2017/18 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

ARTF5680M Interpreting Cultures

30 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Dr Helen Graham
Email: H.Graham@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

You will develop critically-engaged, reflexive and practical understandings of interpretive practice in art gallery and museums.You will deepen your engagement with interpretive practice through an action learning project which is supported through workshops focused on interpretative planning and visitor research. You will learn how to develop an interpretation strategy, write accessibly for different audience and build skills of collaboration and project management.As a way of creatively expanding your understandings of interpretation, you will engage with debates drawn from the academic fields of Museum Studies and Cultural Studies. Key questions will include: Who is able to take up the position of interpreter? What are the responsibilities generated by the desire to represent other times, other places and other people? What political and creative potentials are enabled and foreclosed by the interpretive stories that are told?

Objectives

Interpreting Cultures aims to support students to become critically-engaged and reflective practitioners of art gallery and museum interpretation. This aim is supported through encountering academic debates concerning dynamics of power and representation while undertaking practical group interpretation project. By the end of the module, students will be able to draw up an interpretation strategy and develop interpretative approaches for specific audiences. Students will also use reflective engagement with their practical project as a way of planning future projects and proposals.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the module students will be able:
- To develop an interpretive project in response to a brief.
- To draw on current interpretive practice and academic debates, to identify and put into practice an interpretive strategy.
- To understand the issues raised by identifying audiences for interpretive projects and to make decisions about how to target and tailor interpretation for specific audiences.
- To draw on understandings of group dynamics and decision making processes in order to work collaboratively with peers.
- To locate project decision-making in contextual and critical research.
- To reflect on the module’s interpretive project and apply the learning to develop a future proposal for an interpretive project.
- To engage with the dynamics of power and representation raised by interpretive practice in art galleries and museums and apply this to practical interpretive decision making.
- To account for ethical and political implications of interpretive practice and recognise the responsibilities that emerge from seeking to interpret.

Skills outcomes
- Skills necessary to undertake higher research degree and/or for employment in a higher capacity in an area of professional practice.
- Evaluating own achievement and that of others.
- Self-direction and effective decision-making.
- Independent learning.
- Use of methodologies and theoretical resources.

Syllabus

The syllabus for Interpretive Culture is drawn from two strands of museum studies. The first is more practice-orientated and concerned with how to develop meaningful and engaged interpretation for specific audiences. This strand includes learning and pedagogic theory and insights generated by visitor studies. The second strand is drawn from critical debates in museum and culture studies concerned with dynamics of power and representation. The module seeks to bring these different debates into creative and productive dialogue through a practical interpretation project.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Visit	2	3.00	6.00
Group Project	1	30.00	30.00
Seminar	9	3.00	27.00
Private study hours			237.00
Total Contact hours			63.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

237 hours research, keeping and compiling the reflective log, reading and preparation for seminars and essay.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

- Attendance at seminars
- Participation in class discussions.
- Group presentation in Week 5

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Presentation	Group presentation	0.00
Essay	1 x 3000-4000 word essay (inc footnotes and bibliography)	50.00
Reflective log	3000 words	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Group presentation while not given a mark is pass for progression

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 06/09/2017

Disclaimer

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• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

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