James Ballantyne

Its Liminal Everyday

Half In Wood, Half In Iron

Garmisch

Paris

The Curating Experience - Planning

If you have never curated an exhibition before but are undertaking a curating role, this blog might be of some assistance. This is a reflection of my time curating for my 2nd year photography exhibition at huddersfield. What is covered in this blog is the process of curating and how to navigate it. I know when I undertook this role, I didn't know how to navigate it. Within this blog I will use they/them pronouns to keep the blog anonymous and to maintain a level of professionalism. This blog exists because I was asked by my lecturer to give a talk recently to a group of 2nd years about the experience.

Planning For The Exhibition

At the start of this role, I found there wasn't much to do physically. We didn't know what space we had. How can you plan an exhibition without knowing the space?

You begin by looking at other exhibitions. When you're in those spaces think like a curator, inspect and analyse everything you can, but most importantly evidence it. Take photos and make a folder for them in your phone. Have a small A5 notebook, so you can recall anything useful at an instant, no waiting for things to turn on or to be charged. I also found it useful to roleplay as a curator in external exhibitions as an attempt to put myself into a mind space of them, bringing myself to conclusions of why they did what they did. Sometimes I disagreed with that decision, I would ask myself why?

How would I do it differently?

Why?

What is the benefit of how I would do it, instead of how it was done?

The purpose of questioning is not to be arrogant but to understand.

How Else Can You Understand An Exhibition?

By the work that is going to be in it. In my group there were 16 people. I had to know what they wanted in that imaginary space. I went around to each individual in the group, sat them down by themselves and asked them;

“In an ideal world, money and space is infinite, in this exhibition what do you want?”

The purpose of this question was to aim for the moon but sell them the stars. No matter what we land on the moon.

This task I think separated me from the other curator. I took the time to ask every single person what they wanted and why, encouraging them to think big, nurturing and discussing their ideas. It was about making people feel seen and heard, in order for them to trust my process. Each person got at least 20 mins of my time. Some people knew what they wanted, others didn't. It didn't matter, I was there to assist them in the process.

It's very much facilitating their ideas, I am not there to judge or ruin their concepts and ideas, I am a means to facilitate.

When I asked people what they wanted I would write down everything I thought was important, so I knew what everyone wanted and it was all in one place at a moment's notice.

You might ask but how did you facilitate their ideas?

I found it was listening to them, but then telling them explicitly my requirements as the curator. For example, around 8 people said they wanted plinths to display something. I said that was okay, as long as you got it and organised it yourself. I understood curating as facilitating and organising ideas in a controlled manner, not chasing down resources for these ideas to work. But because I explicitly told people that, the result was some people altered and changed their ideas of presenting and some kept it. In the end I believe we had 2 plinths. This decision upon reflection was bold because I could have had a serious issue if all 8 people had sourced plinths but luckily I asked at the start and with time people altered their decisions.

How Do You Keep On Top Of These Changes?

At first I didn't. Some people approached other members of the group in a casual manner talking about their work and how things are coming along. The person they told would then come to me, and tell me that information. Without knowing it, we had created a managerial style of roles to pass on information.

This was not intentional however I cannot emphasise enough how great this was. It meant I was getting condensed pieces of important information to take and focus on when applying it to curating. Without the 2 or 3 people passing me that information, I would have found myself with a lot more unexpected difficulties along the way. As a curator it is easy to get overwhelmed. This process helped to reduce that greatly. Although there were times when misinformation got introduced, which was hard to navigate. It led me to then taking all given information, understanding it but not giving it value and let it weigh on my mind too much. Still keeping it into consideration as a potential for change though. Sometimes directly going to the individuals to discuss what is happening.

I chose to understand all information and take it with a pinch of salt.

Understand The Type Of Person You Are

I'm visual, I work better when I can see it. So when we knew the space and we visited it, we took measurements. With those measurements I made a diagram and worked out how big images could be. Then made more diagrams trying to figure out who would go where. 16 people into 4 rooms. All of varying sizes. It led me to make a cardboard model, in order to see it more clearly but also to keep it on hand in university to discuss at any given moment. This did happen on a couple of occasions. But the main purpose was to help me understand the space and preplan.

Within the preplanning stages you have to understand the work ethic of your peers and those involved. I was always in university, during scheduled time and after. As a result I got to see who was also turned up at these times. By seeing who is here at certain times, tells me a lot about how they will work in the exhibition stages. I then had to strategise how to handle this and get the best out of everyone.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

When I made notes about people's ideas during curation, 2 people didn't know what they wanted, one individual I was okay with not knowing, because they showed up consistently, I trusted them. The other i did not, simply because they did not show up. This is a challenge because if they aren't here consistently how can i help them and see their ideas progress.

To Recap

- You are there to facilitate, not judge.

- Approach the curating with a seriousness, humility but most importantly, respect.

- Make notes in a paper book.