ARTH599 - Curating an Exhibition (Spring 2022)

• Class Readings & Materials: Working bibliography of class readings
• Find Books: Strategies for finding books at Mason & beyond
• Find Articles: Recommended databases & journals
• Primary Sources & Documents: Maps, newspapers, artist files & more
• Museums & Galleries: Institutions with strong Haitian/Caribbean art collections
• Write & Cite: Resources to help manage your research
• Get Help: Chat with a librarian or set up a one-on-one appointment

[Image: Philome Obin, Artist Receives Foreign Visitors at Home, n.d. From the Modern Latin American Art slide collection of Dr. Jacqueline Barnitz, University of Texas, Austin, via Artstor Digital Library.]

• Identify major institutions, scholars, and discourses:
  • Look for universities with dedicated departments or research centers in Haitian/Caribbean art
  • Take note of specific authors on readings and in journals
  • Consider scholars who write in related fields (for example, Stuart Hall's work on Caribbean diaspora identity)
  • Understand current conversations and critical approaches (i.e. postcolonial studies, anthropology, critical race studies, diasporic studies) 
• Consider alternate forms and places where information may be shared.
  • Reviews of exhibits (especially where catalogs are not available)
  • Sources outside traditional books and journals, including artist collectives
• Adapt your language
  • Try different keywords or alternate phrasings, including French or Kreyòl/Creole keywords (if known)
  • When looking for primary sources, consider historic language differences (including outdated terminology)
  • Look for English-language reviews of French publications

Keywords & alternate terms/spellings to consider:

• Language: Creole, Kreyòl, Haitian Creole; West African languages 
• People & geographies: Caribbean diaspora, West Indies, Hispaniola
• Religion: syncretism; vodou, voudou, vaudou, voudun, or voodoo; Roman Catholic/Spanish Catholicism
• Aesthetic categories, styles, practices: intuitive, outsider, or naive art; art naif; primitivism

The following guides may be useful for doing research on the arts.