posted message: Hi Group! The Saylor Foundation has created a survey for this course and we'd love your feedback. For those of you who participated when the course ran live with the course facilitator, you can visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P2PU-SaylorCourseSurvey to take the survey. Your responses are confidential and we'd really appreciate your thoughts. Many thanks!

posted message: In response to Kevin and Sebastien: Thanks for your feedback on the course. Very helpful! Kevin, I wanted to let you know that I'll be available to continue to discuss with you through Wednesday, if you like. (I leave early Thursday for vacation.) Should any or all of you want to do as Sebastien suggested, however, by all means keep going or re-cover the material. In sum: I'll be available to wrap things up through Wednesday, but if you all want to do something more in depth, please feel free to take over and continue the discussion!

posted message: Hi group. I'm sorry nobody was able to chat with me today, but I wanted to say how much I've enjoyed facilitating this group. Some of you have made great contributions to the discussion and it's been a real pleasure! I hope you will (if you haven't already) take the final exam to get a sense of how well you've mastered the topics we've covered. And we can continue discussing over the weekend and into early next week if you like. Please follow up with any last-minute questions or comments and we can wrap things up. I'm more than happy to continue discussing with you all! Happy weekend, LL

posted message: If you haven't yet, please read the essay Kevin was nice enough to share with the group. He makes some really excellent observations. I've added a comment and posed some questions, so take a look if you'd like to join the conversation. Since this is our last week please chime in and discuss anything relating to the material we've covered! I'd love to discuss in a live chat with you all. I'll be available at 6:00 (EST) tomorrow, August 5th. Please join me! I hope that some of the things you've learned about Baroque art are starting to come together more and more as you learn about what was going on in different places at different times. Note that there's another exciting museum visit to TWO museums in this final week! Enjoy!

posted comment at wall activity from Kevin.

posted message: Hi All! Just a reminder that I'll be on the chat site at 5:30 PM (EST) today, ready to talk about what we've covered so far, answer any questions, etc. Please join me if you're able; otherwise, feel free to set up a chat time that works for you! Hope to "see" you soon.

posted message: Greetings group! I hope week three has been going well for you. Please chime in and share your thoughts on the material! I know some of you were still refining your museum responses from last week and we can continue to discuss that project if you like. But I wanted to post a question regarding the materials covered this week. How would you compare the Dutch art that has been introduced this week to the Flemish art we looked at last week? How (if at all) do the arts of Italy and Spain relate to what's going on in the North? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this or anything else! As for our weekly chat, Friday afternoons don't seem to be working, so I'll be available Monday (August 1st) at 5:30 EST. I hope some of you can join me!

posted comment at wall activity from Kevin.

posted comment at wall activity from Liz Lebrun.

posted message: For anyone interested in chatting with the rest of the group (who wasn't able to join me this afternoon), please feel free to set up an alternate chat time. And post any questions or comments on this wall! Have a nice weekend! LL

posted message: If you're following the suggested schedule outlined in our tasks, you should be about midway through Week Two (Task 3). How are things going? Are there any questions? Concerns? How did you enjoy the Museum Visit? If you'd like to post a condensed version of your writing assignment on this wall, please do so! We can respond to one another here. Otherwise, let the group know your thoughts on the material covered thus far/this week! Also, I'll be available on the chat site from 4:00-5:00 (EST) tomorrow. For those of you are free, please join me and we can discuss live. For those of you who can't make it, please feel free to set up a chat time with the group that works better for you!

posted message: Hi all and welcome to week two, when we'll be moving on and taking our first "visit" to a museum, doing a short writing assignment, and then moving on to look at art of the Netherlands. Please note that the writing assignment is simply for your own practice. (Note that on Saylor.org there is a "Guide to Responding" that will help you evaluate your work.) How is everyone progressing? Did you all make it through last week's materials? Unfortunately nobody was able to chat last Friday. I hope you all will arrange a time that works for you, if this continues to be a bad time. I'm available weekdays, and Friday makes the most sense, as by that point we'll have made it through most of the week's materials. Is anyone free Friday afternoon (EST)?

posted comment at wall activity from Liz Lebrun.

posted comment at wall activity from Liz Lebrun.

posted message: We got some really great discussion going from Kim and Kevin yesterday in response to my question about Bernini. Some themes touched upon were the continuity between Baroque art and Renaissance art via Mannerism. This is an interesting way to look at how artistic traditions develop out of past traditions. Also, Kim posed the interesting comparison of Caravaggio and Bernini, which got me thinking about the very different public personae of these two men. (Bernini was a favorite of the Church and kept up with elite society, whereas Caravaggio is famous for rubbing shoulders with an "underworld.") So I'd like to pose Kim's question in light of the public personae of these men. Do you think their art relates to their public images? How so?

posted message: Hi All & Happy Thursday! I wanted to follow up on the possibility of chats now that there's been some response from many of you. It looks like we might not all be able to agree on a time. (And for those of you who don't want to participate, that's fine too!) I am available weekdays and think it might make sense to do something on Friday afternoons. I will be available tomorrow at 4:00 (EST) using the p2pu chat function. I know this may not work for some of you, so please feel free to set up other times to chat with the group's participants, as works for you!

posted message: Weekly Chats Just following up on the possibility of conducting weekly live chats for this group. Is this something that appeals to everyone? If not, this can be an optional feature for those who are interested. It has come to my attention that we can use the chat features on this site, which might make the most sense. Also, we could do a couple of chat times to accommodate differing schedules. Chime in, please!

posted message: Hello, Participants! We're at mid-week now and I thought I'd throw out a general discussion question to you all to get the gears in motion. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And feel free to post your own questions & comments to get discussion moving! Question: What traits do the following sculptures by Bernini share: David, Pluto and Proserpina, and Apollo and Daphne? What would you say is quintessentially "Baroque" about these traits and why are they important?

posted message: Hi, all! Hope the beginning of our first week is going well for everyone. I wanted to reply to Kevin's post and say that Skype works for me. What about the rest of the group? If need be, we can always set up a couple of different live chat times to accommodate the varying schedules of all of the participants. Let us know your thoughts!

posted message: Hello participants! We have a good group going, so I think we're about ready to officially begin our study group. Let's consider next week "week one" and aim to complete the work for that week ("Week One, Italy & Spain") by the end of next week. Work at whatever pace makes the most sense for you and your schedule, but aim to finish by the end of the week, so we can all move along together. Post comments on this wall as you have them and pose any questions that you have. The more active we are in this space, the more we learn from each other! Also, I think it would make sense to try to set up a weekly live chat. How do others feel about this? And any ideas as to what the best forum might be for this? Skype? GChat? Something else?