I took this as a GE but we had a weekly, in-person quiz based off of 20-30 art pieces that you had to memorize a ton of info for (kind of like AP Art History if you took that in high school). The lectures weren't structured or helpful at all so those were kind of a waste of time in my opinion. If you were thinking of taking this as a GE, I would find something more exciting. It isn't particularly hard though, if you do the work & study for the quizzes, you will get an A.

I loved this class! it was super interesting with the intertwining of history and made me have a much deeper appreciation for art and a more niche sense of style. Gerstel is a wonderful professor and her passion for the subject shows and encourages students own. The amount of information can be a bit dense and overwhelming, but just take it in slowly and digest it, and remember every fine detail doesn't matter! Super interesting class and totally recommend it

I'm a STEM major so I was nervous about taking this class as a GE but I loved it! Professor Gerstel is so passionate about her class which makes it pretty engaging and we finished class on week 8, after that we didn't have to go. I never did any of the readings because she would go over the content in class. Each week in discussion you would have a mini quiz showing 3 images of artworks discussed in lecture that week. You would write a 2 sentence blurb of the first two images and the third image you would write a paragraph answering the question. During lecture, she would highlight a handful of art pieces and say that 3 of those would be the ones on the quiz. I never watched lecture or did any of the readings, I would just look at the slides and see which art pieces she marked as important for the quiz and find information on them to prep for the weekly quizzes which were so easy. The final project was super fun! You would make your own museum exhibition and choose a selection of medieval paintings or sculptures and write a small wall label for each and then you would do a 500 word write up as if you were pitching your exhibit at a famous museum (I picked the MET). The final project is broken up over the entire quarter so by the time it was the end of the quarter, you would have done each individual part and just have to put it together which was super easy. It's also due at the beginning of week 9, so after that you're done with the class. There isn't any class for week 9 or 10, you're done on week 8!!!!! I also had Felix Chan as a TA and I LOVED HIM. He was super cool and chill and would literally help you with anything.

Weekly Quiz- 40%
Wall Label draft- 5% (week 3)
Presentation in discussion of your exhibit idea (literally only 3 minutes long of what you decided to do for your project)- 15% (week 7)
Final Project Submission- 30% (week 9)
Section Participation- 10%

I took this class as a GE and it was really enjoyable. I honestly didn't have much interest in art history but it kept me pretty interested and the work wasn't too bad. There were weekly quizzes, about 40% of our grade if I remember correctly, but they weren't too bad as long as you watched the lectures. However, the larger projects really depend on which TA you have. The rubrics were also often unclear and I ended up losing points on some things I didn't know were expected of me. Also, the final project was huge and was due over Thanksgiving break, which was really uncomfortable for my schedule. Not sure how things would be in person, since I took this class online, but I would recommend this class as a GE as long as you are prepared to put time into it.

I am so happy that I took this class as a G.E. It was super interesting and really easy. The lectures were posted online and only the weekly discussion was mandatory to take weekly quizzes. There was no final, except for an art exhibition project that wasn't very difficult at all and was actually very interesting. Gerstel was super kind and engaged with her students every lecture. If you're looking for an easy G.E for visual/performing arts or cultural analysis, take this course! You won't regret it!

This was one of my first classes taken at UCLA and it was definitely one of my most easy, but interesting and rewarding classes. The weekly quizzes were really not that hard because it was the same format every time — She would choose a few of the pieces and you would have to write out the name, artistic period, and significance. The Professor Tuesdays were really helpful and prepared you for the quizzes in a very direct and clear way. The final was a project where you could design your own Medieval Art Exhibition which I personally thought was awesome and so much fun to do. She allowed a lot of creative freedom and encouraged bringing in other personal interests. Other than the wall labels, there wasn't even that much essay writing needed in this class. I actually looked forward to watching Professor Gerstel's lectures and she was quick to respond to emails. I feel like she and my TA Gary genuinely tried to make the class as easy as possible so we could actually focus on the enjoying learning the content of the class. I'm an art history major so maybe I just have an inclination for the type of content in this class, but it definitely helped make a memorable introduction into the rest of the art history classes I'm to take at UCLA.
If you are planning on taking this class, know that the discussions are a requirement because that's when you would have to take the weekly quiz. The readings aren't necessary and I recommend reviewing notes on the specific facts about the pieces the night before the quiz and then you are basically guaranteed an A.

This class was hybrid for me, where the lectures were asynchronous, but the discussions were in person. There were weekly quizzes, with the exception of a few weeks, and the lowest score was dropped. There was also a final project that I found very tedious to do, but I managed to finish it in time and get a passing grade. Since there was a final project, there wasn't a midterm or final. I don't know how the professor is because I've never actually met her, but she seems very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject, and she seems really nice. I found her Professor Tuesday videos to be super helpful for the quizzes because her lectures started getting really long and I couldn't pay attention for that long. There was kind of a lot of assigned readings, but I never read a single page. I really appreciated that she scanned the pages for us, but the only time I ever looked at the textbook was to gather information for my project. I really liked my TA, she was super nice and graded easily; there were some other students who did badly on the quizzes because their TA graded too harshly.
Overall, I wouldn't say that this class is necessarily an easy GE, especially if it's completely in-person. If you have a really good memory, you should do good in it. It's not a hard GE though, I think it's manageable as a freshman, but I think if I was taking lots of STEM classes alongside this class I would be struggling. I wouldn't have done as well without the Professor Tuesdays and my TA though.

Gerstel was really amazing this quarter. Her lectures were asynchronous and she changed the structure of her grading from a midterm, final, 2 papers, and discussion to 10 weekly quizzes, 2 short papers, and discussion. Previous students complained about having to study dozens of art pieces for each exam, so she split up the assessments by week so we'd have to worry less about memorizing (and they were open notes too), but they were timed and took place during the first 20 min of discussion (also heard some TAs graded more harshly). She ended up cancelling the last quiz as a gift to us!!

The papers were just a first and final draft and this quarter it was only a 750 word paper, so it wasn't very stressful. She offered some extra credit too.

One thing to note is that the lecture recordings were really dense. The textbook readings are also so so long, but I stopped reading them after week 1 and was completely fine. Also mentioning that, on the syllabus, it says background knowledge in Abrahamic religions would help a lot in class. That made me nervous b/c I grew up in a secular household and know nothing of Biblical texts, but that's literally fine b/c she explains everything in depth lol

I found this class really interesting. Although I did slack a bit on lectures and readings, the class was pretty flexible due to pre-recorded lectures.

I’ve heard that she changes the grading structure each year, so I don’t think it would be helpful to explain that. However, the assignments we had felt very fair, and we were given ample opportunity to prepare for them. She had sessions once a week where she covered everything that could be on our quiz, and it was very helpful. Somebody else said that it would be difficult in-person, but honestly, it's just memorization. She told us exactly what kind of information she wanted us to mention in our IDs, so if you study, you'll probably do well in person.

Our writing assignment was done in two stages, I got an A on both drafts, even though my rough draft had some serious organization issues. There was also an opportunity for extra credit by watching a cool documentary, but I didn’t even need the extra credit. Very laid-back environment, I’d take this class again.

Great GE to take during COVID, however, I feel like this class would be impossible to do in person. While Gerstel is an amazing professor and she obviously knows what she's doing, the topic itself can be very dry and boring. She also did not have a clear rubric for her essays so that made it so you were kind of shooting in the dark for half your grade. Personally, it's just one too many Jesus paintings and they get quite boring after a while. It is a very easy A online, but only an easy A in person if you don't have a good memory. It's basically just a memorization class otherwise.

Overall, if you like the subject, Gerstel is an amazing person to learn from. If you don't have a great memory and you're about to do in-person examinations, this is not the class for you.