International conference on curating and education in the exhibition context
30-31 May 2012 Helsinki, Finland
Frontpage
Venue
Program
registration
OrganiSERS
Accommodation
Call for Case Studies
Program
Invited speakers
LindsEy Fryer
Valérie Lagier
Maria Lind
Carmen Mörsch
Nora Sternfeld
Sally Tallant
Adela Zeleznik
(We reserve the right for changes in the program)
TUESDAY 29th May
engage in the visual arts:
Dynamic Roles – engage International Summer School 2012
Evening Programme
IAM speakers and delegates can join
7-8pm Talks and Drinks at Design Museum pavilion
8 pm Dinner at venue close to Design Museum
WEDNESDAY 30th May
Moderator: Kaija Kaitavuori
(doors open at 9:30)
10:00 Coffee & Registration
10:30 Introduction of the conference and programme of the day
- Kaija Kaitavuori
Welcome by organizers - Kiasma, Pedaali, SKY, CuMMA
11:00 - 11:30 Nora Sternfeld: Being able to do something. Educating and curating in the post-representational museum.
11:30 - 12:00 Sally Tallant: What have we Learnt?
12:00 - 12:30 Comments, Q & A, discussion
12:30 - 13:30 LUNCH
13:30 - 14:00 Maria Lind: Why Mediate Art?
14.00 - 14:30 Comments, Q & A, discussion
14:30 - 15:30 Case Studies, three alternative sessions:
1. Designing Participation
Nana Salin: EMMA, Futuro Lounge 24.3. -30.9.2012
Teresita Scalco: SALT and the new museum scene in Istanbul
2. Negotiating visibility
Johnny Gailey: Planning Permission
Sarah Mossop: From offsite to onsite: crossing the gallery treshold
3. Cultural encounters and professional roles
Sophie Goltz: Projekt Migration
Annu Wilenius:Thoughts from 'Outside' the Box
15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 - 16:30 Presentations of Process Studies
Maija Tanninen-Mattila, Ateneum Finnish National Gallery
Maija Koskinen, Kunsthalle Helsinki
Kati Kivinen, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
16:30 - 18:00 Visits to presented exhibitions, visitor groups led by curators
19:00 Dinner and evening program
Restaurant Uunisaari
THURSDAY 31st May
Moderator: Kati Kivinen
10:00 Opening words of the day - Kati T. Kivinen
10:30 - 11:00 Valérie Lagier: On both sides of the mirror :
the Curator/Educator
11:00 - 11.30 Lindsey Fryer: What’s the Point? - is Social Impact the
new ‘black’ ?
11:30 - 12:00 Comments, Q & A, discussion
12:00 - 13:00 LUNCH
13:00 - 14:30 Case Studies, three alternative sessions:
1. Sharing the power
Miranda Stearn & Rachel Craddock: Journeys: Stories of the World
Henna Paunu: Working with Future
Gaby Lees: Reflections on War - a Community Curated Exhibition, 2009
2. Integrating programmes
Deborah Riding: Supporting
learning in galleries through integrated
learning and
curatorial practice
Veronica Sekules: Blogging a Collaboration
Johan Lundh & Aileen Burns: Curating (Post)Conflict
3. Negotiating power and professional positions
Nada Beros: The Fight for Each Head or Total-Education
Raquel dos Santos Arada: Artistic curator versus educational curator.
Thoughts on cultural
mediation practices in Europe, by a European pratiticioner
with the aid
of examples from Brazil.
Jane Sillis: Are Educators Cultural Leaders?
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee Break
15:00 - 15:30 Adela Zeleznik: Museum /Gallery Education in Transition
From Museum in the Streets (MNC) to the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM)
15:30 - 16:00 Carmen Mörsch: To contradict oneself
16:00 - 16:15 Comments, Q & A, discussion
16:15 - 16:30 Announcing the Annual Museum Education
Achievement award - Finnish Association for Museum Education
Pedaali
16:30 - 17:00 End of Conference, Thanks and Good Bye!
What’s the Point? - is Social Impact the new ‘black’ ?
In England over the period of the previous Labour government we in the
arts and culture sector enjoyed unprecedented attention and in relative
terms we received more financial resources. The additional focus
on ‘education, education, education’ (Blair) and
creativity (Robinson) also gave us unparalleled opportunities to
develop programmes and partnerships that embedded our learning and
participation work into the strategic development plans of public
services from education to youth services to public health. We have
been able to work closely together with non arts sector organisations
and show the positive impact our joint work can have on the lives of
artists, visitors, local communities and non arts sector organisations
themselves.
‘Instrumentalism’ seems no longer to be a dirty word or at
least is no longer heard as a dirty word. The museum and gallery sector
has begun to recognise more fully and coherently the value of its place
within civic society and not just superficially as a route to gain
funds. Colleagues such as directors and exhibition curators are more
fully engaged with the impact their curatorial decisions have on the
artist, the visitor, the sector and the place arts organisations have
within local communities. In Liverpool due to the focus of being
European Capital of Culture (2008) we can now show the economic impact
of arts and culture on our cities and communities - we have made
the case and it has been understood by our funders. Working closely
with Liverpool Primary Care Trust and Mersey Care NHS Trust who
both feel that they and we together have won the argument for the
positive relationship between creativity, health and well being.
However, we are in a new world now with an ever changing global
economic infrastructure. In the UK , what is emerging is not a
renewed focus on economic impact arts and culture or specifically of
learning and participation programmes alone, but a new focus on the
‘social impact’ of the work of the gallery as a whole with
the decisions about exhibitions as a core factor. Curatorial decisions
are increasingly being discussed in these terms within Tate but within
the sector nationally and internationally, how do we imagine social
impact measurement affecting exhibition programmes and where learning
and participation is placed within these discourses? We may think we
know what ‘social impact ‘ means, but do we? How will we
measure ‘it’ meaningfully, who wants to know and above all
why do they want to know? What will we and ‘they’ do with
the information? How will this information help us in our work and how
will this affect change in our sector? If this trend continues, what
will the mid 21st century gallery or museum look and feel like?
Lindsey Fryer is
Head of Learning at Tate Liverpool. Initially trained in fine art
and art history Lindsey has over 25 years experience in gallery
education.
At Tate Liverpool Lindsey heads
a Learning team of eight and a Creative Apprentice. The team develops
audience participation in the arts throughout the city and the region
with curators responsible for Children and Young People; Early Years
and Families; Public and Community Learning; Interpretation and Digital
Learning and Academic & Research programmes.
In 2011 Lindsey along with
Director Christoph Grunenberg established Tate Liverpool’s
Research Centre, Re-Thinking Modernisms that questions: the
diversification of the Modernist canon (of particular interest to Tate
as we work on expanding the global reach of the twentieth-century
collection); the complex interrelations and interdisciplinary practices
that exist between and around the visual arts and popular culture;
and the nature and purpose of artists’ engagement with
political and social issues, in the context of the collapsing of the
hierarchical assumptions that underpin so much Modernist praxis.
Lindsey is part of the Senior
Management Team and the Programme Team that delivers exhibitions,
displays, education, interpretation and audience development
programmes. She was the lead in developing the exhibition project The
Fifth Floor : Ideas Taking Space and leads its legacy programme.
Lindsey also drives the Diversity strategy at Tate Liverpool and
contributes to the Tate wide Learning Strategy, Tate National and
International strategies. Lindsey initiated the Creative
Apprenticeships programme for young people and is part of the Liverpool
Arts Regeneration Consortium (LARC) team that has developed the scheme
across Merseyside and was part of the LARC Management group that
successfully bid for one of ten national pathfinders for Find Your
Talent under the previous government. Lindsey continues to work closely
with the LARC Management group on a legacy programme that aims to
examine the social impact of learning and participation work in the
arts across the city region over the next 5- 10 years.
On both sides of the mirror : the Curator/Educator
How is it possible to conciliate curatorial responsibilities and
educational activities in an art museum? What are the specific skills
of a curator/educator, embodying both roles at the same time? Outlining
my responsibilities as a curator, in charge of a collection and
organizing exhibitions, and as an educator, creating innovative tools
to make art collections accessible to all museum visitors, I’ll
try to demonstrate that these two roles can enrich each other.
Through practical examples, borrowed from my experiences in Rennes and Grenoble, two major provincial art museums in France, I’ll show how the position of the educator is reinforced by the authority of the curator, and how the curatorial work is influenced by the educator’s questions. The division of labor between these two roles is not always easy to organize and requires specific qualities: practical sense, creativity and flexibility.
The combination of educational and curatorial functions in the same person is far from being usual in the French Art museums. In most of them, these two roles are quite separated, and held by people hired and trained differently. After drawing a general sketch of the French situation for both professions, I’ll show how the training of curators at the INP (National Institute for Cultural Heritage) is now trying to integrate the educational dimension of the museum to their future practice.
Valérie Lagier is currently working as a curator and educator in the musée de Grenoble, a major regional Art Museum in France. After graduating in History and Art History, she started a carrier as a High School teacher before taking a national competition to become a curator. She was trained in the School of national Heritage in Paris. She worked for 11 years in the musée des beaux-arts de Rennes, another Art Museum, as a modern and contemporary art curator, organizing important exhibitions. At the same time, she created a very innovative Educational Departement in the Museum.
The Frame (French Regional and American Museum Exchange), which the musée de Rennes was a member of, offered her a great opportunity to cooperate with Americans on curatorial an educational questions in two major exhibitions. Then, she became Deputy Director of Studies in the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, in Paris, where she was in charge of training curators. After three years, she was hired as the Director of the castle of Vitré, in Brittany. She has published many exhibitions catalogues, scientific articles and two books helping families to visit museums, Discover the Louvre Together, and Discover the Musée d’Orsay, published in both French and English. In Grenoble, she’s in charge of the Drawings Collection and the Educational Department, and is still a member of the Frame, in the Educator’s group.
"Why Mediate Art?"
Maria Lind is Director of the Tensta Konsthall and an independent curator and writer interested in exploring the formats and methodologies connected with the contemporary art institution. She was the director of the graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College from 2008–10. Before that, she was director of lASPIS in Stockholm (2005–07) and Director of the Munich Kunstverein (2002–04).
Previous to that she was curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (from 1997–2001) and in 1998 was co-curator of Manifesta 2, Europe’s nomadic biennial of contemporary art. Lind was the 2009 recipient of the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement. A compendium of her essays to date, Selected Maria Lind Writing, was published by Sternberg Press in 2010.
"To contradict oneself"
What could it mean to conceive gallery education and curating as
critical practices in the present? What may the two have and may not
have in common? What about building alliances between them towards an
“institution of critique”?
The paper starts with some general assumptions about regimes: dominant desires and expectations targeted at gallery educators within the framework of hegemonic art events and institutions. It speculates on tactics of how gallery educators who want to conduct their work as critical practice do manage to be “not governed quite so much“ (Michel Foucault 1978) and what “a critical practice” in this field might actually mean.
It draws on the concept “to contradict oneself”
which has been unfold by the Marxist sociologist, psychologist and
educator Frigga Haug (2004).
It then exemplifies developments in the field of art and curating which
since 2008 have been coined as “the educational turn” (Irit
Rogoff). After describing the practices, and hence the congruencies and
similarities as well as the differences between both fields –
critical gallery education and critical art and curating –
the paper concludes with some suggestions for collaborations in
contradictions, on the basis of mutual acknowledgement.
Carmen Mörsch was trained as an artist, educator and researcher.
Her research interests include
museum and gallery education as critical practice; collaborative
practices in art and education; postcolonial and queer perspectives in
art education.
From 1993 to 2003 she worked as
a freelance artist-educator in museums, schools and other organisations
and institutions. 1999 she co-founded the group Kunstcoop© which
comprised of 7 artists who sought to conceive gallery education as a
critical arts practice. Kunstcoop© conducted the education
programme of NGBK Berlin (New Society for Visual Arts Berlin) from 1999
– 2001.
Since 2002 she has been
conducting several team-based action research projects in the field,
including the research and consultation of documenta 12 education in
2007. From 2003 to 2008 she was a professor in the department of
cultural studies, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany.
Since 2008 she has been Head
of the Research Institute for Art Education (IAE), at the University of
Arts, Zurich, Switzerland. From 2009 to 2012 she is directing research
for the Programme on Education at the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro
Helvetia. In 2011 she has
been a visiting researcher at WITS School of Art, Johannesburg, SA and
at Camberwell College of Art, London/South London Art Gallery.
"Being able to do something"
Educating and curating in the post-representational museum
In her book "Outside in the Teaching Machine" the postcolonial theorist
Gayatri Spivak works on a critical theory of agency. Under the title:
"More on Power/Knowledge" she is rereading Foucault with Derrida and
opens new perspectives: The french word "pouvoir" means not only power,
it is also a verb meaning: "being able to". Savoir-pouvir would then
mean "being able to do something". What does this have to do with
educating and curating? After a variety of more or less thorough
institutional critique in curatorial discourses since the 1990ies, in
recent years an advanced segment of the exhibition field has
increasingly been raising the question of curatorial agency.
Beatrice von Bismarck understands “the curatorial as a cultural practice that goes well beyond just organizing exhibitions” and specifically has “its own procedure for generating, mediating for, and reflecting on experience and knowledge.” Thus the curatorial relies to a certain extent on the logic of mere representation and gets involved in processes that it produces itself: so it is no longer about exhibitions as sites for setting up valuable objects and representing objective values but rather as spaces for curatorial action in which unexpected encounters and discourses become possible, in which the unplannable seems more important than, say, precise hanging plans.
Now, if we envision the museum as a post-representational space it is the question of agency that comes into focus: How can a museum become a place in which something can happen? I will examine educational and curatorial practices as agency and would like to develop strategies in which contradicitions can be addressed and exhibitions become spaces of negotiation and action.
Nora Sternfeld is an art educator and curator. Part of trafo.K, Office for Art Education and Critical Knowledge Production (with Elke Smodics-Kuscher and Renate Höllwart) and Schnittpunkt, exhibition theory and practice. She currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and is co-director of the ecm - educating/ curating/ managing – Masterprogramme for exhibition theory and practice at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She was a lecturer at the Viennese Art School, the Art Academy Kassel, the Zurich University of the Arts and the University of Education in Vienna.
Curatorial projects have been: Plakate und Kommentare, IG Bildende Kunst, Vienna 2009 (w/ Toledo i Dertschei), Nothing for us. Everything for everyone. Strategic Universalism and Political Drawing, IG Bildende Kunst, Vienna 2007 (w/ Toledo i Dertschei), Let it be known! Counter Histories of the African Diaspora in Austria, Hauptbücherei am Gürtel, Vienna 2007 (w/ Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur), Summit NonAligned Initiatives in Education Culture, Berlin 2007 (w/ Kodwo Eshun, Susanne Lang, Nicolas Siepen, Irit Rogoff, Florian Schneider) and Hidden Hi/stories. Remapping Mozart, a project for Wiener Mozartjahr 2006 (w/ Ljubomir Bratic, Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, Lisl Ponger, Luisa Ziaja).
Moreover she is part of the editorial board of Bildpunkt – magazine of the Viennese artist association IG Bildende Kunst. She works and writes on contemporary art, education, exhibition theory, history-politics and anti-racism.
What have we Learnt?
When artists make art that involves people either as collaborators,
facilitators or active subjects, they pose complex questions, not least
of which is the issue of authorship. For art institutions, such ways of
working often require a rethinking of the status of the art work
itself, as what is produced is often contingent and does not always
lend itself easily to traditional exhibition formats. Developing new
models for the production and presentation of such work, however, is an
opportunity for galleries and museums to embrace the ways in which
contemporary artists are increasingly operating beyond the studio and
gallery, and in doing so extend their reach and influence.
The implications for the gallery as a platform for experimentation and
a laboratory for learning have been embraced by curators and artists
alike, and education and learning are at the heart of this process of
reinvention. What new institutionalism demands is an integrated
approach to programming and the integration of programming teams so
that education, exhibitions, performance, public programmes are
conceived as part of a programme of activity, rather than the more
traditional and territorial departmentalisation of these areas of work.
This interdisciplinary approach engages a wide framework of timescales
and the flexibility to work across strands of programming.
Whilst there has been a number of recent examples of curators and
artists adopting the pedagogical frameworks of public programming and
education, the impact and potential of these projects –
specifically in relation to the function of education and learning
within the institution – are only beginning to be realised. These
seemingly ‘pedagogic’ projects raise complicated questions
for curators, critics and educationalists. Questions of how this work
should be evaluated and what it means when the mechanisms of
programming are applied to the production of new institutional spaces
are critical, and are questions that need to be addressed by those of
us that work in the cracks across the gaps, in and beyond the confines
of the institution.
This presentation will draw on models of integrated programming
developed over 10 years at the Serpentine Gallery and the opportunities
of working in partnerships and embedded to a city for the Liverpool
Biennial 2012.
Museum / Gallery Education in Transition
From Museum in the Streets (MNC) to the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM)
The premise that contemporary art is a social activity that does
not merely enable aesthetic perception but encourages discussion,
confrontation and participation on the part of the viewer blurred
the distinctive borders between art and education. Since the
»educational turn« was primarily meant to open up new
dimensions to curatorial practices, the question remains what the
(equivalent) role of the educator within the museum institution is? Can
curators and educators work critically and self-reflectively? Is a
state-funded institution a place for radical practices on both
sides? Can one be political and mediate art at the same time?
My presentation will focus on my experiences as a museum curator /
educator and collaborator of the Radical Education Collective
(REC) during the time Moderna galerija was closed for renovation
and the MSUM (Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova) under construction.
It will present not only the institution – artist –
audience relation, but also transversally connect various agents who
occasionally work together. This often brought conflicts on both sides
but also allowed us to learn to work together.
As we continued to shape alternative commonalities in the newly opened
MSUM, we work in collaboration with local groups, new social movements,
individuals and collectives on such issues as public spaces, the
exclusion of certain groups from public spaces, alternative forms
of education, and the like.
Adela Zeleznik holds a MA in Art History from the University of Ljubljana, and was a visiting student at University of London / Goldsmiths College, London 1992-1993. Since 1993 she has been working at the Moderna galerija, Ljubljana as a curator for education and public programmes (from 2011 in the new unit of Moderna galerija - Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova).
Projects in
collaboration with artists incude: My Beautiful Home, Moderna galerija,
1995, All But Appearance, Moderna galerija, 2000; Transfers,
Moderna galerija, 2005, This is Me, 2006, Do We Know Each
Other? 2007-2009, You and the City. Diaries of a Future Avant-garde,
2008-2009. From 2006 she has been part of Radical Education
Collective (REC).
CASE STUDY ABSTRACTS
The Fight for Each Head or Total-Education
An ideal communication triangle formed in the making of an exhibition
between the artist, curator and the museum educator, often transforms
in a Bermuda Triangle in whose whirlwind the public unintentionally
gets drowned. It is difficult to point to culprit(s) as interactions
are complex and often question start positions and
“authorities”. Recently a remarkable example of mediation
practice has reassured me how impossible ascents are possible if we
destabilize certain core roles in this process.
The preparatory work for a big retrospective exhibition of a Croatian
media art pioneer, Ivan Ladislav Galeta (1947), Zero-Point Landscape
– Experiments and Research, held at the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Zagreb (MSU), had its Scylla and Charybdis-moments. However,
during the exhibition its ”supporting” educational programs
transformed into equally worthy elements. In fact, their quality and
the intensity of collaboration with the artist, outmatched other
educational programs at the MSU. During the two months of the
exhibition (from Sept. 23 through Nov.17, 2011), Galeta has taken
different roles in the mediation, from discussions and theme guidance
(among other visitors, together with the complete museum staff!)
through lectures and the planting of a mini-garden with the youngest
visitors, that were created and guided in coordination with our small
Educational department. In this manner, the artist conveyed different
layers and messages of his immensely complex opus to about 5000
visitors. Each visitor de facto participated in a living interaction or
edu-action, thus we can rightly claim that we have re-examined the
possibilities of traditional, “hand-to-hand” educational
forms, or better, the fight for each head, a sort of “total
edu-action”.
What did the battlefield resemble during and after this experiment, and
who were the victims and what was their number, we will discuss during
the presentation.
Nada Beroš, art
critic, curator, editor, translator and lecturer based in Zagreb;
curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb since 1994; curated
and co-curated solo and group shows of Croatian and international
artists in Croatia and abroad, among these are: Andres Serrano, Dennis
Adams, Dalibor Martinis, Braco Dimitrijević, Sanja Iveković, Ivan
Kožarić, Vadim Fishkin, IRWIN, Ivana Keser, Swetlana Heger & Plamen
Dejanov, Mirosław Bałka, Mladen Stilinović, Andreja Kulunčić, Candice
Breitz, Elke Krystufek; Delayed on Time, A Gateway to Swedish Art Now;
Criss-Cross, Five Positions in in Croatian and German Contemporary Art.
Contributed with essays and
interviews to numerous magazines; artpress; Mar’s;
Gazet’art; Život umjetnosti; Artelier; New Moment; Golemoto
staklo; Likovne besede; Res magazine; ČIP; Oris; Kontura; catalogues
and publications: After the Wall, Art and Culture in post-Communist
Europe; Manifesta 2, European Biennial of Contemporary Art; Primary
Documents, A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the
1950s, and others….
Founder of Ježevo Motel, an
independent multidisciplinary project on illegal migrations
(2000-2004.). Co-founder and editor-in-chief of online magazine
art-e-fact (2002-2005).
Founder and editor of
“Reflections”, selections of books on critical theory,
published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
Co-author of the new permanent
display “Collection in Motion”” of the Zagreb Museum
of Contemporary Art (opened December, 2009).
Head of Educational Department,
Author of Edu-Action, educational project at the Zagreb MSU
Recent extensive educational
projects accompanying all major exhibitions at the MSU:
Gilbert&George (2010), Ivan Kožarić, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, New
Tendencies (2011), Socialism and Modernity (2011/2012).
Recent publications:
Nada Beroš: Dalibor Martinis: Public Secrets, 2006 (artist’s monograph)
Editor and co-writer of “Highlights from the Collection in Motion”, MSU, Zagreb, 2009.
Nada Beroš:
“Kroćenje tame/Taming of the Darkness”, eseli i razgovori o
suvremenoj umjetnosti na prijelomu stoljeća / Essays and conversations
on contemporary Art at the Turn of the Century, Fraktura, Zagreb, 2011
Planning Permission
3–5 keywords. (Public, permission, value, control)
250 word description of the project or programme :
I would like to develop a presentation looking a public cultural spaces
and permission - drawing on two projects I have recently been involved
in as organizer, educator and artist/activist:
Air Iomlaid (On exchange) presented at The Fruitmarket Gallery from
2010 – 2011. Air Iomlaid was a Gaelic exchange programme,
where primary school children from two schools in Scotland created a
large scale exhibition in the contemporary art space, The Fruitmarket
Gallery, as well as touring to Skye and Inverness. I managed the
education programme which generated the work, and curated the
exhibition.
http://fruitmarket.co.uk/education/resources/air-iomlaid-2/
http://www.air-iomlaid-english.blogspot.com/
AtelierPUBLIC was an exhibition which took the form of a working artist
studio – one that the public was invited to come into, to make
artworks which became part of the installation, held at Glasgow
Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Oct 2011 – Jan 2012. I created an
installation ‘#catandmouse’ for the galleryspace.
http://bit.ly/atelierPUBLIC
http://playablespaces.wordpress.com/
The projects raised a number of issues and tensions within public space, which I would investigate:
• Why do we split the core functions of presentation and education?
• Is education a product or by-product?
• Are our galleries sites of production or sites of reception?
• Amateur and professional artists
• The delineation of public space
• Hierarchies, and structure, of power
• Public space and its guardians
• Permission, consent and norms
• Curators and Reputational economies
• Locating Value
Statement of what is special about your project,
I was involved in these projects from different sides, within an
institution and outwith an institution. I therefore both understanding
and am appreciative of institutional permission. I have
undertaken lots of research around participation whilst I was
researching and programming engage International Conference held in
Margate in November 2011. The presentation would draw on recent
research by Carmen Morsch (Zurich University of the Arts) and Mick
Wilson (Gradcam, Dublin)
Johnny Gailey, Freelance cultural worker, Edinburgh
Johnny Gailey has worked in
community arts and gallery education in Scotland since 2000. He was the
Education and Exhibitions Officer at An Tuireann Arts Centre on the
Isle of Skye, before moving to Edinburgh to develop a participatory
public art project at North Edinburgh Arts Centre.
From 2005 until 2011, he ran
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s programme of activities for children
and young people, Opt in for Art. He was responsible for
development, planning, management and delivery of the core education
programme for young people aged 7 – 18, integrating activity
within the gallery programme.
In 2007/2008, in addition to
his work at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Johnny co-ordinated a national
podcasting/documentary project for Young Scot which worked with 30
groups of young people from across Scotland creating short audio
pieces, which were distributed via the internet and iTunes.
Between 2009 and 2011, he
project-managed the Lottery-funded Air Iomlaid (On Exchange)
educational project, working with over 100 primary pupils at depth,
which resulted in an acclaimed exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery
(Edinburgh). Air Iomlaid was one of ten projects from throughout
the UK to be nominated for the inaugural Clore Learning Award 2011.
Johnny has written for
publications and contributed to national debates and sectoral
development via advisory work. He is a member of the engage
Scotland Development Group, and sits on the Glasgow Sculpture Studios'
Programme Advisory Group. In 2011, Johnny programmed the engage
International conference, held in Margate, Kent, UK, bringing together
practioners, artists and academics from across the world to discuss
particpation.
Currently, his time is divided between
• the studio: developing projects, campaigning, researching and writing;
• the darkroom, printing an exhibition of photography and
• across the country: working with a range of partners on participation in the arts.
Reflections on War – a Community Curated Exhibition, 2009
This exhibition marked the 70th anniversary of the UK’s
involvement in the Second World War and it received generous funding
from an Imperial War Museum Their Past, Your Future grant.
We set out to work with local community groups to plan and deliver the
exhibition, within the main programme of the Gallery. It was intended
that the groups would work with a curator throughout the whole process,
from selecting pictures through to the interpretation and design of the
exhibition, which was to be based on personal recollections,
reminiscences and reflections. The process of curation was given
over, as much as was possible, to members of the public, through a
series of workshops which were partly delivered by gallery staff and
partly by creative writers.
The amount, and the quality, of the research which came out of the
workshop sessions was beyond our expectations and helped to establish
the project as successful for the gallery curatorial team.
More than 50 local people, ranging in age from 11 to 93 worked on the
project supported by songwriters, poets and curators. Over 44,000
visitors saw the exhibition and many went out of their way to leave
positive comments.
In my presentation I will:
• outline how the process of community curation worked;
• illustrate the interpretation, presentation and research outcomes of the project;
• demonstrate the success of the project for all those who took part, including gallery staff;
• show how the project has impacted on gallery practice.
Gaby Lees - Assistant Curator of Arts Learning, York Art Gallery, York Museums Trust, York, UK
Having
graduated in Fine Art in 1989 I went on to take a masters degree in the
Conservation of Fine Art in 1993 and gained a Post Graduate Certificate
in Secondary Art & Design Education in 2002. I have worked as a
teacher in secondary schools and as an artist in residence in primary
and secondary schools. I have also worked extensively in community
settings and adult education.
I have been in my current
role since May 2007, covering as Acting Learning Manager for the
Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum & Gardens from December 2010 to
December 2011.
I am extremely fortunate to work for an
organisation which places learning within the curatorial team, giving
me full access to the collections and to the exhibition planning and
curatorial process. I have co-ordinated two community curated
exhibitions at York Art Gallery.
Projekt Migration
I would like to present a project which I started in practice in 2005 at the Kölnischer Kunstverein within Projekt Migration. It raises question of hegemonic knowledge in the arts , migration, "Leitkultur", and mediating as labour in a radically changing society. I continued this project together with other colleagues at d12, called DEUTSCH WISSEN, questioning an international large scale exhibition and our roles as mediators from a post-colonial perspective. (see: http://www.documenta11.de/1263.html?&L=1)
This was teh second part. In the first we questioned our role by ourselves while inviting lecturer and professors from post-colonial theory ans anti-racism, etc. (see: http://www.documenta11.de/1210.html?&L=1&no_cache=1&sword_list[]=Wissen).
In a way the project at d12 was special since is intervented in different areas of the event with different collaborations. While at Projekt MIgration it was special since we started our professional role with a curriculum that was questioning: how can we educate other people in a transdisciplinary field, but contextulized in teh fields of art. I am saying this, because people we worked with had all a migrant background and never worked in the art's field before. part of them had an activist background from kanak attak, an organisation which is involved in struggling for legality, and other tight for migrants not only in Germany. In a way my role as the head of education succeeded from an eduactional as well as from a curatoril point of view, since I was an assistant curator (to Marion von Osten) of an integrated project called Transitmigratiton, dealing with migration after '89.
From offsite to onsite: crossing the gallery threshold
The project, ‘Ripper Teeth in Action’ by James Capper, was
the final commission of the Art in Rose Hill programme, an offsite
programme that ran from 2007 to 2011 at Rose Hill, an estate on the
outskirts of the city. The programme spanned a period of significant
change at the gallery, including a change of director and
reconfiguration of some of the gallery’s spaces, which has
provided opportunities for the Learning & Partnerships team to
negotiate presenting exhibitions as part of the main artistic
programme.
What is special about our project is the equal platform on which the
work is now presented. One of the exhibitions on show currently at
Modern Art Oxford is the film by Hector Castells-Matutano made in
collaboration with James Capper. Endorsement of the project through
significant public exposure at the gallery (it’s being shown at
the same time as work by Graham Sutherland and 20,000 people have
visited to date) is immensely valuable both to the artist, the team,
and to people from the community featured in the project. The
experience of arranging the exhibition has been positive, however it
has highlighted some of the issues that exist around allocation of
resources across different strands of the programme, and within
different departments. I propose to give a brief introduction to the
offsite project, followed by an analysis of the circumstances that
enabled the exhibition to take place (including our relationship with a
commercial gallery that represents the artist), and what we have
learned through the experience.
Sarah Mossop – brief biographical statement
I am Head of Learning &
Partnerships at Modern Art Oxford. With over twenty years experience of
working as a gallery educator in the publically funded contemporary
gallery sector, I have concentrated on taking up newly created posts,
which has given me the opportunity to initiate education programmes and
develop new approaches to working. I am interested in the strategic
role that gallery education plays within institutions as they evolve
and respond to political and cultural agendas.
Working with Future
Working as an only curator in small local institution Rauma Art Museum,
Finland I have developed a concept of exhibitions of Finnish
contemporary art targeted for a special audience - children and young
people. The art works in these exhibitions are not expressly created
for children, but the curatorial work, choice of works, the exhibition
concept and guiding tour are designed with the target group in mind.
Themes in these exhibitions have been connected to ordinary everyday
life, environmental and ethical issues. The art works and installation
plan in these exhibitions are often spatial, interactive, narrative and
phenomenal.
Every visiting group is accompanied by guide, who is not art
professional but local unemployed or young person without any
professional education. Guides are involved to take part also in
exhibition installing works and collecting the background information
from artists and other sources. Tour with this
“unprofessional” guide gives a chance to explore and
discuss the meaning and content of the works in very basic level.
Exhibitions very often also features workshops run by artists, where
the same guides are assisting.
Reason to develop this exhibition concept has been lack of audience
interested in contemporary art, and many practical choices have been
made because of limited resources. The aim is to increase awareness and
make it tempting for larger audience locally, and also hope more active
adult audiences in future.
My case study will be presenting the exhibition concept, main ideas in curatorial work and practices of audience work.
Henna Paunu (b.1968) has studied art history at University of Helsinki
and works as a curator and independent critic. She has been a curator
of the international Rauma Biennale Balticum exhibitions 2002-2010,
presenting contemporary art from the Baltic Sea area at the Rauma Art
Museum, Finland. She has also curated exhibitions by young Finnish
artists for the Fine Arts Association of Finland and the Paulo
Foundation. Earlier she has been working as a curator at Kunsthalle
Helsinki, a producer and president in the Raumars - the international
artist in residence programme in Rauma. As a curator she has a special
interest in environmental art, community-based art projects and
integrated pedagogy. Lately she has also been active as a member of
board in the Finnish Society for Curators and Pedaali – The
Finnish Association for Museum Education.
EMMA, Futuro lounge 24.3.-30.9.2012
EMMA´s outreach department is organizing a small
exhibition about Futuro house´s utopian world in cooperation with
ARKKI School of Architecture for Children and Youth and it`s young
students. Young people are going to do their own interpretation of
Futuro themes and tell what Futuro house is today. Museum is also going
to seek another kind of interpretation about Futuro, with selected
artworks from it´s collection and artist like Mari Sunna, Ismo
Kajander and Aurora Reinhardt. The public is going to have an
opportunity to participate in an open workshops beside the exhibition.
Futuro Lounge is part of the WeeGee Futuro 2012 exhibition at
Weegee-house and it´s WDC-year program, in cooperation with Espoo
City Museum and Espoo City Culture Unit.
Specialities: Futuro Lounge is going to put together and put to life the whole process in museum exhibition in a small scale; Curatorial and educational points of view: Involving ARKKI´s students in the planning of the exhibition and visitors to do further interpretations about the exhibition abstract.
Consept: Nana Salin. Team: Nana Salin, Reetta Kalajo, Maria Vähäsarja, Sini Koivisto and Arkki students
Biographical: Nana Salin, MA, is a Director of Art Education and
Customership in EMMA. Salin has been responsible for the EMMA´s
museum educational activities and personnel since 2003.
Artistic curator versus educational curator? Thoughts on cultural mediation practices in Europe, by a European practitioner, with the aid of examples from Brazil.
The relationship between curatorial practices and mediation practices
in Portugal could not obey to a more rigid or hierarchical set of rules.
The selection of an artist, the production and organization of an
exhibition, the wall texts writing or even the production of labels are
completely up to the curatorial department that seldom lets this
process be affected by the educational or mediation department.
In 2010, I had the opportunity to travel for two months through the
Brazilian cities of Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo
Horizonte and meet our Brazilian fellow colleagues: heads of
educational departments and cultural mediators in museums and cultural
centers.
Throughout more than 60 filmed interviews I was able to identify a
common behaviour that was new to me: the strength of the department of
education, the absence of a historical legacy of maintenance of the
work of art, the sharing of projects and actions between the art
curator and the educational curator, a generalised concern with the
audience’s emancipation…
In this presentation I will focus on some of the best brazilian
examples I found during this journey and will try to reflect the
positive impact that new understandings on cultural mediation resulted
in my naive (and rather Eurocentric) look. A look that was strongly
contaminated by a two-century history of museums and neglected that,
perhaps, the fierce dedication to conservation is not that important
when you work with contemporary art.
Statement of what is special about this project
I believe that the presentation of practical examples of cultural
mediation applied in some museums and cultural centers in Brazil,
filtered by my experience as a professional in this area in Portugal,
can bring us a less naive, a more critical and reflexive regard on
cultural mediation practices applied in these two countries (and,
perhaps, inherited by the history of museums in Europe throughout the
last two centuries).
5 keywords: Educational curator, Cultural mediation, Portugal, Brazil
Museums inheritance
Head of Education in Culturgest – Fundação Caixa
Geral de Depósitos in Lisboa, Portugal, since 2005. Culturgest
is a cultural center dedicated to the exhibition and presentation of
contemporary art.
I have founded and I co-administrate a network of portuguese and brazilian cultural mediators (ReCoSE).
Member of the ICOM Committee for Education and Cultural Action
(ICOM-CECA), I have a masters degree in contemporary art (Universidade
Nova de Lisboa) and am currently a PhD student in Communication,
Culture and Art (Universidade do Algarve).
SALT and the new Museum Scene in Istanbul
In my research I am focusing on the museum cultural policy in
Istanbul, while the general theme is 'Design, Museum, Society. How
design can contribute to the redefinition of contemporary museum
fostering its educational and social mission'. With a
cross-disciplinary approach, the case studies and projects, that I am
intending to present investigate the intersections between arts, design
and architecture, with the aim to foster their ethical and educational
role in its ‘inclusive’ and curatorial practices.
Just opened in 2011, the research-based cultural institution SALT
‘explores critical and timely issues in visual and material
culture, and cultivates innovative programs for research and
experimental thinking’ with two locations, one in Beyoglu the
other in Galata. How do they do they archieve this? By setting up
exhibitions such Becoming Istanbul and The making of Beyoglu, where the
curators (Pelin Dervis, Blent Tanju Ugur Tanyeli), the
architect/exhibition designers (Superpool) and the graphic designers
(Project and Project) worked closely together to create a space open to
e for the visitors, in order to involve them into the talk and
discussion session weekly organized for encourage them to propose their
visions of re-designing the city.
Another work in progress hybrid space, between exhibition and laboratory is the Rooftop Hothouse, set up at the top floor of Beyoglu SALT, a casual workshop for modest and year-round urban gardening activity cultivating a diversity of edibles that aim to evolve experimental an edible garden environment, create structures accommodating plants, people, discussions on how the design thinking can come up with environmental issues. In the other venues dedicated to the Open Archive in Galata, archival documentation is not simply display, but it is interrogated in an open access data-base, not only for researcher, but also for the general public.
Keywords: Design exhibition for participation and education, cultural empowerment and Istanbul.
BIO | Teresita Scalco (b.1976) Phd candidate in Museology of Design,
Università Iuav di Venezia (IT). In the framework of her
doctoral research in the museum policy in Istanbul, she is visiting at
the Istanbul Bilgi University. European MA in History of Architecture
(2006) Università Roma Tre with a specialization in and
Contemporary Architectural Heritage at the World Heritage Center of
UNESCO in Paris and BA in History of Art (2002) from the University in
Padua. For her BA thesis she received a grant from the Univerity of
California Santa Barbara (USA), where she studied feminist art critics,
visual arts and photography.
Since 1999 she has been assistent curator at the Architectural and
Design collections at the Univesity Art Museum in Santa Barbara, then
in Italy at the Archivio progetti, Università Iuav di Venezia.
In 2002 and 2005 she optained two EU grants for promoting intercultural
educational projects on these fields in several cultural institutions
in Venice and in Madrid in order to empower youth through art and
culture.
This is a project to create a new gallery about modernism and the
machine which we are just starting. We are developing a method of
working across curators and educators which will allow both teams to
gain significantly from the project. We are planning an argument and
philosophy which will inform the core approach to the whole project
and which will provide the curatorial approaches and the main threads
which will anchor the display. Alongside this, a cross-disciplinary
team of educators, including artists, are to devise creative
sidelines, depths of knowledge, research areas, launch ideas for
further inspiration and ideas. We have all kinds of ideas about how
these will be initiated, but the real developments will happen as part
of the process of co-discovery of the subjects we are tackling. The
entire project will be steered dynamically according to a matrix which
will allow varying scales and levels of communication, some obvious
and some hidden and subtle, some as part of a clear thread of
argument, some reserved for exploration later in a live programme of
talks, conferences, discussions, practical work and informal
engagement both on and off site.
Are Educators Cultural Leaders?
In her case study Jane will discuss the potential for education and
learning staff to take a leadership role in galleries and visual arts
organisations. Research in the UK indicates that education and
learning colleagues in the cultural sector do not rise to leadership
positions; as a consequence, UK galleries and museums struggle to truly
value education and learning within their organisations. In response to
this, engage, the National Association for Gallery Education, has
collaborated with Arnolfini, Creative Partnerships Sussex and Surrey,
English National Ballet and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
(University of East Anglia) on a pilot cross arts leadership programme,
Extend. Extend supports colleagues working in education and learning
across the arts. Jane will report on learning from the pilot programme
and how the programme will develop.
Jane’s case study will question:
• Do educators bring specific qualities to leadership?
• Are curators regarded as potential leaders more favourably than educators?
• Can curatorial and education colleagues be treated as equals?
• Can greater respect and dialogue develop between curators and educators?
Jane will drawn on her past experience as Head of Community Education,
at Whitechapel Art Gallery, Education Officer at Ikon Gallery,
Birmingham, London, as a consultant for national and independent
galleries and museums and Director of engage.
Key Words
• Leadership
• Respect
• Dialogue
Jane Sillis was appointed Director of engage, the National Association
for Gallery Education, in 2005. engage is the lead organisation
supporting gallery education in the UK and internationally with 1,000
members in 240 organisations in 18 countries. Since the 1980s Jane has
worked in the arts, principally with audiences new to mainstream
culture. She was Education Officer at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (1986
– 89); Head of Community Education at Whitechapel Gallery, London
(1994 –99); Arts Manager for Look Ahead Housing and Care (1999
– 2005); and an arts consultant. Clients included: the National
Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Turner Contemporary, the Clore
Duffield Foundation, the British Council and the Department for
Children Schools and Families. Jane was a Vice Chair of engage’s
Board of Trustees (1998 – 2005), a trustee of Chisenhale Gallery
(2000 – 2005) and of Magic Me (2000 – 08) and is a trustee
of the Institute of International Visual Arts (2008- present). Jane has
a Post-Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration, City University (1983 -
84) and a Masters in Cultural Theory, University of Birmingham (1991 -
4). Jane has published and spoken internationally on visual arts
education.
Project: Journeys: Stories of the World
This case study looks at how artist educators, and the learners they
work with, can encourage audiences to look at historic museum
collections in new, more critical and creative ways, drawing on the
experience of Orleans House Gallery as part of Stories of the World, a
major project of the UK's Cultural Olympiad.
In line with the aims of the project, the gallery sought to place young people at the heart of interpreting its collection, and of using that collection to explore the stories of the UK’s interactions with the rest of the world. The collection in question was the Sir Richard Burton Collection – objects and images relating to the life and travels of a controversial Victorian explorer. The challenge was to work with young people to engage audiences with these objects while neither condoning Burton’s interpretations of the societies he visited, nor becoming mired in inaccessible post-colonial debates.
The gallery worked with museums and commercial sector galleries to bring young people working on the project into contact with the work of contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia, India and Benin – all countries which feature in the narrative of Sir Richard Burton. The participants then worked with artist educators to make new work drawing on this contemporary practice. The project culminated in a public exhibition which combined objects from the gallery's historic collection, work by the contemporary artists, and work by the young people inspired by their encounters with both. The exhibition was managed and curated by the lead artist educator, withsupport from the curator.
This case study explores how the work of curators, educators, artists and learners can come together to create new experiences for exhibition visitors; what happens when historic collections, international contemporary practice and young people’s creations collide in the exhibition space; and in what conditions can such juxtapositions become a form of mediation and interpretation
Key words: Young people; collections; artists; interpretation; participation
Miranda Stearn
An arts and heritage professional with six year’s experience
working in the UK sector, Miranda Stearn is equally at home in the
spheres of museums, galleries and public sector arts. Currently Arts
and Heritage Development Co-ordinator for London Borough of Richmond
upon Thames, she is responsible for a wide variety of projects spanning
education, exhibitions and arts events. She is also a final year
PhD candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she has
been researching contemporary artist commissions and interventions in
museums and galleries.
Rachel Craddock
Rachel has been working as a Freelance Artist Educator with the Arts
Service at Orleans House Gallery for 3 years. Currently holding the
position of Youth Programme Co-ordinator she is responsible for youth
engagement at the gallery, planning and delivery short and long term
arts provision for young people in the borough. Rachel’s
freelance work allows her to apply her print-making, craft and textiles
abilities to ambitious and often experimental workshops with a variety
of community groups in a variety of settings including the National
Portrait Gallery. As lead artist educator for Journeys: Stories of the
World, Rachel was responsible for managing and curating the exhibition.
Thoughts from ‘Outside’ the Box
I do not represent either curatorship or education within any
institution. Instead I have been working both as visual artist and as
an independent curator. For the past six years I have been organizing
exhibition exchange, residency and publication projects with European
and Mongolian artists and architects. These projects have addressed
especially the perceptual and utopian visions that both Mongolians and
Europeans have about Mongolia in general and how these appear in the
fields of architecture and built environment in particular. Besides
Mongolia the exhibitions and residencies have also taken place in
Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Pori in Finland.
In this presentation I will concentrate on the last exhibition project
Bare house –Ulaanbaatar. The project took place in Mongolia from
June to November 2011 with two exhibitions at the Buddhist Zanabazar
Fine Arts Museum, with a satellite at the Manchester Museum’s
Asia Triennial. It was participated by seven European and nine
Mongolian artists producing new works site-specifically.
Curating/producing exhibitions and editing a publication under
Mongolian circumstances was both horrendous and (with a comfortable
distance in time) hilarious. Both the museum as an institution and the
artists’ practices contested practically every notion of
exhibition organization, display conventions and ways of communication
we ‘foreigners’ held. I wish to share this experience and
the view to our own exhibition culture that it made me magnificently
aware of.
Keywords: exhibition exchange, collaboration, exhibition cultures
Annu Wilenius is a visual artist and independent curator based in Helsinki, Finland. She studied photography at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and history of ideas at the universities of Stockholm and Oulu, completing MA Degrees in both fields. At the moment she is conducting doctoral studies at Aalto University, Department of Art. Her doctoral dissertation – Semi-detached Ger with a Garden: Experience of Self, Community and Environment Through Urbanising Mongolia – combines Mongolian and European experiences of urbanism and looks into exhibition projects as a method of research.
