Curating ‘Now’: Between the Museum and the Community

As museums increasingly seek to position themselves as civic and social spaces, curators are grappling with how institutions might engage communities beyond exhibition-making. Through community-oriented, site-responsive, and socially engaged practices, curators are exploring how projects developed outside of institutional contexts might generate new forms of public engagement and social exchange.

‘Curating Now’ is a new program series that considers distinct curatorial forms of contemporary exhibition-making through critical case studies by Australian and international curators. The second session welcomes Dr Lu Pei-Yi and Pedro de Almeida, and is convened by Olivier Krischer on behalf of the Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership program, with José Da Silva and Catherine Woolley from UNSW Galleries.

Together, Lu and de Almeida reflect on a spectrum of ‘offsite’ curatorial projects, developed with communities in Taiwan and Australia, respectively. They question: What happens when art, artists, and curators operate outside of the museum? What does it mean to work with, in, or for communities from an institutional position? And how can community-led projects influence or reshape the museum itself?

For more information visit: https://www.galleries.unsw.edu.au/event/curating-now-between-museum-and-community