I feel like I have been “advertising” things a bit here recently (no kickbacks – honest) however, I was very pleased to have the DVD of “Lovely Rita: A Painters Life” arrive today (thanks to Viv!). Get this – just for the extras even !!! I especially enjoyed an expansion on ‘Bette’s Blouse’ and Dane Mitchell’s ‘reading’ of the Angus cottage. It must be the year of Rita Angus and I do wonder how this intensely private woman would make of it all – perhaps relief?
I noticed there are several new arts programs on TVNZ6 including New Artland hosted by Chris Knox. Unfortunately I don’t get this channel but programmes are available at TVNZondemand.
“For the series, 13 of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists were invited to choose a region or community anywhere in New Zealand that they have a personal connection with, and create a new artwork with participants from that chosen community. New Artland documents the journey from the artist’s studio to the final unveiling, capturing both the artistic process and the impressions of the general public as they become involved with the work. The show is fresh, diverse, epic, wondrous and, most importantly, accessible to everyday New Zealanders.”– well lets hope so! I haven’t seen it yet because I have to do some fiddling with my firewall to get it to play, but the first episode featured Ronnie Van Hout.
The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before. Thorstein Veblen (1857 – 1929)
So in this spirit…
Do Galleries with collections “weed” them now and again – like libraries? I have been trying to track down various works and it would appear (although not yet confirmed) that they are not held where the used to be.
What do curators do? Yes I can use Google, but for example the wikipedia entry is not really answering my questions. I can grasp ‘guest curator’ to a degree, but does a curator for example take charge of logistics of mounting an exhibition (eg loans, budgets etc)?
Feel free to comments or use the contact page for an offline discussion if you can help. Chocolate fish may be awarded for useful answers.
that is a good question about what curators do. One of your deceptively simple specials artandmylife.
I guess the job description of ‘curator’ has been evolving at the same pace the non dealer based arts infrastructure has.
etymology (curate) suggests a definition that includes a broad meaning of care.
in practice job description depends on the size of the institution the curator is atttached to, in a larger gallery/museum things like organising money and literally unpacking and hanging the work tend to get trimmed off the job at both ends by other job descriptions (gallery governance and exhibitions officers) leaving the core of the curatorial job as organisational; ideas and politics as well as academic/aesthetic histories and influences and literally making sure work arrives in correct place at correct time in good order.
an independent curator or one in a much smaller venue on the other hand would do everything from conceptual design, to budget management, to loan/ insurance arrangements for works, to marketing and press material, critical writing, to cleaning hanging and labelling the works and making a cup of tea for stressed artist where appropriate…..or at least be responsible for talking someone else into doing it and figuring out how to pay them too…
not much really. I can see why artists think they are so pointless (not!)
I think a bit of confusion exists between academic /historic focussed curatorial practice which is more research based and mainly deals with existing collections -as apposed to the contemporary Curator (with a capital C!) The second is speculative in positioning more recent practices and trying to predict , make connections and describe clusters of emerging ideas that hindsight hasnt had time to illuminated yet. the second also has something of the art star glamour attached to it.
just to confuse things even more, there is the artist/curator and the self organising ‘artist-run’ curatorial system, where artists cluster their own works and create their own conceptual contexts as a group…by choosing to work and exhibit with people who complement and expand the way their own work can be experienced. flipping the big birdie at both the contemporary glamour and the academy…or trying to be noticed by them, or both.
blah blah blah…
Thank you so much – thats what I thought but great to see it confirmed. A Chocolate fish for you!
Yup that was very enlightening. There are of course those who produce works not for sale. There are commentators and creators, now there are curators…it’s hard to keep up.
I need one more paper to finish a degree I began YEARS ago and I was going to take an art history paper but now I am tossing up between “the Creative Process” and “Collection Management”. Trying to keep my options open…Creator/curator
Always beware of the /…
[…] thing is I still don’t really understand “curation” even with this great description courtesy of Alibi. I had not considered for example the role of the designer in how a show […]