Curation ~ Session two & Conclusion

The second session saw all of the students that missed the first session – therefore it was a very large group that bordered on problematic given the limitations of the space.

Exactly the same thing happened in the first room – a weighing up. Perhaps due to the success of the first session, we took the point were the students became relaxed enough to joke as a good sign to move on.

However in the next room it turned out that the humour was unfocused and that there was a tendency for things to get silly, without really exploring the issues.
It was the wrong dynamic for this lot, a reminder that in workshops a formula never works twice.

The third room was a surprise – although it was perhaps the least accessible set of images, the quieter students began to assert an interest in the idea of collection – because of this the group gels – ideas of collecting, and vernacular come pouring out. One student even admits to having a collection of  WW2 German bank statements, an admission that a few rooms ago would have been met with laughter – quite personal unguarded stuff begins to come out – this group are much more interested in the ‘meaning’ of what is portrayed with less of an emphasis on the formal aspects of the images.
Some very deep and satisfying conceptual discussions occur amongst a group that I would have not expected it from.

During this curation exercise the ‘exhibitions were  much more meaning based and literal than in the previous session – but this makes complete sense regarding the manner in which they engaged with the idea – rather than identifying formal aspects such as colour or linearity, this group organized work on the basis of gaze or ecological impact – as with the first group there was an underlying sophistication in the understanding of formal relationships between images, but these issues were not caught in the flow of discussion, instead a more journalistic concern with what was being said by the exhibition was explored.

Conclusion

Dealing with the issues surrounding the image, collection, exhibition and meaning was bound to be complex – these workshops found their own entry point into these subjects and developed them well, increasing knowledge and awareness – as well as making the link with curation as a profession that values these issues and makes them core skills on which to build a career.

Further workshops would ideally tackle the aspects of curation that didn’t arise organically from the group, so that the students would get a fuller understanding of all the associated concerns.

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Curation ~ session one

The first of the workshop sessions involved a smaller group than was originally expected – due to "unforeseen" exams.

In the first room of the show the discussion was extremely awkward, with everyone weighing each other up and getting an idea of what was expected – we took great pains to prove that any comment was valid and that every observation was a good one – by the time we left that room we were all laughing.

Subsequent rooms saw a very spirited banter – like when friends enjoy commenting on a corny film by adding dialogue – during this banter it was easy to emphasise when sophisticated concepts had been touched upon and turn them into features, reinforcing them and challenging the students to enlarge upon them.

During the curation exercise all of the students showed extremely sophisticated judgement and a deep consciousness of the dynamics of both images and the way they are juxtaposed.
These students grasped the formal aspects of imagery off their own back – even identifying the difference between picture plane and image.

The shows that were curated seemed to concentrate on composition. Colour as a unifying theme emerged unbidden – as did playing with the difference between looking "into" and "at" an image.

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The first curation workshops - a plan

There are many strange dynamics amongst workshop groups, it always takes a while to warm up, too rigid a plan can go horribly wrong, and the best experiences for all are to be had if everyone approaches the sessions as equals  – with schoolchildren this can be tricky, they are used to being the target of directed education, it can take them a while to realise that there is no ‘right or wrong’ in this situation and that their well honed avoidance techniques aren’t going to be needed.

Structure
The structure of the initial workshops placed an emphasis on the students themselves to decide: why they thought exhibitions happened, what a collection was, how they read images and sequences of images and what aspects of the exhibition influenced their reading of the work.

To begin with a very general, open ended discussion was encouraged where any comment was valued and elaborated upon – we made it clear that the group were defining their own rules for the subject. Whenever the subject  got close to a ‘traditional’ curatorial issue we would seed the discussion with tricks of the trade and watch the new information become normalised amongst the group. The discussion was very lively, and familiar – it became clear that the students were extremely sophisticated in the way that they analysed the visual, and had very clear opinions – that they were fully accustomed to critique, but had not seen it as having a constructive value. As they became aware that their familiar banter about what they are looking at was one of the main skills of the curator, the creative development of the subject took off. 

We purposefully allowed a good amount of time to relax into a flowing discussion, like any family gathered around a T.V. set might, with orchestration this chat covered such complex concepts as the flow of the eye into an image, the significator in an image and the way it varies between people, the form and the content of the photograph, implied narratives across unrelated images, the idea of a conscious collection and an inadvertent collection and how significances change within a collection.

By the time the discussions ended most of the students felt sufficient ownership of the subject to curate a collection for themselves – the next part of the workshop.

The students were presented with a very large number of random unrelated images ranging from a few classic art prints, through fairly ordinary stock photos of ‘interesting items’, to the discarded snaps from old rolls of film.

In small groups they were asked to select an unspecified number of images that made some (if any) sense to them and construct a quick exhibition on blank wall spaces in the gallery – adding, removing or changing images as they saw necessary – negotiating amongst themselves for agreement on what should be placed where.

Finaly the entire group was toured around these ‘new exhibitions’ and the creators were asked to explain their reasoning, this was followed with discussion and critique in a similar way to our exploration of the original show.

I should add that throughout the process an emphasis was laid on the quality of exploration rather than the slickness of the display skills, we all understood that this was an exhibition in principal, notes for an exhibition.

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Curation ~ The skill and specialism of display.

Now that Longhill High School has a gallery there is a clear need to develop the skills and expertise required to make the most of it.

During the course of discussions with Lisa Finch at Fabrica it was decided to form a project in collaboration with LCP (Landscape Cities People) - a project that would allow students from Longhill to gain from Fabrica’s expertise as a successful international gallery.

For me this was a defining moment, we had wandered into the field of the curator and I suddenly realised that I had never heard of the subject being dealt with in school at all.
We would all be surprised if a school didn’t do ‘Art’ but we often take it to mean ‘making’ - when you consider that potentially more people make a living from curation, in one form or another, than do through making art, it seemed amazing that this seemed so radical.

As is always the case when you can suddenly see the whole picture, the birth of curator workshops in school seems like a necessity, rather than an experiment (perhaps for staff too).

Two initial workshops were arranged at Fabrica, to test the water with the students involved in the original discovery.
We were incredibly lucky to have stumbled across the notion of exploring curatorial skills at the same time as the photo biennial here in Brighton – even more so because Fabrica, our partner was host to an exhibition curated by Martin Parr the photographer called ‘House of the Vernacular’.

The exhibition consists of seven collections of vernacular photographs housed in a constructed environment of seven theatrically themed rooms. Each of the collections has a common subject or function, such as commercial images of litter bins, men wearing hats in Bogota, or dictators private jet interiors. In addition each collection has originated from outside of the ‘Art Photograph’ industry, some are found snapshots, some studio work, others collected for publication.

Being at Fabrica the exhibition has been wonderfully supported with all sorts of investigations, discussions and related events, the staff and volunteers continually discuss aspects of the show, exploring with professional interest (it is an artist led gallery)  - against this background I felt more than confident that we could approach ideas of curation with an open mind and let the students find the meat of the subject.

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How the curation project was born

Longhill High school, in conjunction with Fabrica Gallery, LCP and Creative Partnerships has begun the first steps in a ground breaking initiative that will perhaps change the way we consider both school environments and the students relationship with the display of work.

Until now most schools, almost purposefully present a clinical institutionalised environment for the staff and students to operate within. In many cases it is difficult to identify the difference between a public hospital, government office or a school – except perhaps by the types of warning messages that are displayed.

Images of corridors - hospital, childrens home, 2 prisons, 2 schools (final shot is longhill)

 

This Spartan approach to the interiors of schools appears to have come about by default, rather than through any considered strategy, as if a puritan rejection of all things decorative will in some way by default lead to an improvement in the learning environment. This attitude is one that has been questioned and found lacking, to good effect in some more enlightened workplaces. Bearing in mind that school is where life skills are gained and attitudes are first formed, it seems even more crucial that an awareness of the effects of environment and context are considered, and acted upon for the benefit of schoolchildren in the short term, and society in general in the longer term.

At Longhill High School the students themselves identified the issue of the dismal environment in schools almost by accident, during a detour from a project to refurbish a newly covered playground. We decided to follow the detour for a while and look into the question of display throughout the school, what it brought to the learning environment and students attitudes to it.

In part, responses to the quality and content of the schools display strategy, or lack of it, were influenced by a single new occurrence in the school. A new year 11 canteen had been built, it was furnished with modern well designed and interesting furniture and fittings, the walls were painted in colours and there were several posters framed upon the walls.
Without exception the students recognised this room as one that confirmed their maturity, aesthetic intelligence and more realistically portrayed the world they occupied outside of school. Even those who were not yet old enough to enter the canteen recognised the enlightening effect it had on the school just by its presence. One student even noticed that the time seemed less oppressive on a blue faced clock, than on the standard uniform white ones.
But the factor that was to give us most food for thought were the posters, these where A0 art prints that you might find in a print gallery, and were carefully chosen to have broad appeal, yet without referring directly to anything that smacked of curriculum.

These prints triggered a student led critique of the rest of the schools imagery and displays, one that was eye-opening, if a little brutal at times.
Briefly, the key observations on the school as a whole were:

  • Existing display is limited to a variety of  large soft-board panels fixed to the walls around the corridors.
  • Display panels are shoddy and untidy – some are decorated with church fete like signage and frills.
  • Staff attempts to ‘brighten up’ display boards are reminiscent of kindergarten (primary colours, clipart cartoons etc).
  • Only schoolwork is ever displayed on them – often for so long no-one remembers who did the work.
  • Students work, unless of an exceptional standard, never sets as high aspirational goals as professional images/displays would.
  • Other students work is more often annoying or embarrassing than interesting.
  • Essays make appallingly dull display (text in general too).
  • Staff seem to feel obliged to represent curriculum subjects on display boards, but are seldom creative about it (portraits of great men).
  • Some staff cannot produce displays that match the visual literacy of the majority of students.


Some students felt the display boards were actually aimed at parents and visitors – to demonstrate the standard of work expected by staff, rather than to inspire and stimulate students on a daily basis.

There was minimal need for active notice boards, for timetabling notices etc, what space remained was generally dealt with poorly.

Classrooms however were felt to be much better considered as environments for learning, and that many teachers created interesting and inspiring rooms.

Corridors were often treated as a sort of no-mans-land of un-adopted passageways between subjects, yet these are the spaces students inhabit between subjects.

The result of these rather unexpected discoveries is that Longhill High School is developing a strategy to address display within the schools corridors. This strategy is experimental, it approaches how display is achieved in the school from two directions:

  1. Physical issues – the design and location of display sites. The effect on the common-ways of new display areas and strategies.
  2. Practical issues – the skill and specialism of providing excellent displays and understanding its impact.


The Design & location of display sites.
As part of the Creative Partnerships Change Schools Project the students developed an innovative strategy for making the schools display more intriguing and professional.
All existing soft-board ‘notice-boards were removed, and during the summer refit a large number of lockable clip frames were installed.
These new frames were arranged in all corridors and stairways in sequences more like a galleries display than the old ‘scout-hut’ approach.
The frames themselves can be loaded from the front, covered with a non-reflective ‘glass’ and locked, giving the appearance of a framed work.

The school has now got its own extensive, 300 frame gallery, in what not so long ago was clinical corridor ...

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