2.3 Producing New Curatorial Formats: The Public Programme Curator

design community.208 This increased focus by the Design Museum on the interests and motivations of its audiences had a further outcome in terms of the introduction of a new strand to the learning programme designed to engage with an adult audience; the Public Programme.

2.3 Producing New Curatorial Formats: The Public Programme

Curator

During the late 1990s and 2000s a proliferation of curator-centred publications and international curating conferences sparked debates about an increasingly expanding field of practice. In 2007 Paul O’Neill first used the term “curatorial turn” to describe these shifts. In his study, The Curatorial Turn: From Practice to Discourse, O’Neill undertook a mapping of various issues in approaches to contemporary curating and their implications for the reception of contemporary art where the impetus is increasingly on the process rather than on object-based artwork.209 He presents a short history of contemporary curating by examining some of the issues that had emerged in curatorial discourse over the previous ten years, including the rise of “biennial culture”, the expansion of the artist as a meta-curator or “creative-auteur” and the large-scale curated exhibition. The issues identified by O’Neill are all relevant to the development of contemporary design and the developing role of the design curator.

O’Neill’s argument focuses on a shift from the primacy of the artist to that of the curator in line with what he identifies as a shift in the curator’s role. No longer seen as the carers of institutional collections, curators would instead become the authors of a more critically engaged and experimental form of exhibition practice. As examples of this shifting practice, he cites the increasing number of global biennials and the rise of the nomadic curator disconnected to any specific institution. In 1997 curator and critic, Michael Brenson had identified this shift as the “curator’s moment” when

208

Helen Charman, The Productive Eye: Conceptualising Learning in the Design Museum, Institute of Education, University of London 2011: 41.

209

Paul O’Neill, ‘The Curatorial Turn: From Practice to Discourse’ in Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance, Judith Rugg and Michèle Sedgwick (eds.), Bristol: Intellect Books, 2007.

certain individual curators started to achieve an unprecedented visibility.210 In 2008 curator and theorist, Irit Rogoff described the new type of curator as a “jet-set flaneur.”211

As part of this shift, O’Neill identified an increasing proliferation in discursive practices such as discussions, lecture programmes, conferences, publications and events as a recurrent and integral part of exhibitions, many taking place outside the existing traditional educational and institutional structures.212 These discursive interventions have now become central to contemporary practice, reflecting part of a wider educational turn in curating. Alongside exhibitions and learning activities, the public programme is now considered an integral part of a museum’s offering. Historically, these events had been peripheral to the exhibition playing a supporting role. In an essay written in 2009, ‘Experiments in Integrated Programming’, Sally Tallant, Director of the Liverpool Biennial, argued that today’s institutions should place an equal emphasis on public programming as they do on exhibitions.213 Tallant was Head of Programmes at the Serpentine Galleries between 2001 and 2011. In the essay, she comments on how education, learning and public programmes were often seen as secondary to, or servicing, exhibitions. The programme had less importance to that of the exhibition, thus the public programme curator was viewed as less important to the exhibitions curator. She argues that the “new institution” should have equal emphasis on all programmes, such as talks and events as well as exhibitions. Public programming should be integrated into the exhibition-making process, as opposed to departmentalising each area of work.214

210

Michael Brenson, ‘The Curator’s Moment: Trends in the Field of International Contemporary Art Exhibitions’, Art Journal 57, no. 4, Winter 1998: 16.

211 Irit Rogoff, ‘Turning’, e-flux journal, 1, 2008: E1-E10.

212

Paul O’Neill, ‘The Curatorial Turn: From Practice to Discourse’ in Issues in Curating Contemporary Art and Performance, Judith Rugg and Michèle Sedgwick (eds.), Bristol: Intellect Books, 2007:13-28.

213

Sally Tallant, ’Experiments in Integrated Programming’, Tate papers (Tate’s online research journal), 2009: 1-6. Available at https://www.tate.org.uk. (Accessed 15.07.16).

214 Ibid.: 2.

In line with a shift in focus by museums on the interests and motivations of their audiences, public programming can now be defined as a curatorial practice common to most museums. Exhibitions are the content generators raising key issues and debates and the public programme provides a platform for discussion and debate. The public programme provides different modes of engagement with design practice and practitioners can include workshops, salons, talks, panel discussions, symposia, conferences and festivals. These discursive platforms have generated new audiences for museums and, in turn, created new roles for the curator.

A range of innovative programming at a number of London-based institutions has done much to elevate the standing of the public programme. In 2005 curator Hans Ulrich Obrist initiated the Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery to provide a discursive space in which to debate areas of contemporary practice. Over an intensive programming period of twenty-four hours, specialist audiences come together to take part in a programme that oscillates between live talks, film screenings, performances and panel discussions. The focus changes every year to reflect research that defines the year and past themes have included transformations, memory, gardens, maps, extinction and artificial intelligence. The formats can be written, spoken or performed and include up to fifty practitioners with architects, anthropologists, scientists, politicians and poets contributing to the debates.215

Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of Public Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, has commented on how the public programme has provided a more discursive space in which to debate areas of contemporary practice. It has also achieved a more holistic approach to programming in museums and a more integrated environment with exhibitions and learning teams working

215

The Serpentine’s Annual Festival of Ideas, Serpentine Galleries website. Available at: https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/explore/marathon (Accessed 15.11.17).

much more closely together.216

Fig. 18: The first Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery, 28 July 6pm - 29 July 6pm 2006.

The public programme is now a regular part of programming at a number of institutions. The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) delivers a programme of talks, performances and events inviting international theorists, designers, academics, philosophers and poets to contribute.217 RIBA Public Programmes comprise “engaging and thought-provoking public-facing talks, events and displays for both a specialist audience and the broader public.” Events are programmed alongside the major exhibition seasons and themed programmes encourage public engagement with architects and architecture.218 The Architectural Association’s (AA) public programme consists of an extensive series of public events dedicated to contemporary architectural culture such as

216

Presentation by Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of Public Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, to MA CCD students at the Design Museum, 21 November 2017.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts website. Available at: https://www.ica.art (Ac

217 -

cessed 15.11.17).

218

RIBA Website. Available at: https://www.architecture.com/whats-on (Accessed 15.11.17).

exhibitions, members' events, lectures, seminars, conferences, book launches and publications. Each year architectural theorists and practitioners, writers, performing artists, musicians and art historians are invited to contribute to the programme.219

The Design Museum recruited its first public programme curator in 2017. Historically this activity had been managed by the learning team with a programme that consisted largely of talks given by designers featured in the exhibitions. The Design Museum’s public programme was designed to be an autonomous programme that brought together different voices to discuss the nature and role of design practice. Sumitra Upham is Curator of Public Programmes at the Design Museum, and a graduate of the MA programme in Curating Contemporary Design delivered with Kingston University. She has described her role as to work closely with exhibition curators to think about design in new and unexpected ways. She views the public programme as an extension of the exhibitions, extending content outside the exhibition through a talk or an intervention in the gallery space. The programme is an important means of generating research, promoting new ideas and examples of new work and practice.220

A further highly popular strand of public programming has been the evening and night-time events known as Lates which have become a feature of UK museums and galleries. The initiative derived from a decision taken by the Royal Academy (RA) in 1999 to open roundthe-clock on a single day only on the occasion of its exhibition, Monet in the 20th Century. The RA became the first British gallery to open for twenty-four hours. In 2001 the V&A started their Friday Lates programme and in 2005 other national museums followed suit and developed after-hours programming under the banner of Museums at Night, a

219

Architectural Association website. Available at: https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/PUBLIC/ WHATSON/whatson.php (Accessed 15.11.17).

Presentation by Sumitra Upham, Curator of Public Programmes at the Design

220 Museum, to MA CCD students at the Design Museum, 14 November 2017.

nation-wide festival forming part of the Campaign for Museums’ Museums and Galleries Month.221

The V&A Lates, originally curated by the V&A contemporary team, are designed to celebrate all aspects of contemporary visual culture and design in society, engaging audiences with leading and emerging artists and designers through live performance, film, installation, debate, DJs and late-night exhibition openings. The Lates are designed to provide something different to a daytime visit. A shared social experience and an element of theatrical experience mark out a successful after-hours event in a museum or gallery.

Fig. 19: Made in India, Friday Late at the V&A, 27 November 2015.

A report commissioned in 2018 by the Arts Council into the role of UK museum Lates highlighted them as a distinct strand of museum practice. The research demonstrated how the events enabled museums and galleries to reach untapped demand, creating new and increased income streams and attracting new audiences into their spaces. The report

221

See Museums at Night, Available at: http://museumsatnight.org.uk (Accessed 7.09.18).