Curatorial Minds Lab 2021

Curatorial Minds Lab duration: February – May, 2021

Curatorial Minds Lab is bimonthly gathering (online/on campus) of SMU alumni and current students interested in deepening their understanding of the historical development of curatorial practices and the study of contemporary art display theory/practice including exhibition typologies and curatorial models.

Curatorial Minds Lab will be hosted by the Hawn Gallery in the Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library. Using and thinking about/around the gallery space within a library as a model for curatorial experimentation within the university and beyond is central to the lab.

We will visit the university libraries, learn about their collections and manifest new possibilities to intertwine contemporary arts and experimental artistic practices into already existing discourses.

Curatorial Minds Lab goals:

- Develop a clearer understanding of contemporary curatorial practices and related theoretical positions.
- Produce proposals for curatorial projects
- Understand strategies to develop exhibitions articulated in the lab.
- Be comfortable doing studio visits with local artists.
- Identify some of the pathways for becoming an arts curator
- Develop skills of critical analysis and communication.
- Develop research skills for searching information on curating and curatorialship.

3- 5 Participants will:

- Participate in the design and conceptualization of the Curatorial Mind Lab exhibition space.
- Lead talks with a series of curators (local, regional and international).
- Create proposal for the Pollock Gallery future programming.
- Visit the SMU library collections in depth.
- Produce a collective publication with curatorial proposals.
- Participate both online and in person in collective research and conceptualization.

The open call for the Curatorial Minds Lab 2021 is currently closed. 

Curatorial Minds Lab is a project lead by Sofia Bastidas Vivar, SMU Pollock Gallery Director.