CURATORIAL ACTIVISM POST-KELLY BARTKO

 CURATORIAL ACTIVISM POST 

Towards a Curatorial Activism | Dr. Maura Reilly 

1) “On investigating price differentials, and sex–race ratios in galleries, within thematic and national exhibitions, and in the press, the numbers demonstrate that the fight for equality is far from over. Indeed, the more closely one examines art world statistics, the more glaringly obvious it becomes that, despite the decades of postcolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and queer activism and theorising, the ‘majority’ continues to be defined as white, Euro-American, heterosexual, privileged and, above all, male. When perusing the majority of mainstream museums, for instance, one must search more diligently for the women artists, artists of colour, and artists of non-Euro-American descent.” pg 10

I picked this quote because I feel like it talks about many different issues going on and wraps them up in a very nice way. It is crazy to me that we're still fighting to have equal opportunities for everyone in every community, even the art world. Art is about learning from others' perspectives, point of views in different ways of doing things and the only way in which to do that is to have different things shown from different people.

2) "What I do know is that, as we venture forward into this new century, it is imperative that art institutions examine not only their putative subjects, but their ideological biases as well. This will involve rethinking methodologies and iconographies for what they say, and do not say, about the constructions of race, gender, class and nation.” pg22

I also really liked how this quote summed everything up in the end. This one isn't just suggesting it's demanding change on many things not just the subjects but the ideological biases. They even suggest rethinking methods and such and the way that they construct their things; and even more importantly how they go about race gender class and nation.

What is Curatorial Activism? by Dr. Maura Reilly | ArtNews

1) ‘“Curatorial Activism” is a term I use to designate the practice of organizing art exhibitions with the principle aim of ensuring that certain constituencies of artists are no longer ghettoized or excluded from the master narratives of art.”

As someone who isn't familiar with topics like this and someone who is usually not around as public activism it was good to have this sort of definition to refer to. Everyone should have a place in which they can show their work and have equal opportunities as everyone else does. This idea seems to help get away from that typical narrative that we see in the world today.

2) “There was, for example, dismal representation of women and non-white artists in the re-opening of the Tate Modern, London, in 2016—of the three hundred artists represented in the re-hang of the permanent collection, less than a third were women and fewer still were non-white.”

It baffles my mind to think that this was only a few years ago and that this is still with the statistic was. This limited representation is the main issue. Things like this is what this inspires young women from thinking that they are capable of pursuing goals that they want to accomplish, due to the lack of representation out in the world. 

The Art of Activism

1) “Creativity isn't a product, it's a process. it's a process that helps us to notice new objects and events, make new connections, and see the world in different ways. it's a process that helps us think of, sketch, experiment, and build innovative things. a process that helps us Act in a different Manner and imagine New Horizons within which to act. most important, creativity is a process that all of us can use to become artistic activists.” pg51

I feel like today and age creativity is usually overlooked due to things like Ai and of that nature. genuine creativity is what makes things good, things that aren't genuine are usually worse in product and things that are genuine are usually better. creativity is something that keeps people alive; it's something that keeps people questioning what they are able to do and how they can push themselves to try or do something even better than the last time they did it.

2) “But if you don't quit and you work your way through the slump, you will start to climb back up: a friend comes through with a donation, the limitation and materials forces you to make an interesting change, it looks different, but in a good way. The place you reach me never be as high as where you begin, as reality never meets expectations, but it'll be good enough. And remember: the slump will try to trick you into thinking it's the critic. The voice can sound like the smartest, most rational voice you've ever heard. it's wrong.” pg81 

I picked this quote because I know being in the slump is something that we can all relate to. it's different for everyone through every aspect and part of it but in the end our goal is always accomplished in a different way once we fight through the slump. I personally enjoy very abstract work because I feel like I can never really be in a slump because there are many different medias to entertain and for me to come up with different combinations of things to use together. but sometimes you are in a creative slump where you just don't want to produce any work and that's okay but in the end you will be back to producing sometimes you just need a little rest.

Answer the following questions: 

1) What is Curatorial Activism? From what I have collected, basically  is a term used to describe a way of ensuring that all art has equal opportunities, focusing on art that is less likely to be seen Ex. art by women

2) What can we do to improve art and art history? I feel like there needs to be some type of system that shows you like the demographic or something like that of the art that you are looking at. If im at a museum and they are showing majority work by white men but are trying to represent a time period or something like that then I feel like a statistic or something should be posted.

3) How can exhibitions be activist? Depending what the work is about or what the artists intentions are, if ive learned anything about activism its that everything can be it.

4) What messages can they tell in their theme or inclusion of artwork? I feel like a simple this work was created for different people by different people, because no matter where you go there is always going to be different kinds of people everywhere.