Curating the Work: Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees

Catalog description

Curating the Work is a class that invites students to collectively curate an interdisciplinary show, define its theme and produce work that responds to that theme. During the semester and through a series of talks, museum, gallery visits and performances, workshops and critiques, the students will have the opportunity to fully develop a piece of work, curate and critique each other’s work, and produce a cohesive show. Students are invited to come to class with a project already in mind, one that they possibly began in a previous class or during one of the Jams, and will have the opportunity to bring it to full maturity and dive deep into its intention and engagement with the audience. Process, ideation, reflection, critical thinking, interdisciplinarity, talking about their work, reflecting on their practice, and curating a final show are all part of the class. The proposed theme is that of perception and how to make the audience aware of their own perceptions, but the theme will be left open for the students to finalize and define its direction. The word curate comes from the Latin curare, meaning “to take care,” and curation as caring, and along with it the ethical dimension of art and the responsibility of the artist will be explored in the class. Selection and arrangement, defining space, and the flow between ideas and practices will be important parts of the student’s journey along with an emphasis on developing a research methodology in one’s artistic practice. Museum, performances and gallery visits and readings will be assigned as the semester progresses and in response to the direction the final show will take.