Project 4 Blog Entry.

I decided to do my project with both high and low art because I think  I think a lot of what most curators would term "low brow" or even - not art- is more meaningful than "highbrow" art. Granted, I love "highbrow" art, but in looking up some of the things referenced in the videos (because for once those did not make things clear to me) I was seriously confused when I finished watching it. I do think the term "Pop Surrealism" is more meaningful to me than "lowbrow": which comes off as an insult.

Further, I think the process of jurying art is demeaning and degrading to those whose art or works are determined to be not good enough ( Thinking here of the Impressionists at the Paris Salon and how they were often rejected).  While I understand there must be a selection process for what will be included in the confines of a specific museum or exhibit; I firmly believe that is where it should end and that the curators who do this should be very conscious of the fact that someone's heart and soul went into these works and choose their wording very carefully when  rejecting submissions. I hope that if I ever get to be a curator or a director, I am willing to take chances on new and different types of art rather than rejecting things because it does not fit into established molds.  If I do reject it, I hope I remember how I felt during this class and being forced to share my art with people to rip it apart and to judge me, and act with compassion rather than callousness.

As a museum studies student  I find the ways people and cultures in different museums develop fascinating. The art museums have a very different culture than that of, say, a true science museum or a natural history museum or even a historical society.  While I understand that this culture has a value for the people invested in it, I think some things about every museum  culture needs to change: whether that museum be one like the MOMA or the Albright - Knox or the tiny one in Upton Hall.  Each has ways in which they could be more responsive to the humanity of those who are trying to enter the culture.

 On that note - this project has been quite a journey and has taken several forms before getting to the final submission.  Even that had an evolution in what and how I was searching for images.  The process took a long time.  I worked for 7 days for a varying number of hours ranging from two and going up to almost 10 in a single day. It was exhausting both mentally and emotionally.  I took some liberties with my definitions of the genre because those pictures seemed to work well with in the broader definition of the genre. I hope that's ok.


  This project is the second hardest I will do for this course. The next one will be the worst, as I do not believe it is my place to judge the work of my fellow students and I don't not believe we should be grading each other.  I realize that curators are often reviewed and critiqued for their shows; but they are not graded on them and their jobs rarely ( if ever) are dependent on what their peers think of one show (The media might have an impact on their jobs, their bosses definitely, their peers, not so much). I also find the "peer review" degrading and demeaning and I hope I never have to go through it again.  I have lost sleep (and weight) over this already. 


  I wish I could say I enjoyed this assignment but I can't.  If my anthropology prof is correct, I have a gift for words; but I have no words to describe how I feel about this assignment.