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Premise:
Works of art engaging the public are an important conceptual part of the art world. They are
a point of intersection between artists, specialists in the field, and the public, and they often
significantly contribute to the popular and critical attitudes toward a specific artist, an art
historical movement or concept, or a larger aspect of human experience. Public art works
typically attempt to bring awareness to a concept or topic (climate change or environmental
impact in this case) that may or may not be immediately apparent to the viewer.
Engagement with the work, researching scholarly writings about the work, and using your
own skills of analysis and critical thinking, you will determine if your selected artist/work of
art has effectively communicated their concept and ideas around their engagement with the
environment.
Final Project - Research Paper and Presentation Instructions
Working individually (or in small groups of 2 people), you will be creating a presentation and
writing a research paper based on artists and movements covered in this class. The
research paper will be written individually, but you may present with another person if you so
choose. You are not required to use only images of art pieces you see in class, but you are
required to keep to the same cultures, artists, and art movements we covered within the
class and in your homework readings. This is an opportunity for you to delve deeper into
topics explored so far this semester that you find particularly interesting and/or important,
while building skills in effective art historical research and critical analysis.
For this assignment, you will each be selecting an artist you have learned about either in
class or through the homework readings. You may choose to either:
● Compare and contrast two works of art created by your selected artist and
determine which you believe to be more effective in communicating the concept.
Why?
● Compare and contrast two works of art with similar subject matter by two different
artists. How does each artist interpret climate impact? Which do you feel
communicated more effectively? Why? (one artist must be your selected artist but
you are free to choose whomever you like for the second artist)
Your paper and presentation must provide biographical information about your artist(s) and
use critical analysis skills to interpret the works of art selected. How does each work of art
engage with the environment? What do you think is the concept of each piece?
The presentations will be delivered at the end of the semester to give you an opportunity to
share your hard work and findings with your peers as part of your final assessment.
There are 8 parts to this assignment, due throughout the semester:
1. List of topic ideas (DUE: by class-time 3/5) - 20 points
2. Name of research partner if working collaboratively (DUE: 3/7)
3. Annotated bibliography with 3-5 sources (DUE: 3/19) - 50 points (please include a
citation for each image you intend to use as well)
4. Outline (DUE: 3/26) - 80 points
5. Rough draft of research paper (DUE: 4/2) - 100 points
6. Rough draft of presentation (DUE: by class-time 4/9) - 50 points
7. Final Presentation (DUE: 4/10 by midnight) - 300 points (submit to Google Drive
folder)
8. Research Paper (DUE: 4/16 by midnight) - 100 points (submit to Google Drive folder)
Final Presentation Instructions:
Please submit your papers and presentations into your respective Google Drive folders. Be
sure to include your name in the file name of your paper and save it as either a word
document or google doc.
Your presentation should be set up in Google Slides and must have your names included in
the file name as well.
All presentations should last a maximum of 10 minutes. Please practice in advance and time
yourself to fit within this time frame. This will allow us to have approximately 2 minutes
between each presentation for questions or technology issues.