Developing innovative curatorial content takes much time and thought and requires curators to be accustomed to the museum collections. Different approaches can be pursued, ranging from chronological to thematic presentations. Combining the artworks of several different periods and media can take many forms, be incredibly diverse, and reveal and convey distinctive meanings. However, the public can easily be misled thinking curating is only about selecting beautiful artworks and displaying them together. Repeatedly, expensive high-end luxury brands offer their latest fashion and accessory collections as curated presentations. Sadly, the term has become overused and is undervaluing the role of this academic profession.
Over time, curators acquire a huge amount of knowledge and become experts of specific art movements, artists, and periods. They also write essays and captions for exhibition catalogues, are involved in new acquisitions, give subject related talks, and much more. Moreover, these specialists are also familiar with other public, private, and corporate collections, which is beneficial in case artworks from other institutions and individuals are borrowed to highlight specific points of a narrative. Collaborating with exhibition designers who create models of the exhibition spaces with images of the chosen artworks to visualise and agree the displays are an important part of the exhibition delivery. Despite these painstaking, detailed preparations, last-minute changes during the installation are common, and artworks can either be shown in a different part of the gallery than originally planned or rejected entirely. The reasons can vary and include, for example, curatorial dislikes, lack of anticipated pivotal moments, and insufficient display areas; therefore, modifications occur when seeing the artworks in situ.
Courtesy and © Museum of Modern Art, New York, (image) 2019 and Renée Pfister (text), 2020.
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