PHIL 347N WEEK 2 |LATEST UPDATE WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
• Textbook: Chapter 4, 5
• Lesson
• At least 1 news article (e.g., latimes.com, usatoday.com, nytimes.com)
• Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)
Initial Post Instructions
Select one of the following options to research for this discussion:
• Option 1: Google <California Washington mural>. You will find numerous reports
concerning a California school district that voted to paint over a mural in the high school.
The Life of Washington was painted by Depression-era artist Victor Arnautoff.
• Option 2: Google <Indiana University Thomas Hart Benton mural>. You will find
numerous articles on the controversy surround a panel from Benton's A Social History of
Indiana (1933) murals.
• Option 3: Conduct research on a mural or statue or monument in your town that is the
subject of controversy.
Before you read the news articles, try to look at the artworks through an image search in Google.
Then, read the news articles to see the different viewpoints about the murals.
For the initial post, address at least four (4) of the following questions for the option you
selected:
• What do you think should be done with the artwork (e.g., painted over, covered,
destroyed, left as is in plain view, etc.)? Why?
• Should the context in which the artwork was created (the Great Depression of the 1930s
in the case of the Benton and Arnautoff murals) have an impact on the decision of what to
do with the artwork?
• Should the context in which people now view the artwork have an impact on the decision
of what to do with it?
• What message do you think the artwork conveys?
• Do you think there is ambiguity in the message?
• Do you think the message is vague?
• Does the artistic value of the artwork require that it be saved regardless of message?
• Does the historic value of the artwork require that it be saved regardless of message?
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
• Textbook: Chapter 4, 5
• Lesson
• At least 1 news article (e.g., latimes.com, usatoday.com, nytimes.com)
• Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)
Initial Post Instructions
Select one of the following options to research for this discussion:
• Option 1: Google <California Washington mural>. You will find numerous reports
concerning a California school district that voted to paint over a mural in the high school.
The Life of Washington was painted by Depression-era artist Victor Arnautoff.
• Option 2: Google <Indiana University Thomas Hart Benton mural>. You will find
numerous articles on the controversy surround a panel from Benton's A Social History of
Indiana (1933) murals.
• Option 3: Conduct research on a mural or statue or monument in your town that is the
subject of controversy.
Before you read the news articles, try to look at the artworks through an image search in Google.
Then, read the news articles to see the different viewpoints about the murals.
For the initial post, address at least four (4) of the following questions for the option you
selected:
• What do you think should be done with the artwork (e.g., painted over, covered,
destroyed, left as is in plain view, etc.)? Why?
• Should the context in which the artwork was created (the Great Depression of the 1930s
in the case of the Benton and Arnautoff murals) have an impact on the decision of what to
do with the artwork?
• Should the context in which people now view the artwork have an impact on the decision
of what to do with it?
• What message do you think the artwork conveys?
• Do you think there is ambiguity in the message?
• Do you think the message is vague?
• Does the artistic value of the artwork require that it be saved regardless of message?
• Does the historic value of the artwork require that it be saved regardless of message?
