This paper was delivered as the introduction to the 'Detours Discussion' and was intended to open out for the audience the curatorial questions behind the symposium.
Programmed as part of a broader ambition to develop a critical awareness of the diverse models for art institutions in the 21st Century operating within a wide range of contexts including: cultural, political, social context and, importantly, geographical location or place, this symposium aimed to form a dialogue about how, through creative programming, curators and organizations can take audiences on a journey that enhances their understanding of artists and artwork; whether that be within urban centres, or more remote or rural locations. As an integral part of that discussion, the collaborative partners were interested in a discussion about the relationship of place to curatorial practice and institutional forms.
The symposium aimed to address the following questions:
What exactly are we including or excluding by our use of the word ‘place’?
How and to what extent does the particular energy of a specific artistic community in a place determine what curators do, and shape the institutions within in it?
Is it appropriate or relevant today to imagine that a programme can instill change in a given context?
Or
Is an over-attention to context a constraint to creative programming?
Two further questions were of broad concern:
What are the current innovative models for curators working – locally, nationally, and internationally - with artists at the highest level? And,
What are the future possibilities for visual arts organizations who wish to sustain a profile within the international art scene at the same time as addressing the needs of its local community and wider audiences?
Selected speakers with international experience at the highest level were selected to contribute to the symposium.