MU 660

The Public Musician

This seminar investigates connections between musicians and identity, guiding students to conduct research on particular themes and their synthesis and application to given creative projects. The application of critical and cultural lenses (from MU 620 and/or including: ethnicity, ideology, race, sexuality, gender, queerness, class, as well as lenses from particular First Nations groups) is intended to provide students with the methodological skills to define the artist’s identity and public. Such examination will allow students to explore their own positionality in order to understand what function their creative work may potentially have and for what audiences. The ‘public’ will be rooted in and grow from time/place/community and cohort in order to offer multiple perspectives (transgender rights groups, political activist groups, diasporic organizations, national or regional organizations). Modules include: narrative and form; identifying and seeking audiences; responsible and ethical curation from varied cultural perspectives (Western and non-Western); grant writing and opportunities for funding; writing proposals on imagined or possible projects.