UNC art librarian, Pat Thompson, offers this advice: "The best browsers for this are Safari for Mac users and Firefox for PC users. If you have trouble opening and looking at an image (zooming, etc.), it may be due to the browser." For students who do not have those browsers, there is a way around the problem. If you double click on one picture in an image group to enlarge it, you will note below the enlarged image several options, including arrows that point backward (left) and forward (right). You can go through the images one at a time using these arrows.

Blackboard images

For some lessons that require an e-reserves reading, some of the images are not available through ARTstor, and so I have scanned in these images and made them available through Blackboard. (Because the University has already received copyright permission on the articles, there is no copyright conflict for this use of the images.) Simply go to the Blackboard page and open the "Images from Reading " folder. Images are stored in folders with titles referring to lesson number and topic.

[top of page]

Discussion Forums

An important component of each lesson is the discussion forum, where you, your peers, and I will discuss relevant topics related to this course. The discussion forum for each lesson opens on the start date for the lesson. I will post the first comments to lead us in discussion.

The format of the discussion forum is flexible, and is designed as an informal venue to discuss ideas and to raise questions you might have about the material. I will begin with a few suggestions or opening questions for discussion at the beginning of each lesson, and you are expected to contribute by the dates specified on the lesson plan. These will generally be the Tuesday and Thursday of each week.

Your participation in the discussion forum is meant to simulate class participation in a traditional classroom. This means you must participate regularly in the discussion forum—consider it equal to “being in class.” Your discussion forum grade will be evaluated according to the frequency, originality, and relevance of your responses to the thoughts of both your instructor and your fellow students. You are expected to post one initial response to a question or problem posed by the instructor, and one to two additional postings responding to something posted by a fellow classmate. Work submitted after the date and time posted will not be accepted; think of it as showing up for class after everyone has already left.

Please note that you are expected to submit contributions that are both on-topic and respectful in tone. Students who are unable to keep a professional attitude in the discussion forum should note that their grade will be adversely affected.

Our discussion forums are on Blackboard. See the Course Mechanics section for details on using Blackboard. The first lesson will provide more instruction on finding and using the discussion forums. If you have never used an online discussion forum before, it's best to dive in fearlessly—you'll soon be swimming with ease.

[top of page]

Written Assignments

There are two short-answer written assignments due at the end of Lessons 6 and 10. Instructions for these assignments are included in those lesson pages. A longer term paper of six to ten pages will be due near the end of the semester. It will cover analysis of a single work of art in which you will conduct further research of an artist using the Internet, article databases such as JSTOR and Art Full Text, and books. The analysis should include the historical context in which the artist worked and a brief analysis of the work, and the paper will include a reproduction of the image discussed. Additional instructions will be given at the time of the assignment, and the assignment and due date are posted in the Course Schedule.

[top of page]

Exams

The midterm and final exams will cover work discussed in the weekly readings and discussion forums with some combination of the following:

Comparisons. Two works of art will be selected. You will be asked to compare and contrast the two works, drawing on information you have learned from the readings, the Internet assignments, and assigned topics for your discussion forum. In such comparisons, it is important to address specific qualities or features of the work of art, and to use them as evidence to support more general conclusions. (Note: Even here, information drawn directly from any source must be cited appropriately.)

Unknowns. You will be asked to discuss a work of art that you have not seen before in this course. Based on the knowledge you have acquired (and not on any information gained from research or the source of the image), you will discuss the subject, the period style, and the possible artist who created the "unknown" work of art.

In addition to the above three components, the final exam may also include one or two larger essays on broad art historical themes. You will be expected to discuss these themes using relevant examples to illustrate your arguments.

For the exams you may use your notes and the online lectures. The exams are designed to evaluate your mastery of new vocabulary, formal analysis, and historical context. Material taken from readings and the Internet must be properly acknowledged, and never simply copied or paraphrased. As with all work in this course, you are bound by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Honor Code.

Exams will be posted on Blackboard and your responses will be submitted there via the Digital Dropbox.

[top of page]

Grading

Your grade for this course will be evaluated as follows:

Late written assignments will be graded down appropriately. Assignments that are over one week late will receive no credit. Late exams will be graded down a full letter grade per day.

Grades will be posted throughout the semester on your Blackboard account. No one but you and your instructor will have access to your grades.

[top of page]

Honor Code

As a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code. An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism. Remember to follow all university guidelines about plagiarism inherent in the Honor Code. Written assignments that include text or ideas taken directly from class lectures, readings, Web sites, or any other source, without attribution, may be open to the charge of plagiarism. Please cite your sources. Any text that you did not write and any ideas that are not your own must be appropriately, formally cited. "Self-plagiarism" is also unacceptable--to receive credit for this course, papers must be written for this course only, and not have been written or submitted for any other class. To submit something written for another course is also an infringement. For more information, see the UNC Writing Center's handout on plagiarism.

top of page

Course Mechanics

top of page

Course Schedule

Class begins January 9, and we follow the approved UNC-Chapel Hill academic calendar. Pay close attention to the schedule and the calendar, especially since some of the lessons do not follow a regular weekly pattern.

top of page

Lesson 1