#AskACurator

A nice hashtag on Twitter yesterday and tons of museums were on board. I figured I’d toss a few items into the mix. My tweets (plus one I wish I’d tweeted) and any responses I received:

This is something which I see all to rarely. The Fogg Museum* is the only one I’ve visited where I remember seeing a clear commitment to show as much about the process behind as much of its collection as possible. Occasionally an exhibition will have some of the process** but it’s not nearly as common as I’d like to see.

*when I visited it over a decade ago

**SFMoMA’s Robert Frank and Diane Arbus exhibitions both included contact sheets.

https://twitter.com/SFMOMA_Curator/status/248496735448600577
https://twitter.com/SFMOMA_Curator/status/248569857317167104

This is interesting. While I have noticed how SFMoMA often display related material from its collection when exhibiting a traveling exhibition, I sort of assumed that the traveling exhibition would be mostly consistent. That each museum applies its own curatorial spin—while keeping the intent— is a new wrinkle.

Similar to the re-curating of traveling exhibitions. If the artist specializes in curation, is there also a museum curator involved?

Sadly, no replies to this one. Which is a shame since I think the marketability balance is one of the most interesting things about any arts group.

Was disappointed that no one replied to this either. How to approach art and the hangups people have about liking—or having to get—art is a huge challenge to a museum. People don’t like to feel stupid but a lot of times, this is what visiting a museum feels like.

Mainly curiosity. But it would be interesting to know if there is an intended pace that exhibitions are designed to be taken at.

Something I have noticed which the San José Museum of Art does very well. I really like the idea of multiple museums working in concert to present related exhibitions.

Mainly grinding my art, craft, and function axe. It would have been nice to hear whether this is me in crazytown of it’s something which is actively considered.

Author: Nick Vossbrink

Blogging about Photography, Museums, Printing, and Baseball Cards from both Princeton New Jersey and the San Francisco Bay Area. On Twitter as @vossbrink, WordPress at njwv.wordpress.com, and the web at vossbrink.net

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