In-Between Windowscapes. A Curator’s Perspective on Collaboration as Artistic Activation in Public Spaces

Abstract

This paper emphasizes that curatorial practice and site-specific art are essential aspects of the transition from artistic collaboration to collaborative curatorial practice and discovers the new potential of ‘curator as collaborator’ practice to cultivate community-based, collaborative and engaging cultural projects in public spaces. By examining the curatorial residency of my participation in Public Space 50 at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 2017, this portfolio investigates how I, as a curator, explore art curation locations and methods to enable students to actively work collaboratively to plan, facilitate and produce public art projects. It asks how to turn public spaces into laboratories; how can student artists work together in public space; how to empower a creative student community through artistic collaboration and how artistic activation can be developed among creative participators of different cultures and backgrounds?