ARTH 498: Special Topics in the History of Art and Architecture: Exhibition as Fieldwork
- Instructor: Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim
How do exhibitions shape what we see, know, and remember—and how can we study them up close, not only as a form of entertainment?
This advanced seminar treats exhibitions themselves as primary objects of study and as field sites for research, and is offered in a short, blended intensive format. Drawing on key texts in exhibition history, curatorial studies, and museum theory, the course looks at landmark shows—from salons and world’s fairs to biennials and community-based projects—as experiments in display, power, and public pedagogy. Through a preparatory online module, on-campus seminars, and guided visits to Montreal’s galleries, museums, artist-run centres, and studios, students will develop practical tools for exhibition-based research, including keeping exhibition fieldnotes, mapping installations, analyzing wall texts and spatial design, and observing how different publics move through and use these spaces.
Throughout the course, students will develop a small curatorial project that treats exhibition-making as a form of research-creation and fieldwork. Working in teams, students will design and test curatorial questions in situ, propose works or objects, sketch layout and interpretive strategies, and reflect on the ethical, political, and institutional stakes of their curatorial choices, including how exhibitions represent histories, communities, and contested narratives. Weekly themes may include topics such as exhibition histories, the “white cube” and other display models, biennials and large-scale exhibitions, and community-based or experimental projects, allowing room to incorporate new case studies as research evolves.
The course is designed as a bridge to graduate-level work in both curatorial studies and exhibition history within art history. It will be especially valuable for students interested in curatorial practice, museum and exhibition history, global contemporary art, and decolonizing art institutions, including those who may later pursue art history, exhibition history, or curatorial and museum studies at the graduate level.
Blended course format: This three-week intensive combines a pre-course asynchronous module with in-person seminars and guided fieldwork. In the week before the intensive, students complete online materials (short recorded lectures, readings, and prompts) and at least two self-scheduled gallery or museum visits using a fieldwork journal template. During the following two weeks, mornings are spent on campus in seminar and workshop sessions, and afternoons are devoted to instructor-guided visits to galleries, museums, artist-run centres, and studios. Between and after these meetings, students complete short online reflections and collaborative project work, so that learning moves continuously between classroom, online preparation, and exhibition-based fieldwork.
Schedule:
- May 12-15, 2026: Asynchronous
- May 18-29, 2026: In person, 8:45 am - 11:45 am, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
