Posts
Curatorial Practice
Listen to the Interns: The Importance of the “Budding Scholar” for Museum Decolonization
As a junior in college, I think I might have found my calling—for now anyway. For the past two and a half years I have been studying Art History, Museum Studies, and African American …
Museums are curating an era of social movements in real time
Museums are curating an era of social movements i…
Mission Accomplished?: As Mainstream Art Museums Rush to Diversify, What is the Role of Culturally Specific Museums Working for a Cause?
In July, El Museo del Barrio, a museum in upper Manhattan devoted to exhibiting and collecting Latinx and Latin American art, issued a statement in response to the family separation crisis …
European museums may loan back some works stolen from former colonies
August 17 Nearly every Western European capital has a massive, monolithic museum designed to project an image of national might and instill ordinary citizens with patriotic pride through …
What Is Curatorial Activism?
The following is adapted from Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating, by Maura Reilly (to be published April 2018 by Thames & Hudson ). ©2018 Maura Reilly. Reprinted by …
On Cross Collecting, or Cross-Over Buying
Since the start of the new millennium, there has been an increase in cross-collecting (sometimes called 'cross-over buying'). This might seem like a recent phenomenon according to what we …
The site of the earliest known temple on earth continues to keep its secrets
One morning in May I stood in a dark room in southern Turkey, watching blue-skinned early humans domesticate wheat between bouts of interpretive dance. They were holograms, and they swayed …
Join me in Detroit to Explore the Future of Immersive Practice
I’ve spent the past week designing some futurist exercises for a convening the Alliance is organizing at Detroit Institute of Arts, September 6-7. My colleagues and I are organizing …
Māori ancestors repatriated to New Zealand by the Peabody Museum
On the morning of June 21, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History voluntarily transferred the remains of seven Māori and one Moriori tūpuna, or ancestors, to representatives from the …
Museums too: what should institutions do when artists are accused of abuse?
Shortly after the publication last October of two exposés detailing decades of sexual abuse and assault by the US film producer Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement hit the art world. As …
What’s the Best Path to a Top Museum Job? We Analyzed the Training of 100 Curators to Find Out
These days, it feels like you can't swing a canvas tote without hitting a newly credentialed curator. As art institutions expand and biennials proliferate, the population of curators has …
Fifteen years after looting, thousands of artefacts are still missing from Iraq’s national museum
On April 10 2003, the first looters broke into the National Museum of Iraq. Staff had vacated two days earlier, ahead of the advance of US forces on Baghdad. The museum was effectively …