ARHT5902: Writing for the Art and Museum Sector

Week 1 5 August 2026

Yvonne Low
An Introduction: Ways of seeing, Ways of writing

We look forward to meeting and getting to know each other better. This seminar introduces the unit, assessments and learning outcomes. We will explore art writing as a critical ‘curator’s’ tool and to consider more expansively the function of writing in exhibitions and the wider museum industry. What does it mean to write purposefully, ‘plainly’ or creatively in a gallery and museum? This first lecture briefly explores writing about art (and writing in art history) as a creative process, and how writing gives meaning to art from multiple viewpoints. 

Readings:
. Surface, Mary Hall and Ryan, Nathalie. ‘Developing close looking, creativity, and community through writing and art’, Journal of Museum Education 43, no. 4 (2018): 356-364.
. Sabeti, Shari. ‘Writing creatively in a museum: tracing lines through persons, art objects and texts’, Literacy 50, no. 3 (2016): 141-148

Week 2 12 August 2026

Jennifer Blunden 

Engaging with Audiences

There are many different audiences that museum and gallery writers seek to engage. These include external visitors with diverse backgrounds, interests and needs as well as colleagues, stakeholders and industry. This session will explore the needs and interests these various audiences and examine strategies for ensuring they are effectively engaged in our writing. 

Readings:
. Deeth, Jane (2012). ‘Engaging strangeness in the art museum: an audience development strategy’, Museum & Society 10(1): 1–14
. Gurian, Elaine (2017). ‘The importance of and’, MuseumNext conference, ACMI, Melbourne.
. Hooper-Greenhill, Eileen. (2000). 'Changing values in the art museum: rethinking communication and learning', International Journal of Heritage Studies, 6(6), 9–31.

Week 3 19 August 2026

Jennifer Blunden 

The art writer’s toolkit (part 1)

In this and the following session this afternoon, we will take a close-up look at how writing makes meaning. We will explore some key concepts about language and how they can be used as powerful tools for creating and critiquing different types of museum texts – powerful in the sense of ‘sharpening our eyes’ so we can see more clearly the implications in meaning of choices we make in language – and use those insights to create, shape, deconstruct and talk about written texts with greater precision and delicacy. In this first session we will focus on the nature and important role of verbs – their 'voice', their 'type' and what the term ‘active’ language actually means. We will also look at text structure and how to manage the flow of meaning so your writing is clear, coherent and easy to follow.

Readings:
. Sword, Helen (2015). The Writer’s Diet, chapter 2, ‘Verbal verve’, Auckland University Press, pp13–22.
. Williams, Gilda (2015). How to write about contemporary art, chapter 2.4 Practical 'how-to's, Thames & Hudson, pp59–83.

Week 4 26 August 2026

Jennifer Blunden

Art Writer’s Tool Kit Part 2

In this session we continue to delve more deeply into the qualities and features of written language, focusing on the quality of ‘accessibility’. What does ‘accessible’ mean in terms of writing? What makes some art writing so difficult or alienating, and other art writing the complete reverse? This session will look at the impact of specific word choices and order, and unpack the critical relationship between spoken and written language and between ‘academic’ and everyday language.

Readings:
. Blunden, Jennifer (2017). The Sweet Spot? Writing for a Reading Age of 12. Curator, 60(3), 291–309.
. Sword, Helen (2015). The Writer’s Diet, chapter 1, ‘Noun density’, Auckland University Press, pp23–31.

Week 5 2 Sept 2026

Yvonne Low

Writing Workshop: Writing Labels (Assignment to be completed in Class)

For the first assignment, students will write a set of three labels: a thematic label situating a work within broader ideas or an artist's practice; an object-level label describing a specific work in detail; and a children's/family label for that same work that is engaging and accessible. Further details will be provided on Canvas. Students will be well-supported to complete this assignment from Weeks 2-4.

Week 6 9 Sept 2026

Yvonne Low

Blogs and Biographies: Making (Art) History Interesting

Platforms such as Khan Academy and SmartHistory are highly popular sites designed to educate both broad and targetted audience on the rich and dynamic histories of art spanning the historical and the contemporary. Often written by specialists, these entries are written journalistically with the aim of making history interesting, as opposed to dull and prosaic! Students will focus on developing biographical narratives. Artists’ biographies is a popular genre of writing and does much to give visibility to artists who may be left out from canonical art histories. Often diverse and dynamic (no one person’s life is ever the same as another!) students will examine current examples such as projects initiated by AWARE and others.

Readings:
. Wald, Gayle. "Rosetta Tharpe and Feminist “Un-Forgetting”." Journal of Women's History 21, no. 4 (2009): 157-160.
. Hudson, Lynn M. "Lies, Secrets, and Silences: Writing African American Women’s Biography." Journal of Women's History 21, no. 4 (2009): 138-140.
. Kathryn Brown and Elspeth Mitchell, “Feminist Digital Art History”, in ed. Kathryn Brown, The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History (New York: Routledge, 2020) 43-57. 

Week 7 16 Sept 2026

Yvonne Low 

The Art of Guided Looking 

For this seminar, we will explore strategies of social inclusion in a museum context so as to offer a rich and rewarding experience to all visitors. What does it mean to engage audience meaningfully in a primarily visuo-centric environment? We will explore a range of strategies used by curators to engage visitors, and to expand their experiences; we will discuss the benefits of incorporating Audio Description (AD) in Standard Audio Guides (SAG) and we will look at current audio tours offered by the AGNSW to gain an insight to current practice. We will then apply these strategies to the writing and designing of an audio-guide for Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Readings:
. Hutchinson, Rachel and Eardely, Alison. ‘Inclusive museum audio guides: ‘guided looking’ through audio description enhances memorability of artworks for sighted audiences’, Museum management and curatorship 36, no. 4 (2021): 427-446.
. Hadley Bree, and Rieger, Janice. ‘Co-designing choice: objectivity, aesthetics and agency in audio-description’, Museum management and curatorship 36, no. 1 (2021): 189-203. 

Week 8 23 Sept 2026

Yvonne Low
Art, Artists and their Stories [Site Visit: Chau Chak Wing Museum]

We will explore a range of specialist collections and meet curators developing exhibitions for the state gallery. We will learn how concepts are pitched and how narratives are developed across selected artworks. From this site visit we will gain a better understanding of the curatorial processes that typically take place in developing art exhibitions. The visit will include curator talks, tour of the galleries and a practical tutorial all onsite at the gallery. 

Break 28 Sept - 5 Oct 2026 

Week 9 7 Oct 2026

Jennifer Blunden 

Representation, Voice and Agency
 

Debates and issues that face museums and galleries today, and, consider the role and responsibilities of writers relative to these broader community contexts and expectations. We will focus on issues around representation, voice and agency, particularly in relation to contexts of decolonisation and gender, and in terms of content, process and impact.

Readings:
. Adair, Joshua & Levin, Amy (2020). Introduction in Adair, Joshua & Levin, Amy (eds), Museums, sexuality and gender activism, Routledge, pp5–20.

. Coombes, Annie & Phillips, Ruth (2020). ‘Introduction: dynamics of democratization and decolonisation’ in Coombes, Annie & Phillips, Ruth (eds), Museum transformations: decolonization and democratization, Wiley Blackwell, Hokoben NJ & Chichester UK.

. Sandell, Richard (2017). ‘Museums and the transgender tipping point’, chapter 5 in Museums, moralities and human rights, Routledge, pp111–134.

Week 10 14 Oct 2026

Yvonne Low 

Writing for the Exhibition: Constructing a Narrative

We will look at how a specific exhibition narrative with clear conceptual positioning, can be best communicated through the different forms of writing needed in the context of an exhibition display. Using a small to medium size visual art exhibition with focus on decolonial museum practices as an example, the lecture will explore: What are the different types of writing outputs required and how must they distinctly and collectively operate to tell a story? What approaches might one take to ensure effective and inclusive communication? This session will focus on one of two foundational long-form formats: the exhibition catalogue.

Readings:
. Dragojlović, A. and Quinan, C. (2023). "Queering and decolonising the museum: ‘in the presence of absence’ exhibition at the stedelijk museum". Memory Studies, 16(1), 161-165.

. Howell, D. (2015). "Telling the story of welsh art—but is anyone listening?" in  Curator: The Museum Journal, 58(4), 423-433.

. Mason, R. et. al. "One Voice to Many Voices? Displaying Polyvocality in an Art Gallery" in Museums and Communities : Curators, Collections and Collaboration, edited by Viv Golding, and Wayne Modest, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013.

Week 11 21 Oct 2026

Jennifer Blunden

Finding a critical voice: Writing reviews 

In this session we explore the role of the critical voice, particularly in relation to the visual arts. Art criticism is a process of responding to, interpreting meaning, and making critical judgments about specific works of art or objects. Looking to the core steps of describing, analysing, interpreting, evaluating and contextualising, we will focus on one of two foundational long-form formats: the exhibition review. What are their essential similarities and differences in terms of purpose, audience, structure and critical voice? How might we as authors bring our own voice to these forms? We will also consider the role of and approaches to incorporating primary and secondary sources/research.

Week 12 28 Oct 2026

Jennifer Blunden / Yvonne Low

Project Development Workshop/Second Assignment Showcase and Debrief

Please see canvas for further details. 

Week 13 4 Nov 2026

Yvonne Low
A coda

And so we have come to the end of the unit, and full cycle back to the first seminar many weeks back when we first encounter this thing called the "narrative" - that drives and shapes experience whether as a piece of writing, an audio guide, or an exhibition. In this final seminar together we will briefly review and reflect on key skills and concepts developed throughout the unit to take stock of everything that we have learned; honing and refining our writing skills does not end with this course. If anything, you might see this as a beginning. This seminar serves as nutshell, offering you (1) some final practical advice for the 'real world' industry and how to get your writing out there, (2) note-taking skills to add to your researching process and acquiring knowledge (have you been taking good notes?) and (3) lastly some useful suggestions on how to write "shapely thoughts", paragraphs that are meaningful (are you reporting or analysing)?