Curatorial Practices in the Museum: From Art to Audience

This course aims to familiarize students with varied aspects of exhibition-making, moving from concept to completion of an in-progress exhibition and publication. From a decidedly anti-racist perspective, it introduces to and engages students in a broad spectrum of approaches to exhibition presentations and acquisitions, interpretation, accessibility, and institutional contexts, with a focus on audience engagement, public and private programming, social responsibility, working with living artists, collectors, and artists. Of equal import will be asking questions of history and critiquing historiography to create a contemporary moment imbued with and rooted in authenticity, integrity, diversity, equity, and accuracy.

The objective is to learn how to explore timely issues, select artists, make acquisitions, find and secure traveling venues, as well as develop and implement the emails, proposals, documents, etc. to do so. In addition, guest lectures by esteemed curators, artists, scholars, and activists will share myriad curatorial methodologies and exhibition strategies, including monographic, thematic, collection presentation, biennial, performance, media-based and interactive projects, artist residencies and new commissions, performance, and nontraditional sites for exhibitions including the public realm and publications, alternative and artist-run spaces. Through museum visits, readings and discussions, viewing assignments and journals, we will critically analyze the role of curators, artists, and art institutions, examining the ways contemporary art and its reception in the public realm engages with broader social, cultural, and political issues.

The course will be taught as if the class is a curatorial team working through the processes of organizing an exhibition within the field of contemporary visual arts and in the context of public art institutions; it is focused on the practical – not the theoretical – parameters of curation. We will maintain a particular focus on the interdisciplinary nature of curatorial work and how curators must engage with each department of the museum, from facilities to development to volunteers.

Throughout the semester, students will perform research and development, critiquing and engaging with an exhibition and publication planned for 2026 that will travel to at least two venues. Additionally, some sessions will take place at Boston-area museums, cultural institutions, and arts organizations.