IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION A

Abstract

A Threshold Concept (TC) is a gateway that shifts a learner’s understanding and perspective about how disciplinary thinking and scholarly practices operate. One TC common within historical fields is sourcing, distinguishing how knowledge is made. An important aspect of sourcing is finding, discerning the significance of, and using primary sources. The internet and accelerating use of AI effectively flatten information and convincingly suggests to the neophyte that all information is equal and readily available through a well-worded prompt. Another effect of AI and digitally mediated learning is getting student buy-in to conduct research for essays (perceived as “exercises”) when they crave “authentic” and applicable career-readiness skills. Provenance touches almost every aspect of museum practice and much of the art market but there are few places to learn the techniques except for on-the-job training. This author created a series of five scaffolded assignments featuring provenance as a pathway to doing primary source research that ushers learners through the sourcing Threshold Concept using digital humanities tools. Provenance research provides transferrable and applicable skills that cross disciplinary boundaries and has applications to art history, history, museum and cultural studies, and the heritage sector. The Provenance Project assignments presented here are embedded in an undergraduate course, Art and Cultural Heritage Loss, Crime, and Ethics. Based on the Jacques Seligmann and Co. records at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and cross-referenced with the Kress Collection, this model can be adapted to other digital databases, such as the newly remodeled Getty Provenance Index.