Individuals
This experience is available to individual learners on the following platforms:
Visualizing Women's Work: Using Art Media for Social Justice
What You'll Learn
- How to describe the role of gender bias in historical public art and design and how it perpetuates cultural norms of gender inequity, such as "work"
4 Modules
16 Hours
4 hrs per module (approx.)
Rating
About Visualizing Women's Work: Using Art Media for Social Justice
Discover the historical erasure of women’s work through social justice art
Public art has often ignored the work and legacy of minorities and women, but recently there has been a welcome reappraisal of publicly displayed visual monuments and art media.
This course dives into the artistic process, exploring how art has the power to address issues of social justice and gender equality and answer historic injustices.
Critique art history through the lens of gender
You’ll begin the course by evaluating public monuments in terms of form, content, and context, undertaking a critical analysis of art through a social justice lens.
With a focus on both the local and global picture, you’ll address the historical erasure of women’s work – compensated and uncompensated – learning about the role of gender bias in historical public art.
Examine the creative process and creative research
The course will also give you a foundation in visual literacy and interpretation, as you explore the artistic process and creative practice as a form of research.
You’ll then learn how to develop your own media-based or literary projects that respond to gender bias in public commemoration.
Examine real-world examples of social justice art projects
On the final sections of the course, you’ll identify and interpret existing art-based social justice projects in a variety of media, including site-specific work and web-based initiatives.
Learning alongside world-renowned visual and performance artist Melanie Manos, you’ll come away armed with creative and provocative ways to counter historical erasure in public art.
Skills You'll Gain
- Art History
- Gender Studies
- Professional Writing
- Social Justice
What You'll Earn
- Certificate of Completion:
- Certificates of completion acknowledge knowledge acquired upon completion of a non-credit course or program.
Welcome Message
Welcome to Visualizing Women’s Work: Using Art Media for Social Justice, a course that explores how visual art can be used to surface women’s stories, challenge gender bias, and promote social change. Through discussion, creative exploration, and critical analysis, you will examine form, content, context, and community to better understand how art communicates meaning and makes visible overlooked narratives in public and personal spaces.
This abbreviated syllabus description was created with the help of AI tools and reviewed by staff. The full syllabus is available to those who enroll in the course.
Course Schedule
Module 1: Visual Literacy
- Video: Welcome
- Reading: Syllabus and Course Policies
- Reading: Pre-course Survey
- Discussion Prompt: Introduce Yourself!
- Video: Form, Content, Context
- Reading: Additional Resources
- Discussion Prompt: Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue
- Discussion Prompt: Describe the form, content, and context of selected art
- App Item: Share an image of the art you’ve described
- Video: Many Forms of Art
- Graded Assignment: Art Genres Bingo
- Reading: Additional Resources
- Video: Many Forms of Art: New Genres
- Video: Paper Art
- App Item: Share Your Paper Art
- Video: Artists Motivations: Kara Walker
- Reading: Walker selected Works
- Discussion Prompt: Artists Reveal their Why
- App Item: Can you define it?
- Reading: Coming Attractions!
- Graded: Form, Content, and Context
Module 2: Art and Social Justice
- Video: Visibility: Using Art to Raise Public Consciousness
- Reading: Additional Resources
- Reading: Community Engagement and Socially Engaged Art
- Video: Making Visible: Performance Art and Social Justice
- Reading: View Melanie Manos's Work
- Discussion Prompt: Which example resonates with you?
- Discussion Prompt: Research and You
- Reading: Research to Inform Creative Work: Corral & Chan
- Discussion Prompt: Role of Research in Creative Practice
- Video: Creative Practice as a Form of Research: Melanie Manos
- Reading: Materials Based Research: Olafur Eliasson
- Discussion Prompt: Materials Research
- Video: Materials Research Activity
- App Item: Your Reimagined Activity
- Video: Defining Public Visual Culture and Public Historical Culture
- Video: Critical Assessment of Public and Historical Visual Culture
- App Item: Public and Historical Visual Culture in your Region
- Reading: Eras and Styles of Historic Monuments
- Discussion Prompt: Styles of Regional Public Historical Monuments
- Reading: Coming Attractions!
Module 3: Gender Bias
- Video: Humor and Activism: Guerrilla Girls
- Reading: Guerrilla Girls
- Discussion Prompt: Guerrilla Girls’ Motivation?
- Video: Participatory Art: Suzanne Lacy
- Reading: More on Suzanne Lacy
- Discussion Prompt: Engaging with Community
- Video: Lens-based Activism: Shirin Neshat
- Reading: More on Shirin Neshat
- Discussion Prompt: Does the Venue Matter?
- Video: Guy in the Sky - Look up! It's a Bird, a Plane, a Monument of a Man!
- Reading: More Historic Monuments
- Discussion Prompt: The Absence or Presence of Women
- Reading: Confronting Patriarchal Tradition: Rokudenashiko
- Discussion Prompt: Gender Bias in your Region
- Reading: Coming Attractions!
Module 4: Visualizing Women’s Work
- Video: Giving Visibility to Women's Contributions
- Reading: More on Giving Visibility to Women's Contributions
- Discussion Prompt: What are the untold stories?
- Video: Creative Visual Identity: Jay Campbell
- Discussion Prompt: Attention Catching Brand
- Discussion Prompt: The Visual Language of a Significant Woman in your Life
- Reading: Division of Labor by Gender and the Devaluation of Domestic Work
- Video: Historical Research and Creative Expression: Kilala Ichie-Vincent
- Reading: Womankind and UNWomen
- Discussion Prompt: Re-evaluating Assumptions
- Reading: Redefining the Form of Commemorative Monuments
- Video: Using Sculpture to Heighten the Experiential
- Discussion Prompt: Reconsidering Memorial, Commemorate, and Monument
- Reading: How to Celebrate a Significant Woman in your Life?
- App Item: Making Visible the Women in Your Life
- Video: Course Conclusion
- Reading: HerViewInternational
- Reading: Course Survey
- Reading: Course Copyright and Attributions
Grading Policy
Assessment in this course is based on a single required assignment that evaluates your understanding of key concepts related to form, content, context, and social justice in visual art. The Form, Content, and Context – Graded Assignment is worth 100% of your final grade.
No instructors specified.
Beginner Level
No prior experience required
