OSU-Okmulgee || Faculty

Arts & Sciences

Hum 2243 Native Peoples of North America

Museum Exhibit Presentation and Paper

Presentations are given during Week 14 and Week 15 of class.

If you had the chance to put together an American Indian art exhibit for people on the OSU-Okmulgee campus who have little or no knowledge about American Indians, what would you want to include? Your assignment is to develop such an exhibit. The specifications of the assignment are as follows:

You will work in groups of four or five (depending on course enrollment).
The exhibit will be held in the Conoco Gallery in the OSU-Okmulgee Student Union. Check out this space before you begin your planning.
Choose a specific American Indian artist or a specific genre we discussed in class as the subject of your exhibit. Make sure the subject is limited enough for a small space like the one you will work with. For example, “Painting” is too broad. Even “Lakota Painting” is not limited enough. “Lakota Landscapes” or “San Ildefonso Pottery” would be more manageable
Decide how many items you will have in your exhibit and how they will be arranged and displayed in the room. Be prepared to justify your decisions.
Prepare a drawn layout of the gallery with all items clearly identified. Make sure this layout is easily visible as you explain it to the class. I discourage all groups from making shoebox dioramas--they remind me too much of Springfield Elementary School.
Prepare a PowerPoint Presentation that includes images of the author as well as of the most important pieces.
Give a 20-minute presentation during which you provide some background on the artist or the genre, discuss which items you chose and why, analyze how you decided to display them and why, and explain what visitors can learn from your exhibit. All group members must have equal speaking portions during the presentation.
Write a 3-4 page paper detailing the above in written form. Please attach a short statement to your paper telling me who was in charge of which portion of your research, presentation, and writing.
You will be graded as a group on exhibit design and the PowerPoint. Each speaker will receive a separate grade for his/her part of the presentation. For the paper, please let me know if you want to be graded as a group or if you would prefer that each writer receive a separate grade for the portion he or she wrote.

The paper must be typed (double-spaced) on standard, letter-size paper.

Please follow the same formatting guidelines as for the first paper.

Late work will be handled according to the rules in the syllabus. The following are unacceptable and will result in a rejection of your paper and a grade of zero (0):

1. Pages torn from a notebook.

2. Pages which are stained, folded, torn, crumpled, or otherwise damaged.

3. Paper sizes other than letter size.

4. Handwritten assignments.

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carsten@osu-okmulgee.edu