ARTH 4110 - [Curatorial Practice as Entanglements]

(ALC-AS)      

This curatorial practicum recognizes the curator’s role in transformative socio-political change. “Curatorial Practice as Entanglements” is a semester-long course offered at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum in collaboration with the Department of the History of Art and Visual Studies. The Fall 2023 seminar theme posits “Entanglements as transversal politics mobilizing intersectional worldmaking” as curatorial strategy. This curatorial method is rooted in liberatory Black and Indigenous anti-colonial and eco-feminist theory and activism. Unpacking nationalist museum constructs, analyzing the formation of collections while interrogating the categorization of art and material culture seeks to reimagine the role of curators and museums in an anti-colonial future.

Museum and library collections across campus will be set in dialogue with on-line archives, exhibitions, and virtual museums as material and digital “curatorial interventions.” Students will curate and stage original artworks from the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University Library archives and on-line sources as part of their final capstone “exhibition” project.