Curatorial Praxis: Caring for and Curating Indigenous Contemporary Art

What does it mean to curate contemporary art, and how is curation an exercise in ethics as much as it is a series of practical tasks and skills? This course is an introduction to curatorial praxis centered in an ethics of care and social transformation inside and beyond museum walls. Students will engage with texts on the practice, theory, and ethics of contemporary curation; investigate curatorial case studies from US and global art exhibitions; and will, more importantly, learn directly from and with the current exhibition inside The Bell, Brown’s contemporary art gallery and a program of the Brown Arts Institute. Students will be led through the curatorial process of commissioning a contemporary art exhibition at The Bell, and will make visible contributions to the exhibition and its public programs through a variety of individual and group projects.