I'm beginning the challenging, but exciting task of selecting VTSable images from the Museum of Art & Archaeology's collection. I am particularly happy with the collection that appears here! Hopefully, it will cause the viewer to reflect upon the attribute of beauty and its relationship to time, culture, and place.

In his discussion of image selection, Yenawine (2003) presented a list of criteria that I am following in my selection process. These include:

1. Accessibility
2. Ambiguity
3. Captivation
4. Expressive content
5. Narrative (particularly stopped action; inferred dialogues, pregnant moments)
6. Diversity  (In terms of time, culture, & medium)
7. Realism (may include some abstraction & realism if they reference viewers' known worlds)
8. Subjects (a range of "genre" scenes)

Images should also be grouped and sequenced from simpler (less "stuff," more recognizable, accessible figures and subject matter) to more complex (those that require critical thinking, reflection, empathy, inferring). I think I've done that here.  Of course, the test will be with a group of students or museum visitors! More to come!

Welcome to Collection Connections, a collaborative curriculum development project initated by Mary Franco and under the supervision of Museum Educator Dr. Cathy Callaway. As part of ARHA 7960, the project  proposes the design of a Visual Thinking Strategies-based professional development program for area educators based on 20 carefully selected images from the permanent collection of the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology. This blog will encapsulate the process and product of  that project.