The Curator's Handbook

Museums, Commercial Galleries, Independent Spaces

Adrian George

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780500772621
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

The essential practical handbook for curators and curatorial students, mapping out every stage of the exhibition-making process from initial idea to final installation. The author traces the history of curating back to its origins in the 17th century and outlines the roles of the curator today as custodian, interpreter, educator, facilitator and organizer - from concept to contracts and loan requests, budgets and schedules, exhibition catalogues and interpretation materials, to designing gallery spaces, working with artists and lenders, organizing private views, and documenting and evaluating a show. Distinguished international museum directors and curators offer advice and tips throughout.

Chapter 1

Starting Off

Ideas and inspirations

Funder or sponsor’s agenda

Types of exhibition

Curating an art-fair stand

Ideas and inspirations

Ideas are key to good curatorial practice, as are thorough research and an awareness of the potential audience for a project. Having a finger on the pulse of current global trends, both high and popular culture as well as the influence of subcultures is essential if a curator is to avoid the trap of continual reiteration of ideas. ‘Curating is responsive’, as Penelope Curtis, Director of Tate Britain, has stated.[33]

A sound understanding of art history and / or critical theory provides a good foundation and can support an exhibition idea. However, it is important that a curator does not consider an exhibition to be a simple manifestation of an idea presented on the walls of the gallery, or a series of works that illustrate a concept. An exhibition is a great deal more than that. It allows the visitor greater freedom to edit or direct the experience than is allowed by a text or book. Visitors can choose their own entry and exit points, for instance, rushing through the first few rooms of the exhibition to concentrate on later works. Or they may choose to disregard what the curator sees as a key work in a space because their attention is drawn to a small, supplementary object. People sometimes buy tickets to an exhibition to see a particular work of art, which may be one of many – and they may take away more from the experience of looking than from reading any of the texts. Describing a concept with works of art can be seen as didactic, pushing a theme or an idea that is laboured or dry for the viewer. It can also be annoying for an artist to have their work ‘shoehorned’ into a theme that is only a partial reflection of what their work is or stands for.

In order to understand fully the forces at work in the present transformation of production we must cast a glance at other fields of modern endeavour.

Alexander Dorner,
Director, Landesmuseum,
Hanover, Germany (1923 – 37)[34]

An exhibition should not be a ‘book on the wall’ … and artists sometimes respond adversely to being corralled into a concept. You need to strike a balance, satisfy the audience and earn the respect of artists.

A curator working at Tate today will have to think about all the entry points [physical and intellectual] into an exhibition for a member of the public, everything from online access, interpretation, or not, to the catalogue, exhibition and the works of art.

Nicholas Serota,
Director, Tate, London[35]

In Greek mythology, inspiration, or a sudden, unconscious burst of creativity was believed to come from one or all of the nine Muses – Clio (history), Thalia (comedy), Erato (romantic poetry), Euterpe (song), Polyhymnia (music), Calliope (epic poetry), Terpsichore (dance), Urania (astronomy) and Melpomene (tragedy) – which suggests that for the Ancient Greeks inspiration came from a higher source. In the 18th century philosopher John Locke proposed that the human mind could make associations between ideas or at least recognize when ideas resonate with one another – which is perhaps a better analysis of what we define as inspiration in the 21st century. As a consequence, in looking for inspiration for a curatorial project, it might be appropriate to engage with as many different ideas as possible, reading everything from art theory, philosophy and critical texts to trashy novels, magazines and newspapers. ‘Altermodern’ at Tate Britain (2009) was curated by, and based on the critical theories of, Nicolas Bourriaud; the public programmes of ‘Portraits of Renown: Photography and the Cult of Celebrity’ (2012) at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, linked the photography exhibition with paparazzi photography. So a curator must experience as many other exhibitions and arts projects as possible, engage in dialogue with other curators, academics and artists across a whole range of art forms and media – dance, theatre, architecture, design, fashion, science and politics … everything. Hans Ulrich Obrist at the age of fourteen was visiting exhibitions every day; by seventeen he was travelling across Europe to visit artists’ studios:

I was everywhere, all the time, but I had yet to produce anything. Those were apprenticeship and journeyman years, a European Grand Tour.[36]

Trying to maintain an interest in all aspects of culture globally is, of course, an impossible task and Obrist himself complains that he does not have enough time to read, even though he is mythologized as only sleeping a few hours each night.

Traditionally, the museum or collection curator would have spent years researching and developing a single exhibition concept. Looking at key works in a collection, the history of an artist, a group or a movement, the curator brought together new discoveries made through analysis of the details of important works. However, most curators today do not have the luxury of time for such detailed and extensive research, and considerations such as public interest, the art market and its area of focus at a particular moment, as well as the commercial aspects of the museum – the blockbuster, money-making exhibition versus the specialist interest project likely not to pull in as much revenue – cannot be disregarded. Increasingly, exhibitions are a combination of research interests and market interests. The museum curator is constantly managing and delivering one exhibition while conceiving, researching and preparing the outline for the next, alongside writing and / or editing text that might end up as part of exhibition interpretation, a book or exhibition catalogue. All this while juggling fundraising / development demands, marketing and press demands, and probably departmental management responsibilities too. Equally, the independent curator needs to have one or more projects in development, pitching new projects while managing, delivering and promoting the current one … a constant juggling act of the now and the next.

Almost anything can trigger a curatorial idea. Government-led initiatives or policies can sometimes act as motivators, inspiration or frustrating obstacles. If you have been working on an idea for a specific exhibition over an extended period of time a change in government policy might make it very difficult for you to deliver that project. Anything from funding cuts to international tensions and changes in import regulations, border controls and visa regulations could adversely affect your plans. On the other hand, government objectives might benefit your projects. In 2011 the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport set guidelines for dance development as a strategy for health and well-being – issues it had been working on for some time. During that year a major exhibition looking at the links between dance and art took place at London’s Hayward Gallery (‘Move: Choreographing You – Art and Dance Since the 1960s’, October 2010 to January 2011); there were other major projects linked to dance or performance at the Barbican Art Gallery (‘Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark, Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s’, March to May 2011). Coincidentally, the Musée national d’art moderne, Paris (Centre Georges Pompidou) staged ‘Dance Through Life’ (November 2011 to April 2012). Was this a matter of curators being plugged in to some sort of dance–art zeitgeist? Or was it more pragmatic – curators being made aware that there would be more (possibly financial) support if a project reflected the Government’s dance–art–health objectives?

Some projects led by governing bodies can be extremely successful, for example, the European Capital of Culture programme, initiated in 1983 by the then Greek Minister of Culture with the aim of promoting culture within the European member states. Each year the Council of Ministers of the European Union designates another city as capital of culture for that year. This can lead to innovative exhibitions and events programmes and can stimulate regeneration and revive cultural tourism in an area. However, it is also the case that government-driven projects can sometimes be problematic or controversial; for example, in 1998 the German parliament debated a project proposed by artist Hans Haacke to mark the re-opening of the Reichstag in Berlin. The US-based German artist had suggested the installation of a large structure to be filled with soil brought from the constituencies of each German Member of Parliament. For many the work echoed Hitler’s fascist pronouncements on ‘blood and soil’ – although this was not thought to be a consideration of the artist. Battling criticism from all sides the project finally went ahead, but only just, with a majority of two votes.

Funder or sponsor’s agenda

Funding is always an issue, whether you are working as a freelance curator or as part of a large institution. Depending on the funder there may be restrictions applied to the type of exhibition or the content of that exhibition. For example, sponsors may be sensitive to sexually explicit or political works of art; or they may require that the exhibition has an education programme aimed at young people, which might therefore preclude adult content. The sponsor may stipulate the sort of exhibition they want to support, for example historical rather than contemporary, or photography rather than painting.

Public funding can come with similar restrictions, or conditions that require the curator to modify the original idea. For example, the diversity and equality agenda might force a balanced spread of ethnicity, gender or even sexuality of the artists involved. This can be quite restrictive for the curator and might serve to ghettoize the artists themselves by forcing inappropriate inclusion as a result of their minority status rather than inclusion based on the quality or value of their artworks or relevance to the exhibition theme. Ephemeral artworks – works of art intended to deteriorate, or cease to exist over time – are also problematic in regard to public funds where the financial and long-term value of the artwork must be evidenced. Using public funds to acquire a work that you know will only exist for a limited time might be an issue.

Moral sensitivities, misinformation or conservatism can also be a concern when it comes to funding. British artist Chris Ofili caused controversy when his work, characterized by the use of elephant dung, was included in the exhibition ‘Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection’ (originally at the Royal Academy, London, in 1997), presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999. New York City Mayor at the time Rudolph Giuliani started a lawsuit in an attempt to block the display of Ofili’s work The Holy Virgin Mary (1996), without having seen it, threatened to withdraw funding from the museum and to revoke its lease. Concerned about what he considered as defamation of a Christian icon, Giuliani argued that to display the works amounted to a government-supported attack on Christianity. The museum filed a counter-claim, charging Giuliani with violating the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and a battle began between religious groups and civil rights groups. Luckily for the museum its lawsuit was successful: the mayor was ordered to resume funding. Federal District Judge Nina Gershon stated: ‘There is no federal constitutional issue more grave than the effort by government officials to censor works of expression and to threaten the vitality of a major cultural institution as punishment for failing to abide by governmental demands for orthodoxy.’[37]

When starting to think about exhibition ideas, as well as looking at what the current cultural position is in the country you are planning to work, a good place to start is the type of exhibit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Other titles of interest
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Starting Off
• Chapter 2: From Idea to Reality
• Chapter 3: Proposals, Pitching and Planning
• Chapter 4: Budgets and Fundraising
• Chapter 5: Contracts, Negotiations, Obligations and Evaluations
• Chapter 6: Exhibition Publications & Merchandise
• Chapter 7: Putting a Show Together
• Chapter 8: The Weeks Before the Opening
• Chapter 9: Installation
• Chapter 10: The Days Before Opening and the Opening Day
• Chapter 11: The Press Opening and Private View
• Chapter 12: During – and After – the Exhibition
• Afterword: The Future of Curatorial Practice
• Notes
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright