Endowed Chairs
Curation Theory, Practice and Management Endowed Chair
Installation period
April 1, 2025 - March 31, 2028
Donor
Hiroyuki Maki
Overview
Originally, curators were responsible for “taking care” of the collections of museums and galleries. In the 20th century, however, the role of curators shifted to researching modern art, organizing and exhibiting it, and assuming responsibility for the museum system through the collection and exhibition of artworks. In the postwar period, curators added a diverse range of work to their portfolio, such as directing international art festivals and public projects, while the scope of their activities also extended outside the museum. Curators play the role of mediators between viewers and artworks, mainly by interpreting visual art, presenting it anew in accordance with these interpretations by connecting it to all kinds of phenomena and logic, and abstracting events that may be difficult to analyze, such as intellectual and emotional activities. In addition to producing exhibitions, curators are also involved in the construction and installation of museums, the production and collection of artworks, and the running of programs in partnership with local communities, creating places for the production of knowledge mediated by art, and becoming involved in the shaping of art history through these activities.
In particular, the term “curation” has increasingly been used in recent years to refer to activities that seek to organize and edit the information found on the internet in order to create new kinds of value. Companies are also now focusing their attention on the potential that lies in applying modes of thinking deployed by artists to create a suite of creative products and services. The general level of social interest in the kinds of value created not only by curation, but also art in general, has never been deeper. However, it must be conceded that theories of curation in the core field of art are still insufficiently developed for them to constitute a kind of body of common knowledge that might be applied to a wide variety of fields.
For this reason, this course seeks to establish the practice and management of curation in terms of theories that integrate art and corporate practice, by clarifying the modes of thinking and values espoused by the practice of curation and curators, and conducting further research on how theories are crystallized and become widely disseminated.
This course will be conducted by art professionals who have been active as curators for a long time, practitioners with management experience in corporate design departments, and researchers of cultural management theory. Through these connections, practical activities and research will be conducted, including research on artists, curators, and exhibitions, as well as how exhibitions and seminars both in Japan and abroad are produced.