Visual Diaries: Towards Art History as Storytelling

Abstract

This essay examines variants of what I refer to as "visual diaries" or thinking through images and written or oral language as important "worldmaking" exercises, essential for students of color, women, sexual minorities, or other marginalized subjects. I provide my reflections on assigning this dynamic and student-centered, practice-based assignment in my contemporary art courses at a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) of higher education and a summer art residency program unaffiliated with a university. Besides my reflections on my pedagogy, I also share student feedback from unsolicited testimonials and answers to questionnaires. I argue that visual diaries transform students into veritable storytellers of art history. Thinking of art history as storytelling empowers students to create the histories they deserve and may not see in the classroom. There can always be another story, another way of looking at seemingly the same set of assumptions (or "facts").