Archaeology and Art History

by Jessica H.

Art pieces in a culture or community can mean more than just an expression of emotion or world view, but also an object that people may in everyday life. Artifacts can also be used in religious rituals and can convey beliefs. Artwork can also convey role in a community, ranking, or social status that the owner may be. So when analyzing these pieces of art and archaeologists can use them to learn more about a culture (Anthropology of Art).  When thinking about how to interest the public more with my project I thought to incorporate art history. I thought it would appeal to a greater audience and would be an interesting take on the topic of archaeology. I also feel as though you can learn a lot about a time period and/or culture from an artwork. My target audience was my peers and people my age. I shared all my blog posts on social media and used language that would be an easy read. I didn’t want people to be turned away with “scholarly vocabulary” or to come off pretentious. I wanted this outreach project to feel welcoming and intriguing to people who may not know a lot about archaeology.

I chose to carry out my project out on WordPress.com and brand my blog as “Art & Arch”. I wanted to choose a fun, simple, and catchy name to not only be welcoming, but also memorable. My main goal with my blog posts is to help connect the dots between art history and archaeology. I wanted to discuss recent discoveries, what we can learn from an artwork, artwork and indigenous peoples rights, art restoration, and much more. I planned on making blog posts starting on October 7th – December 2nd, every Monday. After my blog post I would share my website on all my social media accounts to help gain traffic and to advertise to my goal audience.

My goal was to post 9 blog posts in total every Monday. Whenever I researched more about blog posts and how to properly write one and what length to make them. I found that the reader usually like around a 7 minute read, estimating around 1,600 words per post. I quickly realized that I did not have enough time with a full time job and being a full time student to write a good quality post every week. I then decided to write a post every other week and in the off week share a piece of current events in archaeology and art history. I chose this to help make all these facts and posts seem relevant to today’s conversation. I made 4 blog posts in total and 4 current event posts. I assessed the success of my project by an online survey posted across my social media accounts. Out of the 63 responses 11 (17.46%) people said they had read majority/all my posts on my website. I also asked: After reading my posts how interested are you in learning more about archaeology? In which 23 (36.51%) people said they were interested in learning more. I think my project was a small victory and a step in the right direction. Over a third of people who took my survey said they are interested in learning about archaeology. I never had a specific goal in my project besides engaging my peers and the public, so I consider this a success. Overall, I enjoyed this project, the results, and sharing some information about archaeology. I learned that social media is a great way to spread information. I feel as though it is an effective way to engage a younger audience. I also learned it takes a lot of dedication and work to make good quality content to share consistently. I would however change and suggest a few changes for others in the future. I would suggest giving yourself to be at least 1 week ahead of posting. It can be stressful to post every single week and have the time to publish content. I also wish I had started my project at the start of the semester. I feel as though I just started posting and that I have so much information and questions I wanted to answer and discuss. In saying that, I really enjoyed posting and having my peers giving me feedback.

My blog’s link: https://artandarch.art.blog

Links

Anthropology of Art: http://Discoveranthropology.org.uk.

https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/specialist-areas/anthropology-of-art.html