The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) have made an unusual announcement. Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins will be purchasing 25% of the curator Nii Quarcoopome’s time from the DIA.
curators
A curator’s job isn’t just to shuffle some art around in a gallery space. In many ways, curators are the glue that hold artistic communities together, by organizing group events, serving as hubs of communication and connecting people and groups on local, national and international levels. In this Curator Diary, Jason Andrew does a lot of visiting, a lot of lunching and a lot of talking. It’s all a part of the gig.
Today’s Curator Diary from Jason Andrew exposes the nuts and bolts of putting together an exhibition. Andrew works with an art handler to install pieces in the developing Jack Tworkov show, frets over catalogue corrections and reaches out to area artists and students. Curating isn’t all glamorous openings and swanning around with Marina Abramovic, after all.
Since learning of Shaquille O’Neal’s curating gig with Flag Art Foundation, among other dubious projects announced last year, I have found myself returning to Eva Diaz’s piece “Whither Curatorial Studies?” from last February, in which she weighed the teachings of curatorial degree programs against the realities of the profession. Does this “pedagogical cottage industry” adequately prepare its students for the real world of curating?
