Cultural experience field report #1 | humanuities | University of Maryland University College

Note: This assignment has been adapted to adhere to the current guidance from the CDC for social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

For this assignment, you will choose a virtual cultural venue from the instructions below to visit online and write a short 500-800 word report about your visit.  

Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to the process of engaging with the cultural venues and communities. This will inform you personally of the Humanities and groups that support it. 

Skills
This assignment will help you practice the following skills that will be useful to you in your professional and personal life beyond school. 

• Identify cultural venues and inform you with deeper knowledge about the art form chosen. 
• Organize reflections about engaging with a cultural experience and community 
• Use concepts and skills learned in class to describe and interpret cultural experiences and communities 
• Use appropriate and proper grammar, organization, and academic-style formatting in order to communicate 

Knowledge
This assignment will help you become familiar with the following important content knowledge in the Humanities. 

• Available virtual cultural venues and communities 
• Methods of interpretation within the Humanities 

Instructions
For your report, choose one virtual venue from this pre-approved list that most interests you, or contact your professor for approval of your own online choice. If your choice below has both a website and a video, make sure you examine both. If you need special accommodations to complete this assignment, please inform your instructor and contact the Accessibility Accommodations office for guidance.  

ART MUSEUMS AND SCULPTURE GARDENS 

Great Museums documentaries 

The National Museum of Women in the Arts
https://youtu.be/kXaln1MDGwg

 Write a report after you have explored or viewed the online resource. 

Your report should include the following information. Include photos or links that help convey the information. As always, be sure to document all sources you consult in preparing your work. This includes any learning resources from the class, or information from the websites that informed you about the particular item you explored. 

• Name and location of the museum, site, or performance event. If there is on-line information about the site or performance, be sure to include a link to it within the text of your essay in an appropriate place.  
   

• Type of museum, site or event. For example is it a portrait or sculpture museum, a music concert, or dance performance? If you viewed a performance, name the performer or the piece.
   
• Briefly describe the general setting by talking a bit about the location (you can research the location online) and the general overall “vibe” of the place.  
   
• Describe at least one aspect of the experience that you found especially interesting. For example, you might write about a particular work of art, cultural artifact, song, dance section, costumes or lighting, a particular vocalist, etc. Explain what impressed or affected you, and why. Your reaction can be positive or negative, as long as you offer an explanation.
   
• Identify and use at least two tools, concepts or methods that you have learned about in this class in the Learning Resources to talk about your viewing. For example, if you do a virtual museum tour, you might point out how color works in one of the paintings, or if you view to a concert, talk about how rhythm works in one of the songs. Make sure you are explicit in identifying the tools/concept/methods you are using and the specific learning resources they come from. Make sure to inform the reader about the tool/concept/method through a quote or paraphrase from the learning resource. Then, make sure to tell the reader how you interpret and/or analyze some elements of what you experience with the tools.  
   
• Be sure to cite the learning resources you have used in MLA format. Please see http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/mla_examples.cfm
   

• Reflect on the relevance–if any–of your experience to your everyday life.  How did the experience engage your feelings or emotions, if at all? What does this tell you about human culture, and/or about yourself?
   

STOP: Before you hand in your assignment, ask yourself the following questions:  

1. Have I provided the name and location of the museum, site, or performance event and URL, if available, identified the type of museum, site or event, and provided a general description of the setting? 
2. Have I identified and explained an especially interesting aspect of the experience and used examples to illustrate reflections and to explain why this aspect was interesting? 
3. Have I identified and applied two tools, concepts or methods of interpretation from learning resources to concrete and specific examples from visit? 
4. Have I used examples to clearly explain the relevance of my visit to at least one of the following: 1) emotion 2) human culture 3) self-identity 4) cultural identity? 
5. Have I provided a list of resources and do all of my citations conform to MLA 8th edition guidelines? 
6. Have I proofread this assignment for grammatical, structural, and spelling errors?