Building on Tara McDowell’s (2016) understanding of the current 'post occupational condition', this practice-based thesis considers the agency of 'the curatorial' within the work of artists, curators and other cultural workers in the contemporary art field. This is developed from, but contrasts with, proposals that ‘the curatorial’ is an aspirational phenomenon in positive, yet often opaque, explanations; for example, ‘the curatorial’ as a form of philosophy, radical politics, critical thought or a gift.

Action research methods examine how structural and material conditions have been absorbed into my own curatorial practice. The thesis reveals drivers behind a desire to become more ‘curatorial’ that are linked to both the expansion of curatorial studies in postgraduate education, and the pressure — harnessed by creative industries policy — on individuals to formulate dynamic creative identities in order to self-generate work.

Two case studies - Chapter Thirteen and Curatorial Studio - are drawn from the breadth of my work as an ‘independent’ curator. They demonstrate new forms of cooperation that resist the pressure to compete within a field of low-paid and under-paid curatorial work. Proposed as 'emergent' forms rather than new institutional models, they adopt Raymond Williams’ (1977) understanding of the ‘emergent’ as a constant process of creating new meaning and values through cultural practices and social relations. As small ‘situated’ entities, these projects mirror the unsustainable working life of the ‘independent’ curator herself.

This thesis presents new understanding of international discourse on ‘the curatorial’ alongside analysis of the visual arts infrastructure in Scotland, to examine its influence on practice, institutional models and working conditions. It concludes that the present funding landscape gives preference to specific curatorial methods that are often out of sync with the challenges faced by the majority of those working in the sector today.

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