ART 202: Ethical Inquiry in the Visual Arts and Museums (WI) (GE)
Prerequisites: CORE 201 or its equivalent
Credit Hours: (3)
This class provides a focus on ethical theories and methods of ethical reasoning and their application to ethical dilemmas in art and museums. It also provides further development of skills used in the development, analysis and evaluation of written and oral arguments and the development of skills used in group work. It may be used as a substitute for CORE 202, Topics in Ethical Inquiry.
Note(s): General Education and Applied Learning designated course.
Detailed Description of Course
Ethical Reasoning as applied to art and museums. This class provides a focus on ethical theories and methods of ethical reasoning, and their application to ethical situations from the world of art and museums. It also provides further development of skills in the development, analysis and evaluation of written and oral arguments. ART 202 includes the opportunity to develop skills in group behavior and assignments do involve group work.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Because this section of the core is offered in the art department, it addresses ethical reasoning from the perspective of museums, exhibitions, and art works. A key question for this class is this: if a work of art offends your moral beliefs, can you like it anyway? Are aesthetics and ethics independent? Do museums have the right to remove art works that offend individual values? Conflicts like this are real and they have dominated contemporary art exhibitions, we will not run out of relevant material for case studies and debate!
Some ethical situations in art concern the way in which an art work is made, while others concern viewers' responses. For example, have you heard of Alba, an albino rabbit with GFP genes that made her glow green under certain lights? Are living green rabbits an ethical use of art? The artist was trying to make a point about transgenic experiements and using art (and a rabbit) for that purpose. When art is destroyed during warfare, whether deliberatly or accidentally, should it be restored or should we remember its destruction? Should museums have the right to display whatever they want even if it disturbs some visitors? Questions about ethics are never easy to answer; neither are questions about art. But ethics and art have come together in many ways - in novels such as Frankenstein and A Brave New World, in the responses of congressmen and (women) to art works that challenge their beliefs about the government's role in the support of the arts, and in rabbits like Alba. Most recently, did a white woman have the right to use the subject of the lynching of a black adolescent in an artwork on display in the Whitney Biennial of 2017?
This class will explore issues such as these as part of the larger project of examining forms of ethical reasoning. We will pursue these discussions following an examination of the leading theories of ethical reasoning. You will be expected to know what these theories are, identify their premises, and recognize situations in which one theory is more appropriately used than another. In some semesters we may use the reenactment approach to examine the outcome of a situation that took place in the recent past.
Student Goals and Objectives of the Course
General Goals:
1) Introduce students to the theories of ethical reasoning
2) Introduce students to the relevance of ethical questions in the visual arts
3) Introduce students to the ethical dilemmas of the board of directors of a museum
Learning outcomes and objectives: Students will be able to:
1) Apply critical reasoning to an ethical issue in the arts.
2) Utilize reasons and arguments appropriate to debate over an ethical issue.
3) Use tone, mechanics, and style appropriate to an academic audience in preparing
a written and verbal argument about ethics.
4) Recognize the contribution of visual materials to an ethical issue and debate.
5) Work successfully with a group to examine the historical and ethical context
of a major debate in the world of museums and art.
6) Identify the key ethical issues that have concerned art in the last century
and the beginning of the present century.
7) Recognize and discuss the roles of the government and patrons, along with museum
personnel, in the emergence and outcome of ethical issues in the art world.
8) With a group of students, prepare a reenactment of a notable ethical issue
in the arts and stage it for presentation at a symposium or in art appreciation class.
Assessment Measures
Assessment measures may include reflective reading logs, participation in class discussion, individual ethical analysis paper, group project and presentation [this will be the reenactment] to class or another audience; online quizzes on ethical theories.
Other Course Information
The syllabus contains a weekly breakdown of readings and discussion questions, along with a planned reading list.
Review and Approval
October 4, 2017
March 01, 2021