As Curators of Galleries and Collections, we all consider our audience, the contemporary art landscape, our personal aesthetic (which often we are inclined to ignore to challenge ourselves and our viewers) and last- but never the least- our values. As a curator, I think a lot about access, engagement, navigability, story, relevance AND values.
I learned a lot from other curators and artists about installation and presentation but the values portion of curation is often informed by our viewer’s needs and questions that the curator thinks would be interesting to explore. We often hear that “this” or “that” has the capacity to change the world. This OR That may indeed change the world or a person’s perspective IF that thing is stewarded to make that change.
As someone who loves art, I consider art and artists as our guides to what to notice, how we could see, feel and be. When I ran my first gallery, Gallery RFD, we would host juried exhibits each month that explored some complex issue (Plagiarism and Appropriation) followed by an exhibit that was challenging but accessible (Divine Inspiration: Spiritual Themes in Contemporary Art). I would listen and learn from our artists through handling and arranging their work as well as literally through artist’s talks. This back and forth taught, I believe, viewers to digest new themes and be interested in the nuance of art and ideas.
The last few years, I’ve worked in University Galleries and most of the programming is split between curating professional artists, student artists and collections shows. I try to have one focused exhibition by an artist- and in all honesty since I am talking about advocacy- I advocate for artists who are underrepresented in the art world and mediums that are not commonly given the opportunity to be seen in our region. I also try to have one juried exhibition exploring some issue.
If I can return to that idea of changing the world or a person’s perspective IF a thing is stewarded to make that change- I endeavor to use that Juried exhibit to examine some issue related to Social Justice, Values or Advocacy. In the past three years, a few of those exhibitions or activities include A Day Without Art for World AIDS Day, the Clothesline Project to prevent violence against women, Standing Rock to explore a documentary narrative against an advocate’s agenda, Social Justice Revisited to explore 50 years of complex social issues, Taking Issue to look at what is driving our political and social identity and State of the Union to examine who we are and where we are one year after the election of Trump.
When I say Exhibit as Advocacy I am really saying that I have the responsibility to push questions and challenge our responsibility to each other through sometimes private interactions with art. It is a privilege of being a curator and part of the values that have been shaped by time, family, friends, place and art.
ANTHONY FARIS 