All tagged curating

Curating Ornament and Textile Exhibitions as Highwire Acts: On Guest Curator Negotiations with Lenders and Museum Director

Curating Ornament and Textile Exhibitions as Highwire Acts: On Guest Curator Negotiations with Lenders and Museum Director

Susan Rodgers
Articles

In studying museum exhibitions, there is value in looking at hidden negotiations (even combat)  among academic guest curators, museum directors, and collector/lenders. These often-veiled interactions occur as different ideological stances and positionalities come into contact and friction with each other regarding what is important in displaying material culture. In this essay, I provide a close-up view of such negotiations in the planning and implementation of three shows that I guest curated as an anthropologist (one at the Asia Society Gallery, two at Cantor Art Gallery at Holy Cross). All concerned indigenous arts from island Southeast Asia. Judicious compromises and consensus resulted in stronger exhibitions.

Gazing to Africa: A Conversation with Art and Ethnology at the Museum

Gazing to Africa: A Conversation with Art and Ethnology at the Museum

Alexandra Antohin
Articles

This short essay explores how museum displays have traditionally shaped static public knowledge about Africa and Africans. Impressions from the spectator’s experience of the exhibit Beyond Compare: Art from the Bode Museum will serve as a springboard to reimagine how art and ethnological collections can dismantle ideologies of cultural domination embedded in these items’ preservation and presentation to the public.

“If You’re Looking to Radicalize an Archaeologist, Force Them to do Something Traditional:” An Interview with Dr. Jason de León

“If You’re Looking to Radicalize an Archaeologist, Force Them to do Something Traditional:” An Interview with Dr. Jason de León

Lillia McEnaney
Interviews

Led by UCLA anthropologist Jason de León, the Undocumented Migration Project is changing the way we think about the U.S.-Mexico border. Using a fusion of archaeological, ethnographic, visual, museological, and forensic perspectives, the project is fostering conversation and understanding about the human impacts of American immigration policies. Through an exhibition, field school, and ongoing interdisciplinary research, de León and his team are making the tangible, material traces of migration visible.