Choose an exhibition at the Whitney. Analyze the recent exhibition agenda of an institution of your choice and consider how it embodies, complicates or digresses from the institution’s mission. Students need only consider as many exhibitions as is necessary to establish the argument, but a period of 3-5 years ought to be an ample span of time. As a foundation, you should identify the way in which the institution uses its space and how different galleries tend to be devoted to different types of exhibition. In large institutions hosting multiple exhibitions running concurrently, it will likely only be possible to give an overview of the agenda, but in examining small institutions you might give thought to other operations feed into the offerings (e.g. is there a program of talks or film screenings and do these commonly relate to the exhibitions on view?). Consider, for example: Which historical period is emphasized? Contemporary art, Modern art, Old Masters? What type of media is exhibited? What is the status of the artists’ exhibited? Are they young and unestablished, or mid-career? Does the institution host major retrospectives of artists with broad popularity? Or does it shed light on avant-garde figures? How does the institution seek to distinguish its exhibitions? Does it seek to be the first institution to offer an overview of an international artist? Does it seek to show unconventional work by renowned artists? Students must declare their object of study.
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