Fine Arts Seminars are intended to broaden and clarify students' perspective on contemporary art practice. Each semester these seminars shift in focus and subject matter. Seminars may concentrate on art from the perspectives of art history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and so forth, or may take the form of a discipline-based critique focusing on the history, theory, and practice of painting, sculpture, and photography, among others.The museum as we know it is a product of Western colonial culture. Today, many institutions are reevaluating practices that are less than equitable, as well as facing calls to return, share, and rethink sometimes iconic objects in their collections.But how did the museum come about? What are modern museums modeled on, and how has the institution changed and/or stayed the same over the past century? And how have artists interacted with both the physical institution and the idea of collecting and archiving?The objectives of this course are both intellectual and artistic. First: through talks, readings and field trips, this class will familiarize you with the history of museums and the collecting/ presenting of art and artifacts, eventually moving towards discussions of a number of artist’s projects within the museum setting. In the second part of the semester,  the class will conceive of and carry out a creative, imaginative ‘museum’ project of its own: a hands-on experience with an important aspect of contemporary art making, as well as with a continually-evolving thread of research and writing in the art world today.Field trips to the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose and the Pardee Home Museum in downtown Oakland will be complemented by student site visits and reports on one of the Bay Area’s many eccentric institutions (list provided). Possible sites for our class museum’s exhibition  include the campus library or galleries.Hybrid course sections will be delivered both online and in-person. Required online synchronous meeting times are listed as the meeting pattern for this course section. Additional course components will be delivered asynchronously or in-person as outlined in the syllabus.

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