I want to come clean with you guys about something.
Ever since "The Art Assignment" started,
I've been calling myself a curator.
But it's a self given title.
When I worked at an art museum, I had that official title.
But now I'm taking a bit of liberty with the term.
So let's talk about what a curator actually
is and whether or not I have any right to call myself one.
These days you hear the word curator all over the place.
I curate my Tumblr.
He curates a collection of vintage sneakers.
She curated our music selection this evening.
And some people get their panties
in a bunch over this use of the term.
I don't really have a problem with it,
but I do want to think about what
it means in the traditional sense
and how the term may have evolved.
So the word curator comes from the Latin curo, curare,
which for our application means to care for, to see to,
to worry about.
So a curator is a person who cares for something
or a collection of something.
And you can care for a lot of things.
I used to care for contemporary art as a curator at a museum.
And now I care for contemporary art
as the producer behind this show.
But it's more complicated than that.
Being a curator for a collection-- whether it's
art, taxidermied animals, rare coins,
widgets-- usually means you were hired
to care for that collection or part of the collection
by a museum or other institution that owns those things.
And you were are hired because you have some special knowledge
or experience in that area.
So you're either a specialist or on the road to becoming
a specialist, and there's a reason why you're better
suited to steward the collection than a random person
off the street.
And you have to know that collection in and out.
You study it, you sort it, you write about it,
you talk about it with other specialists,
and continually try to expand your own education
on the subject.
Figure out what needs conservation and think
about what's missing from the collection.
Then you agitate and fund raise to fill the gaps
through acquisitions, commissioning, exhibitions,
or programming.
Then comes the part where you are arrange
the collection in rooms.
OK, it's not really that simple.
Let's call this step instead presenting the collection
to a public.
This is done by making exhibitions, writing books,
essays, blog posts, labels, giving tours and lectures,
training tour guides, writing press releases,
and talking to the press.
It's the curator's job to bridge the gap
between the material they're presenting
and the people they're presenting it to.
Some things are more self evident than others,
and it's the job of the curator to provide
as much or as little interpretation
as the material needs.
When you're dealing with contemporary art,
the curator's job is to best represent
that art and the artist who made it,
while also understanding the needs
and knowledge of the audience.
Maybe the artist doesn't want any explanation
of the artwork in the room with the art, but you, the curator,
strongly believe your audience needs
some tiny morsel of information to effectively engage
with the work.
So you try to make the artist see your point of view.
And if that fails, you make compromises
like posting information in a nearby gallery
or in a pamphlet or book or audio guide or online.
Basically, you're the middleman or the midwife
or the mediator between the material and the audience.
You've got to try to know your audience
and have empathy for them.
You need to provide your audience
with the tools they need to have the best experience possible
with that material.
But you have to weigh what's too little
and what's too much, what's too academic and art speaky,
and what's pandering, or overly simplified.
And it's important to remember that you
can have a really diverse audience with vastly
different needs.
It is the curator's obligation to try
to address those needs responsibly
and to the best of their ability.
Maybe you create labels or guides specifically
for kids, or an audio guide or tours
for those with special needs.
OK, so what happens when you're a specialist
but you don't work for an institution
and you don't have a given collection to steward?
You're an independent curator.
And you initiate your own projects
or are hired by others to present material for them
on a temporary basis.
And this is where the term starts to loosen up.
I am no longer affiliated with a museum
or a particular collection, so I'm technically
a specialist in contemporary art and art
of the 20th and 21st century who is applying that knowledge
to this new project.
I'm still caring for contemporary art,
and I'm doing that by presenting the artwork
and ideas of a wide range of artists working today.
I'm commissioning artists to create assignments for you
and then I'm commissioning you to make art
based on those assignments.
Instead of a museum, I have the platform of this video series.
And I think about the series holistically.
I consider which artists to make episodes with,
in what order to show them, how best
to introduce their work to you, what to ask them,
and how to contextualize the assignments historically.
I try to think about what you guys want to see,
or what you might not know you want to see,
but that you'll like when you see it.
I work with the artists we present
to think through assignments that are feasible for you,
but also challenging.
If you're watching these videos and doing the assignments,
I'm hoping that you're becoming more and more
familiar with the recent history of art
and the ways of thinking that you might be exposed to when
you see art out in the world.
So I think I have a legitimate claim upon the title curator,
and I'm going to keep using it.
I think if you're a specialist in vintage sneakers
and know that world upside and down
and you've done your research and you've carefully considered
your platform for presenting said sneakers, as well
as your potential sneaker appreciating audience,
I think that makes you a legitimate curator
of vintage sneakers.
And I want to take a look at your collection
and hear from you about why I should be interested in it.
What do you think?
What's a curator to you?
Tell us in the comments.
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