Before scheduling a visit to any cultural institution, verify its current hours and dates of operation as well as admission prices and tour policies (if you are scheduling a guided tour or leading a group of students yourself) by consulting its website and contacting the education department, if possible.
You are encouraged to bring the corresponding study guide with you on your visit, whether it is part of a class assignment or for personal enrichment. If you are attending a museum as part of a class assignment, be sure to use the assignment sheet provided by your instructor. These study guides were written by: Erica McCormack, Instructor of Humanities and Fine Arts at Harold Washington College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. Study Guides Overview
Each study guide contains important links and information about the cultural institution at the top, followed by a list of 8-20 questions that instructors or students may copy or modify to facilitate class assignments or for personal study and enrichment. You are encouraged to mix and match questions to suit your area of study or interest. When copying questions for a class handout, you will probably want to include much more space between questions than what is included on the documents available for download if you intend for students to write on the handout. Most questions have several sub-questions, and study guide users can pick and choose which of these are appropriate for their purposes. Many of these cultural institutions prominently feature temporary exhibits. Because it is the nature of such shows to be impermanent, questions on these study guides instead focus on the buildings and their permanent exhibitions. It is intended that many questions developed for a permanent exhibit may be adapted by the instructor or student to suit a temporary exhibit as well (for information about current and upcoming temporary exhibits, refer to the forum discussions). Some, such as questions asking visitors to reflect on the objects that they enjoyed or that confused them, are already flexible enough to accommodate even those institutions with fluctuating exhibits. |
Most of the questions are designed to be completed by students while they are in the space of the cultural institution. Depending on the detail expected in student responses, three to five questions is the recommended length for a study guide to be used in an 80 minute class session. For those students or faculty who want the investigation to continue after leaving the galleries, some questions suggest possible short research topics. They instruct the student to use the HWC library resources, or in some cases to use the Chicago Public Library: Harold Washington Library Center. For best results, faculty are encouraged to share specific databases, such as ARTstor.org, that they recommend students use for these assignments.
Happy exploring! |
Study Guides
These study guides were designed to be used in a variety of courses and to help individuals pursue both academic and personal interests.