NEH Enduring Questions Course on the Purpose of Art
FAIN: AQ-248280-16
Western Colorado University (Gunnison, CO 81231-7000)
Kelsey L. Bennett (Project Director: September 2015 to October 2018)
The development and teaching of a first-year undergraduate seminar, designed primarily for honors students, to explore the purpose of art.
This NEH Enduring Questions course delivers an open and sustained inquiry into the question, What is Art For?, across a range of historical periods and linguistic traditions. The freshman-level honors course, designed for a sixteen-week semester, is interdisciplinary in emphasis and open to students from all majors. The course develops the range of the question, What is Art For?, through a number of significant contexts that provide meaningful ways of addressing it. Each section of the course—On Truth; On Power; On Character; On Beauty and Culture—draws from among works of literature, drama, philosophy, the visual arts, music, and film that together offer a plurality of perspectives on the ways in which people throughout history have understood the purpose of art.
Media Coverage
Grant Paves Way for New Honors Curriculum (Media Coverage)
Author(s): WSCU Marketing Press Release
Publication: Gunnison Country Times
Date: 4/14/2016
Abstract: This is a press release covering the Enduring Questions grant award for developing a new Honors course addressing the question "What is art for?" It highlights the fact that it is one of only three NEH grants in Colorado awarded in this cycle as well as the only one of its kind in Colorado.
URL: https://www.gunnisontimes.com/
Grant Paves Way for New Honors Curriculum at Western (Media Coverage)
Author(s): WSCU Marketing Press Release
Publication: Top O' The World
Date: 4/22/2016
Abstract: This is a press release covering the Enduring Questions grant award for developing a new Honors course addressing the question "What is art for?" It highlights the fact that it is one of only three NEH grants in Colorado awarded in this cycle as well as the only one of its kind in Colorado.
URL: http://top-o-the-world.com/
2016 Year in Review Academic Highlights (Media Coverage)
Publication: Western State Colorado University 2016 Year in Review
Date: 4/1/2017
Abstract: In this Year in Review annual publication that is widely distributed among the following communities: university, alumni, Board of Trustees, and prospective students. The short article outlines the grant and the ways in which it serves to enhance the University's overall goal to attract higher-achieving students from Colorado and beyond.
URL: http://www.western.edu/administration/presidents-office/annual-report
The College Alumni Notes (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Kelsey L. Bennett
Publication: The College
Date: 4/1/2017
Abstract: This announcement appeared in the spring 2017 edition of The College, the alumni magazine for St. John's College:
Kelsey L. Bennett (SF 00) is the recipient of a two-year National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions grant. The grant supports the development of a new university honors course to investigate several among many questions she first confronted during her time at St. John’s. The guiding question of the course is: What is Art For? The course will be offered through Western State Colorado University’s Honors Program, for which she also serves as Director.
URL: https://www.sjc.edu/communications/college-magazine
New England Review Contributors' Notes (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Kelsey L. Bennett
Publication: New England Review
Date: 12/15/2016
Abstract: The grant is mentioned in the Contributors' Notes. My essay that appears in this edition is titled "Everything that Cannot Be Undone: On Reading and the Poetry of David Yezzi."
Kelsey L. Bennett’s essays, articles, and reviews appear in the New Criterion, Brontë Studies, Colorado Review, and Notes on Contemporary Literature. She is a recipient of a two-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and the author of Principle & Propensity: Experience and Religion in the Nineteenth-Century British and American Bildungsroman (University of South Carolina Press, 2014). She lives with her husband and their two children in Gunnison, Colorado, where she directs the Honors Program and teaches literature at Western State Colorado University.
URL: http://www.nereview.com/contributors-notes-vol-37-no-4/
Honors Students Explore Denver Art Scene (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Taylor Cull
Publication: Western State Colorado University website
Date: 4/10/2017
Abstract: This article, including photos, by Marketing and Communications staff writer Taylor Cull highlights students' activities during the course field trip to Denver to visit the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Center for Performing Arts.
Also--I have access to an additional large chache of photos from this trip, not directly available online, if the NEH is interested in photo coverage as well.
URL: http://www.western.edu/news/honors-students-explore-denver-art-scene
Honors Program has Exciting Future Ahead with New Director (Media Coverage)
Author(s): WSCU Marketing and Communications staff
Publication: Western State Colorado University website
Date: 2/6/2017
Abstract: This article outlines my promotion to Director of Honors at Western. It references the NEH grant as well.
URL: http://www.western.edu/news/honors-program-has-exciting-future-ahead-new-director
Kelsey L. Bennett faculty page (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Kelsey L. Bennett
Publication: Western State Colorado University website
Date: 6/25/2017
Abstract: My faculty page on Western's website mentions the NEH EQ grant as well as links to the NEH site.
URL: http://www.western.edu/people/kelsey-l-bennett
Associated Products
Asking Enduring Questions in Honors (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Asking Enduring Questions in Honors
Author: Stephanie Porras
Author: Kelsey L. Bennett
Author: Kate Gaudet
Abstract: We propose a multi-institutional, interactive panel composed of National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions faculty grant recipients. Humanities faculty from various disciplines, including English and art history, reflect on the ways in which honors courses are particularly well suited to be incubators of question-driven courses that foster lasting intellectual community through study of the humanities, regardless of major. This panel provides diverse models of NEH-funded courses in which faculty and students together pursue enduring questions in the humanities—including questions of justice—and advance student learning outcomes of deepening and enhancing student appreciation, through in and out-of-class experiences, for the humanities. In addition, the panel emphasizes interdisciplinary explorations of literature, drama, philosophy, the visual arts, music, and film, and other creative forms of expression. The session encourages participant questions, observations, and practices within their respective honors communities.
Date: 11/08/17
Primary URL:
https://www.nchchonors.org/events/2017-conference/aboutPrimary URL Description: This is the main conference page from the NCHC website. A detailed conference program is forthcoming.
Conference Name: National Collegiate Honors Council Conference
What is Art For? (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: What is Art For?
Author: Sarah Stewart
Author: Eliya Sorensen
Author: Avery Smith
Abstract: Three students from my NEH EQ course presented condensed versions of various papers they had written for the course. Sarah's paper explored the tensions inherent in Plato's views on the censorship of art in _The Republic_; Avery discussed the relationships between the architecture of Versailles and the political expressions of power of Louis XIV; Eliya read from her response to works of contemporary art she encountered during our field trip to the Denver Art Museum.
Date: 04/25/17
Primary URL:
http://www.western.edu/academics/research-western/celebration-scholarship-and-creative-workPrimary URL Description: This is the main page for the Celebration of Scholarship. Archives, including this year's, are pending.
Conference Name: Western State Colorado University Celebration of Scholarship