Art History Survey: A Round-Table Discussion

Abstract

At the College Art Association 2003 annual conference, the editorial board of Art Journal convened a round-table discussion on the art history survey: why it continues to exist, who teaches it and how is it taught, and what have been effective challenges and innovations to its traditional form. Participants engaged in a spirited, substantive, and inconclusive discussion. Organizer and moderator Peggy Phelan (then chair of the Art Journal editorial board) proposed that this conversation on pedagogy should continue. She convened a round-table discussion, via e-mail, on the survey course with several experienced teachers and scholars. During the course of the conversation, Kathleen Desmond noted, “The Carnegie Foundation found that 80 percent of college teaching faculty listed teaching as their primary interest. Yet we barely discuss teaching. Treating teaching in the same ways we treat research and art making can revitalize and legitimize the essential component of our jobs as college professors.” With these points in mind, we are publishing excerpts from the e-mail discussion, hoping it might provoke further consideration of and dialogue about teaching the arts and art history in the new century.