Curator as Collaborator: A Study of Collective Curatorial Practices in Contemporary Art

Abstract

This paper is excerpted from a practice-based research conducted between 2017 and 2018, in which I closely explored the collective curatorial practice at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University in Australia. I collaborated with more than twenty students, most of whom are international and graduate art students, to create collective contemporary art projects on RMIT University campus. In this article, I will introduce the student-led RMIT Curatorial Collective and present some examples of student-led contemporary art projects to examine the idea and operation of collective curatorial practice in the university’s common art and cultural space. These contemporary art projects articulate collective curatorial practice that interrogates the role of curator in facilitating creative collaborations as a ‘collaborator.’ I will highlight some of my curatorial experiences in contemporary art production, which provides insight into the collective curatorial process and investigates the characteristics of collective activities in the university’s creative environment.