The Orchard Gallery

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
A senior-level undergraduate course that examines the complex relationship between artists and contemporary commercial galleries, using the short-lived Orchard Gallery, which operated on the Lower East Side of New York between 2005-2008, as a prism through which myriad perspectives (including artist, audience, community, and gallerist) can be interrogated. A combination of lectures, readings, and studio projects shape a nuanced understanding of the relationship between art and commerce, with focused readings and exercises addressing themes including audience, community, gentrification, and representation. This course also offers the opportunity to cultivate practical knowledge regarding the running of an art gallery, which may equally be of interest to studio, art history, and museum studies students.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
In this course, students will study the contemporary and historical contexts within which art galleries exist. Over the course of the semester students will engage with a number of texts and artworks to develop their practical and conceptual understanding about how, why and for who art gallery’s function. Students will learn the principals behind pricing artworks, as well as general gallery logistics and operations, aimed toward a final project that will see students conceptualize and plan their own art gallery. By the end of this course students will understand the practical workings of a contemporary art gallery, as well as gallery’s broader function in relation to culture and the art market, as well as the economics and politics that support this.
Reading Response #2: An Idea-Driven Social Space
Reading: Andrea Geyer and Ulrike Müller, “An Idea-Driven Social Space” Grey Room (35), pp.116-127
cite:
Andrea Geyer, and Ulrike Müller. 2009. “An Idea-Driven Social Space.” Grey Room 35 (35): 116–27. https://doi.org/10.1162/grey.2009.1.35.116.

WHAT I like:
“I want to be written in academic style only” from a gender neutral (I am a mature woman) view.
with a 400-word reflection. you may be drawn to one particular idea in a reading, such as a word or a title and you may perform a close reading and extrapolate speculatively on an idea. Though I insist that everyone try their best to read the texts, reflect and re-read them in their entirety, an imaginative reading or a close reading at times is also productive. While the course is being taught in a seminar-style, I’d also like to leave some space for students, especially those less versed in academic writing,

below is what professor wrote:
Students should respond to each assigned reading (four in total) with a 400-word reflection. This does not necessarily have to be done in an academic writing style. As an artist, for example, you may be drawn to one particular idea in a reading, such as a word or a title and you may perform a close reading and extrapolate speculatively on an idea. Though I insist that everyone try their best to read the texts, reflect and re-read them in their entirety, an imaginative reading or a close reading at times is also productive. While the course is being taught in a seminar style, I’d also like to leave some space for students, especially those less versed in academic writing, to respond to 2 of the course readings in a media of their choosing (drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, etc. …). Visual submissions will be graded and weighted in keeping with the assignment rubric.

Lecture: Community and Audience How to make a community? Do art galleries form communities or are they formed by them? How do you grow an audience?
• Discussion: Andrea Geyer and Ulrike Müller, “An Idea- Driven Social Space” Grey Room (35), pp.116-127
• Watch/Listen:
Adrian Piper, Aspects of the Libera Dilemma, 1978.
http://www.adrianpiper.com/art/aspects_of_the_liberal_dilemma.shtml
• Reading: Andrea Geyer and Ulrike Müller, “An Idea-Driven Social Space” Grey Room (35), pp.116-127