Unit information: Independent Study Unit: Curating the Prints Collection in 2014/15

Unit name	Independent Study Unit: Curating the Prints Collection
Unit code	HARTM0314
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Haran
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The Department of History of Art at Bristol has a substantial collection of prints, ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, and in medium from engravings to etchings and lithographs. The collection is a valuable aid to teaching and research, but is currently in storage and has not been used or displayed for some years. However, thanks to a generous donation, we are now in a position to commission a display cabinet and to mount a permanent, rotating exhibition of prints drawing on the collection. In the first instance, one MA student will be appointed to research and catalogue the collection, and to mount a scholarly exhibition of selected works. Their work will lay the foundations for future courses, research projects and exhibitions. It will also give them valuable experience in independent research, cataloguing and curating.

Aims:

1. to give a small group of suitably qualified MA students extra training in independent research methods
2. to give students training in cataloguing and museum curating
3. to allow students to acquire expert knowledge in the history and techniques of print making.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will have received expert training and gained experience in (1) independent research; (2) cataloguing; (3) curating; and (4) developed an expert knowledge in the history and techniques of print making.

Teaching Information

1 x 1-hour individual workshop/supervision per week.

Assessment Information

Summative assessment is 3500-word essay (50%) (tests 1, 2 and 3, depending on topic chosen); and assessment of the exhibition (50%) (tests 1, 2, 3)

Formative assessment: advice of tutor throughout on plans for the exhibition, drafts of display materials, catalogue etc (tests 1 and 3)

Reading and References

• Lambert, Susan, Prints: art and techniques (London: V & A Publications, 2000)

• Wells-Cole, Anthony, Art and decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: the influence of continental prints, 1558-1625 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1997)

• Maidment, B.E., Reading popular prints, 1790-1870 (Manchester : Manchester University Press, 1996)