Introduction to Curating Contemporary Art

This short course will introduce you to the ecologies of both contemporary art and curatorial practice. Utilising the wealth of expertise, knowledge and collections in the city of Oxford, this course consists of in person lectures and seminars, as well as practical workshops taught in galleries and collections in Oxford.Curators act as facilitators. The practice of curating often involves of a series of exchanges with artists, with other curators, and with wider museum and gallery practitioners. This course places these exchanges right at the centre of your learning. Through the course you will be introduced to some of the skills that go into the work of curating from those directly involved. This will include studying what it takes to commission new artworks, the training required to work in collection care and collection management, as well as current approaches to education, interpretation and public engagement. We will explore innovative ways of curating and activating archives and library collections and consider the role played by development and fundraising teams in the making of exhibitions and the shaping of collections.Knowledge of curating in an everyday situation will be placed within current, historic and theoretical context with lectures, seminars and discussions with selected reading material. In these sessions you will learn about some of the histories, ideas and theories key to both global contemporary art and curatorial practice. This will include the development of curatorial practice over the twentieth and twenty-first century, feminist theories of care, and the expansive role played by art schools such as Black Mountain College. Throughout the course we will keep returning to the call to decolonise collections and curatorial practice, through approaches and case studies. We have all been impacted by the pandemic and part of the course will also consider what it means now to work and curate online.Alongside readings, seminars and lectures, this course aims to be practical and collaborative. Together we will test out and experiment with ideas, drawing on our discussions, visits, workshops, and opportunities to make.