Shelly Rosenblum

Curating Critical Pedagogies

Our Roundtable will examine the pedagogical role of the academic art gallery. Situated within the university, the campus gallery is understood as an ideal space for experiments in curating that foster critical practice. However, since the 1990s, curators and artists have increasingly employed pedagogical models in an effort to operate self-critically and to connect with larger socio-political concerns. This “educational turn” in curating often includes the use of open educational models as exhibition platforms that invite public engagement. As educational practice is increasingly mobilized in contemporary art exhibitions, one is left wondering: What are the best practices in curating and how should the academic gallery situate itself within this context?

We will gather international artists, curators, critics and educators to critically examine the use of experimental educational formats in the practice of art and curating. By challenging the standard framing and mediation of artworks, these programs are an attempt to critique the politics of artistic production and circulation that is increasingly determined by the market.

Roundtable questions include, “What is the relationship between critique and the institution? Can the gallery serve as a site of critical and discursive practice? What does it mean to operate self-reflexively? Can one contest the institution, such as the university or museum, by occupying it differently? How are publics perceived and produced through artistic models of engagement?” These questions will be explored by practitioners working in a range of institutions whose practices engage alternative models of pedagogical engagement.