From Cabaret to International Festivals

I write not as an academic, but as a singer, writer of works for the stage, festival director, and arts advisor. The word curator first entered my understanding as the role of those working in art galleries and museums: those skilled individuals who “cared for” their collections. The word has now spread to many of the things that I do, including the way I have “put together” large international arts festivals.

Spaces and roles of contemporary art in industrial and technological ruins

This article proposes some potential contributions of contemporary art to industrial and technological heritage discussions. The paper analyses the relations among art, industrial ruins, technological trash, heritage, and society from an archaeological perspective, although this standpoint is compared to and complemented with those of art and art history. First, the text presents how industrial sites and technological artefacts from the recent past are transformed for/by the artists. In doing so, it offers a preliminary basic typology of art-obsolescence relations illustrated with cases from Europe, Asia and the Americas. Four major kinds of interactions are introduced: the conversion of abandoned industrial buildings into art galleries and museums; the transformation of larger obsolete industrial/technological areas into creative hubs; the intervention of artists in industrial ruins; and the creative recycling of technological waste. Second, the text infers from the examples provided in the typology three possible functions of art regarding heritage: revelation/addition of value; mediation between the public and dark heritages; and recognition in technological and industrial history. In the end, the paper defends the role of art in the making of industrial and technological heritages, as well as in reconnecting them to society.

Through the Lens: Youth Experiences with Cancer in Rural Appalachian Kentucky Using Photovoice

Rural Appalachian Kentucky experiences disproportionately high cancer incidence and mortality rates. This cancer burden is due to social determinants of health and cultural factors prominent in the region. The firsthand experiences of community members—especially young people—can highlight these factors and identify areas for improvement. The purpose of this study was to encourage Appalachian Kentucky youth to consider determinants of cancer and visualize the effects that cancer has on their families or communities by asking them to take photographs of cancer-related objects around them. Content analysis was performed on 238 photographs submitted by 25 students, and photographs were organized into themes, subthemes, and subtopics. The six themes that emerged were risk factors and exposures, marketing, awareness and support, health care, experiences, and metaphorical representations. Many of the submitted photographs aligned with cultural, environmental and/or situational factors prevalent in Appalachian Kentucky. Of the submitted photographs, 54 were displayed as an installment in two Kentucky art galleries. Viewer comments at the exhibitions demonstrated that young community members can educate and motivate change in those around them. Ultimately, this project demonstrates that young community members can recognize cancer-related issues around them and connect personal experiences back to the larger Appalachian Kentucky cancer disparity while also having an impact on other community members.

A survey of the organization and administration of education in New Zealand museums and art galleries

The problem of this thesis arose out of two questions, firstly, "What are New Zealand museums and art galleries contributing to education?" and secondly, "Are they effective as educational institutions?" To answer both questions the task was to find out what these institutions are in fact doing in the field of education. Investigations based on a survey of this kind were, as far as New Zealand is concerned, virtually non-existent, but where possible the problem was related to the limited literature available. Critical comments on the merits or limitations of this scant literature is contained in the annotated bibliography.

A survey of the organization and administration of education in New Zealand museums and art galleries

The problem of this thesis arose out of two questions, firstly, "What are New Zealand museums and art galleries contributing to education?" and secondly, "Are they effective as educational institutions?" To answer both questions the task was to find out what these institutions are in fact doing in the field of education. Investigations based on a survey of this kind were, as far as New Zealand is concerned, virtually non-existent, but where possible the problem was related to the limited literature available. Critical comments on the merits or limitations of this scant literature is contained in the annotated bibliography.

Mind the Gap: Admin Activism, a Thought Piece in Process

In this article, I describe the methodology I understand as admin activism within the context of cultural institutions to consider how we may generate sustainable, productive and enjoyable relationships in decolonial work. Admin activism includes specific priorities, behaviours, and strategies associated with decolonial resistances that can be mobilized by people working within art galleries, museums, and universities. Drawing from scholarly and grassroots practices of settler responsibility and Indigenous methodologies, my professional experience as a curator and educator, as well as important lessons learned from friends, colleagues and family, I intend this article to contribute to growing toolboxes for institutional change.

Enfolding the Hand, Entrancing the Eye: Erica Baum’s Dog Ear

This essay will situate Erica Baum’s Dog Ear within broader discussions of appropriation, remediation, and queer phenomenology.  In her ongoing series, begun over a decade ago, Baum makes the quotidian act of folding the corner of a book’s page into a sculptural intervention, allowing her to “reauthor” the newly concealed and revealed juxtaposition of text.  These digital photographs, initially displayed in art galleries, were selectively sequenced by Baum to become Dog Ear (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011, reprinted 2016).  Both the accompanying critical writings and subsequent reviews of the book emphasized continuities between Baum’s project and traditions of found and concrete poetry, alongside modernist precursors like Malevich and Albers who informed her visual lexicon.  While acknowledging these legacies, my essay focuses on the evident limitations of attempts to render Baum’s works using standard and modified modes of lineation (offered by Kenneth Goldsmith and Amaranth Borsuk, respectively) which consistently evacuate what is most compelling about them.  Instead, I propose and demonstrate a method of gestalt poetics, one which lets their circuitous, open-ended dimensions register more fully by emphasizing evocative recombination, adjacency, and the interrelation of these remediated pages as they return back to and contort the codex.  Textual figures get produced, as Sara Ahmed has argued “by acts of relegation” and their queerness, in Baum’s work, depends on perpetually destabilizing the bifurcation between reading and looking in order to shift our sense of foreground and background into an extended matrix of partial legibilities. 

Non-Core Business? An examination of university art galleries in New Zealand Aotearoa

<p>University art galleries are the most common form of campus museum in New Zealand and are increasingly viewed as alternative and innovative interdisciplinary teaching tools. Much of the literature concerning university art galleries discusses the potential of these organisations to act as forums, laboratories and portals for the presentation of diverse ideas within institutions of higher education. Yet these organisations are often overlooked by their parent organisation and considered superfluous to the university’s core business. Despite the ubiquity of university art galleries, little research has been undertaken regarding these organisations within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. This dissertation explores this issue by examining the ways in which university art galleries have integrated themselves into their university communities. This dissertation provides a general and concise overview of university art galleries in New Zealand and then presents two in-depth case studies, examining first the Gus Fisher Gallery and then the George Fraser Gallery at the University of Auckland. By utilising a wide range of sources including international and local theoretical literature, interviews, and documentation of public programmes and exhibition histories, these two case studies demonstrate that university art galleries contribute to their parent organisation in a variety of ways. These include serving as an important public interface for the university by showcasing academic and creative scholarship undertaken by the institution’s staff, students, and alumni; acting as a vehicle through which the university can achieve strategic and academic goals and objectives, and assisting the university in fulfilling its duty to act as the “critic and conscience of society”. This dissertation makes a contribution to museum studies and current museum practice by addressing a gap in the New Zealand literature on this topic. It is the first critical academic analysis of university art galleries in this country situated in relation to British and American theory. In particular, it builds upon and refines Janet Marstine’s argument that university art galleries can lead in the development of the Post-Museum and questions whether Marstine’s theories can apply to the New Zealand context.</p>

Non-Core Business? An examination of university art galleries in New Zealand Aotearoa

<p>University art galleries are the most common form of campus museum in New Zealand and are increasingly viewed as alternative and innovative interdisciplinary teaching tools. Much of the literature concerning university art galleries discusses the potential of these organisations to act as forums, laboratories and portals for the presentation of diverse ideas within institutions of higher education. Yet these organisations are often overlooked by their parent organisation and considered superfluous to the university’s core business. Despite the ubiquity of university art galleries, little research has been undertaken regarding these organisations within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand. This dissertation explores this issue by examining the ways in which university art galleries have integrated themselves into their university communities. This dissertation provides a general and concise overview of university art galleries in New Zealand and then presents two in-depth case studies, examining first the Gus Fisher Gallery and then the George Fraser Gallery at the University of Auckland. By utilising a wide range of sources including international and local theoretical literature, interviews, and documentation of public programmes and exhibition histories, these two case studies demonstrate that university art galleries contribute to their parent organisation in a variety of ways. These include serving as an important public interface for the university by showcasing academic and creative scholarship undertaken by the institution’s staff, students, and alumni; acting as a vehicle through which the university can achieve strategic and academic goals and objectives, and assisting the university in fulfilling its duty to act as the “critic and conscience of society”. This dissertation makes a contribution to museum studies and current museum practice by addressing a gap in the New Zealand literature on this topic. It is the first critical academic analysis of university art galleries in this country situated in relation to British and American theory. In particular, it builds upon and refines Janet Marstine’s argument that university art galleries can lead in the development of the Post-Museum and questions whether Marstine’s theories can apply to the New Zealand context.</p>