Grading… grading…. grading. I am in the thick of midterm and project evaluations, so I will keep this week’s musing short and sweet ahead of the links.
Summer course registration opens tomorrow at my university, and I wanted to share a very special online course that I developed, first offered, and worked the kinks out of last summer—a contemporary art history course focused on Indigenous art. This is a topic often overlooked in the consideration of First Nations cultural production, and while many universities and art history programs offer much needed courses in the history and development of Indigenous art of the last century and earlier (especially focused around the Northwest Coast), very few of them tackle First Nations art production of the recent past, or at least, not as the primary focus for an entire course.
ARTH 2124: CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS ART
ONLINE via Kwantlen Polytechnic University, May 10- June 21, with weekly one-hour synchronous Zoom sessions on Wednesdays 4-5pm
Instructor: Dr. Dorothy Barenscott
What are the current critical issues in contemporary Indigenous art and visual culture from across the settler- colonial areas of North America, and especially within Canada and our local communities? This course investigates how Indigenous arts in Canada are understood in the specific places and contexts in which they are made, and will further explore how Western art history and museum exhibitions have attempted (often very problematically) to provide meaning for the relationship between "historic" and "contemporary" understandings of Indigenous art. This course will rely heavily on content derived from first-hand accounts of contemporary Indigenous art production from First Nations artists, producers, and curators working primarily in Canada, together with providing a strong foundation in recent histories redressing what has often remained absent, silenced, or forgotten in the retelling of the Indigenous experience.
Image taken by @dbarenscott at Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC. Featured artworks by Brian Jungen, Dana Claxton, and Shawn Hunt
A few more things before the round up
Beeple, Beeple, Beeple. I have been asked by so many people in the past few weeks on my take about NFT crypto art and the big $69 million dollar Christie’s sale of Beeple (aka artist Mike Winkelmann). I promise to get back to you on this with a future musing/post, and have provided many links in this week’s round up for your interest and education. Stay tuned!
Now that the sun is out and spring is almost here, I would be remiss not to mention the value of forest bathing, what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, and hanami, the ancient tradition of enjoying the cherry blossoms. A few years ago, I traveled to Japan in mid-March to early April to experience the blossoms, and I have always associated this time of year with taking a complete day away from work a few days a month to get out into nature. I include a video here to get you started and understand the benefits.
