MUX 120/ ARX 120/ BKX 120 Colloquium: Concentration Gateway Course (2 Credits)

Offered as ARX 120, BKX 120 and MUX 120. This course serves as a shared gateway for the Archives, Book Studies and Museums concentrations. Students explore histories, futures and systems of knowledge production, preservation, organization and distribution through the kinds of objects and evidence held by archives, libraries and museums. As evidence of their evolving and complex operations, this course introduces the history of such institutions, their evolving public mission, issues central to their work today, and the creation and uses of materials they hold. The course critically engages the emergence of such institutions, specifically within this regional context and in this framework of a college campus. S/U only. Enrollment limited to 25. (E)

Fall, Spring, Annually

MUX 222 Colloquium: Topics in Museums Studies (1 Credit)

What goes on behind the scenes in a museum? Who makes the decisions about what to collect and how to display and interpret it? How do concepts of mission and public trust guide that work? Through a series of rotating topics, Studies in Museums considers the conceptual and practical issues governing the work of museums. The course uses the resources of the Smith College Museum of Art--collections, programs, and staff--to explore these issues in practice. Through this work students are introduced to the professional disciplines found within the field of museums, including curation, education, conservation, and registration. Restrictions: MUX 222 may not be repeated. Enrollment limited to 16.

Interterm, Variable

MUX 222ca Colloquium: Topics in Museums Studies-When Contemporary Art Goes Outside (1 Credit)

This course centers on the special exhibition, Younes Rahmoun: Here, Now. The exhibition, which is taking place at the Smith College Museum of Art, Lyman Plant House, and MacLeish Field Station, provides the foundation for introducing students to some of the major debates and issues related to contemporary artists working in, and with, nature, outside of a conventional museum or gallery space. The course also considers practical matters of why and how artists create work outdoors in collaboration with museums and other institutions, like botanic gardens or field stations. S/U only. Restrictions: MUX 222 may not be repeated. Enrollment limited to 16. (E) {A}

Interterm, Variable

MUX 222hf Colloquium: Topics in Museums Studies- Art Museums as Institutions of Human Flourishing (1 Credit)

This course introduces the confluence of museum education practice and the emerging study within the field of positive psychology of the benefits to human flourishing of engaging with arts and culture. The class considers museums as audience-centered organizations to provide a foundation for introducing students to ways museums are developing new program models with a focus on positive outcomes such as reducing stress and anxiety, promoting social connection and increasing personal agency. S/U only. Restrictions: MUX 222 may not be repeated. Enrollment limited to 16.

Interterm, Variable

MUX 300 Seminar: Museums Concentration Research Capstone Seminar (4 Credits)

Required for all seniors pursuing the museums concentration, this seminar provides a forum for students to develop research capstone projects that synthesize their previous coursework and practical experiences for the Museums Concentration. These projects are supplemented by weekly seminar meetings in which students explore and critique the mission and work of museums and contemporary forces shaping them. Class sections also provide a forum for progress reports and discussion of individual research projects as well as final presentations. Students must have completed the requirements for the Museums Concentration (www.smith.edu/museums). Cannot be taken S/U. Restrictions: Seniors only; Museums concentrators only. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required.

Spring

MUX 400 Special Studies (1-4 Credits)

Normally, museums concentrators only. Instructor permission required.

Fall, Spring