The module Print Collecting and Curating will provide a practice-based approach to art history to complement the academic approach of other modules in the History and Philosophy of Art programme. By focussing on prints it will aim to provide students with an “apprenticeship” in two practical areas of art history, namely collecting and curating. The module will involve students in the full cycle of these two interrelated processes: from identifying and acquiring a print, to cataloguing and curating it, to making sense of it to a wider public by placing it in the context of a themed exhibition. The module will begin by familiarising students with the contents of the HPA departmental print collection. The core of this collection will have been established in advance of the module running for the first time by HPA staff, but in subsequent years the collection will reflect the work done on it by successive cohorts of students. This initial process of familiarisation will be accompanied by lectures on the history and techniques of printmaking, and by trips to the British Museum print room and Canterbury Cathedral library. It will culminate in the first assessment task: each student will submit an “exhibition bid” proposing an idea for an exhibition based on the existing collection and suggesting new acquisitions (and possibly loans) to realise the idea. The concepts for exhibitions could derive from the subject matter or techniques of prints in the collection, or they could involve focussing on a particular artist or period (e.g. prints after Van Dyck). The best conceived bid will then be adopted by the group who will work collectively to put on the exhibition. At this stage students will visit dealers and auction houses and carry out object-based research in order to secure new acquisitions. A study diary will be kept by each student to record this process and will be submitted at the end of the module as part of the overall assessment. As prints are acquired they will be catalogued to a professional standard format and these entries will form the basis of a catalogue to accompany the exhibition that will be the culmination of the module. Putting on the exhibition will require practical team-work to frame and hang the prints, to write and produce labels and illustrative material, to publicise and staff the exhibition (comparable to the collective work involved in staging a dramatic performance). The ability to work to a timetable and within a budget will be important factors at this stage of the module. A percentage of each student’s overall assessment will reflect the success of this collective endeavour.

This module is assessed by 100% coursework: - Exhibition Bid (30%). - Log Book (40%). - Exhibition (20%). - Project Performance (10%).

• Bamber GASCOIGNE - 'How to Identify Prints', London, Thames and Hudson, 1986
• Susan LAMBERT - 'Prints. Art and Techniques', London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2001
• A. HYATT MAYOR - 'Prints & People: a social history of printed pictures', New York, Metropolitan Museum, 1971
• Anthony GRIFFITHS - 'Prints and Printmaking. An introduction to the history and techniques', London, British Museum, 1996

See the library reading list for this module

• Upon completion of the module Print Collecting and Curating, students will have: - Learnt how to identify and evaluate different types of prints in terms of technique (engraving, etching, mezzotint, mixed medium etc), subject and engraver. - Acquired the discipline of object-based research and description essential for the process of cataloguing (a development from learning outcome 1 above). This process also involves developing a sense of how the market value of collectable items relates to their historic and aesthetic value. - Acquired a good knowledge of the history of printmaking and be able to relate this to the history of other visual arts, as well as to broader themes of cultural history. - Have acquired, through practical and responsible involvement in developing a departmental collection, a good understanding of the nature and history of collecting as an art historical practice. - Learnt how to design and budget for an exhibition bid. - Learnt how to structure and arrange a collection of objects, together with the critical information relating to those objects in a clear and useful way (e.g. the basic skills of archival practice).

No pre-requisites.