Contemporary curatorial practice is increasingly preoccupied with notions of public engagement. Changing cultural perspectives and a sharpened focus on the relationship between art and social change are informing new imperatives for art in the public domain. This studio aims to equip students with a critical understanding of some of the key theoretical and practical issues confronting curators working in “social space”. The studio is aimed at those wishing to extend the curatorial field beyond existing audiences of the “white cube” to reach variegated, specific and diverse publics both within and without gallery spaces. Through this studio students will critically evaluate notions of “community”, “participation”, “collaboration” and “public” to develop their own ideas on how to construct an encounter between “audience”, “social praxis” and “art”. The course will provide real life situations in which students can develop their own independent approaches to curating in social situations within the public domain. By the end of the course students will have chosen a specific artwork or community with which to work, developed a curatorial premise and produced a project text. Students will develop skills in determining who is their intended audience, strategies for working with that audience, and evaluating how successfully their proposed project operates within the defined social space. The studio will equally weight research, collaborative, curatorial and textual components, encouraging students to engage with the complexity of how curatorial knowledge is produced and activated.
