Further information on Great Expectations : Almost 30 years after the founding of the first curatorial studies program (at the École du Magasin, Grenoble), with the curator remaining a figure of curiosity and fascination in the contemporary art world, a new question has emerged: how do we educate curators? Great Expectations: Prospects for the Future of Curatorial Education explores this question, focusing in particular on the challenges, opportunities and subjects that motivate educators and students. How has curatorial education changed in the past 25 years, and what will the next 25 years bring?

The book can be purchased here.

ARC researchers interviewing Adam Sutherland at Grizedale Arts

A group of ARC researchers (Eavan Aiken, Frank Brennan, Amy Farrell and Jai Thorn) visited Grizedale Arts in November-December 2015, with the aim of interviewing Grizedale director Adam Sutherland and documenting the organisation’s activities. Grizedale Arts is an arts organisation situated in Lawson Park farm, a historical site in the mountains above the valley where Coniston village is located, in northern England. While on residency at Grizedale, artists are invited to build relationships which benefit the artists, volunteers and interns in partnership with the organisation.

During their visit to Grizedale Arts, the ARC research team used video, photography, audio, object gathering and informative talks and interviews to explore and document the activities, history and rural setting of the organisation. While at Grizedale, the group met director Adam Sutherland, education curator Olivia Leahy and volunteer Megan Wiessner at the Coniston Institute. They attended a weekly workshop for local children, and visited Karen Guthrie’s piece The House of Ferment, which travels to IMMA in 2016. The group also toured the farmhouse and surrounding grounds of Lawson Park, including the kitchen gardens (used to grow food for the residents) and the former home of John Ruskin. The trip also provided an opportunity to visit the John Ruskin museum and to interview Karen Guthrie about her experiences of living at Lawson Park, and her work as an artist, which includes projects developed in conjunction with Grizedale.

The visit to Grizedale Arts is one element of an ongoing research collaboration between the ARC programme and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The collaboration will form the basis for a programme of presentations and events titled Statecraft, to be presented at the Project Spaces, IMMA in March 2016. Thematically, Statecraft focuses on interconnections between residency, community and craft, informed by the work of Grizedale Arts.

Lin + Lam discussed their projects and working methodologies over the past dozen years. Their projects have addressed the dissemination and attrition of cultures and languages through and post colonialism and globalization, the historical and contemporary conditions of refugees and displaced persons, and the paradoxical anonymity and surveillance of undocumented migrants. The artist team is attentive to the materiality of history as it is manifested through sites, documents, and psychic residues. Their lecture explored questions about the life and death of archives, and what it means to queer the archive.

Lin + Lam’s visit took place in conjunction with their participation in the exhibition Spring Watching Pavilion, curated by Orla Ryan at Void Gallery, Derry (3 October – 14 November, 2015).

Biography

Since 2001, Lin + Lam (Lana Lin and H. Lan Thao Lam) have produced projects in multiple media that brings together their backgrounds in architecture, photography, sculpture, installation, writing and time-based media. Inspired by a particular site, historical incident, or political issue, they collect research in the form of interviews, archival materials, and found objects. Their work has been exhibited at international venues including the Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, The Kitchen, and the Queens Museum, New York, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Arko Arts Center (Korean Arts Council), Seoul, the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany, and the 3^rd Guangzhou Triennial, China. They have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the Princess Grace Foundation, and The Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Lam received her MFA from CalArts. Lin received her MFA from Bard College and PhD from New York University. Both have been participants in the Whitney Museum Independent Study program. Lam is Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Parsons. Lin is Associate Professor in the School of Media Studies, The New School.

Website: http://www.linpluslam.com/index/home.html