FYI
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, June 27, 2003
http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/06/2003062701t.htm
A Web Site Provides a Window on Spain's Early Forays into the Americas
http://www.smith.edu/vistas/index.html
By BROCK READ
The art created in Central and South America in the wake of the New World
conquests of Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro is a fascinating case study
for art students, according to Dana Leibsohn, an assistant professor of
art at Smith College, and Barbara Mundy, associate director of Latin
American and Latino studies at Fordham University. Columbian-era art, the
professors argue, represents a rich visual tradition that also sheds
light on the often-uneasy cultural exchanges between the indigenous
peoples of Latin America and European conquistadors.
But Ms. Leibsohn says that the study of Spanish American art has been
stunted because many of Latin America's most compelling and important
Columbian-era art objects have long been stuck in obscure locations,
often trapped in storage rooms at libraries and museums in North and
South America. Making the objects themselves accessible to students can
be a frustrating challenge for professors, she says.
With Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America 1520-1820, a Web site and
forthcoming DVD project, Ms. Leibsohn and Ms. Mundy hope to provide
professors and students with access to previously unavailable images. The
project profiles three centuries of colonial-era art, focusing on the
glimpses that Latin American pottery, architecture, and ceremonial items
provide into the process of mestizaje, the mixing in Latin America of
European, indigenous, and even African and Asian visual cultures.
The site's backbone is a gallery of images of manuscripts, paintings,
religious objects, and furniture, each accompanied by a description of
the item's functions and implications. The images, drawn from museum and
library collections in the United States and abroad, offer students a
chance to examine materials they might not otherwise have access to,
according to Ms. Leibsohn. "One of our chief goals is to pull together a
diverse body of materials, so we don't just focus on Mexico or Peru, and
make available a lot of high-quality images that you can't see anywhere
else," she says.
Visitors to the site can browse the main gallery or view the images
through a series of short units that tie the materials to key concepts in
Spanish American art, such as the influence of pre-Columbian tradition
and the political motives underlying colonial architecture. The thematic
lessons, Ms. Leibsohn says, reflect the Web site's chief mission: to be
not just a study guide, but also a teaching tool that professors can use
in class.
Ms. Leibsohn says that the Web site's design is based on test-runs she
has undertaken with her own students. "Because they have access to all
the information and all the imagery that I use around the clock, it
really changes the dynamic in the classroom," she says. "They ask harder
questions of each other in class, and they engage in deeper conversation
with each other about the images."
Delia A. Cosentino, an assistant professor of art history at DePaul
University, agrees. Ms. Cosentino, who tested the Web site in a session
of her course on Columbian art, said she was impressed by the site's
image presentation. "The quality of the images is beyond anything that
I've seen online," she says. "The responses from students to the site
were very positive."
The project, financed largely by a grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities, is available online in both English- and Spanish-language
versions. The bilingual approach is important, Ms. Leibsohn says, in
expanding the site's appeal to Latin American museums and institutions.
The current version of Vistas is a pilot program, Ms. Leibsohn says, but
she and Ms. Mundy are working to expand the site by adding to its image
archives and developing a library that collects colonial-era documents
depicting aspects of Latin American visual culture.
And Ms. Leibsohn and Ms. Mundy are planning an even more comprehensive
version of Vistas. A DVD edition of the project, containing a database of
about 250 images, is scheduled for release in 2004. Like the ongoing Web
project, the DVD will be tested in the classroom by students at Smith and
Fordham.
"As a professor, that's very exciting," says Ms. Leibsohn, "This is the
first time I've been able to work with students and have them help to
shape a project."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Adan Griego
Curator for Latin American,
Mexican American & Iberian Collections
Green Library-FLAC
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
(650) 723-3150 / 725-1068 (fax)
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