“I’m not receiving credit, but it has everything to do with what I’m studying,” Georgia Zutz ‘23 Communication Studies major answered when asked the question “Why are you taking ART 224? Is it essential towards your major?”
The Fall Semester course, ART 224: Visual Information analyzes historical documents, posters, and artwork and discusses its efficacy in the academic setting. The course, taught by Professor Colleen Stockman, discusses issues in museums and artists and assesses how those issues can be addressed. The course also handles the dynamic between art and activism and how the two have played off each other throughout history.
The course takes place in the Gustavus Archives, located on the third floor of the library. In the archives, the students have access to an array of posters, historical documents, and are guided by Jeff Jenson and Adrianna Darden. Jensen is the College and Lutheran Church Archivist along with an Associate Professor. Darden is the Archives Collection and Records Manager and the two provide the students the skills they need when approaching valuable evidence like the archives and other important historical documents.
The course emphasizes the importance of assessing images and media and ask yourself the questions “What is the deeper meaning being conveyed?” “What feelings do these images invoke?” “And how does that impact my understanding or worldview?” ART 224 practices and hones those skills to make students a more critical and responsible consumer of media and art.
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