Hello from Canada, and thank you for the invitation to contribute to this
discussion.

On curators and curatorship:
Check out the International Council of Museums (ICOM) website
http://icom.museum for definitions and codes of ethics that are expected to
determine the qualification of "traditional" curators, and govern their
work. The perception is generally that a curator is an academic, who
conducts research with a museum collection. Biologists, who work with the
fish in tanks at a zoo, are also curators by this definition. Albeit, the
definition dates from the mid 60's and doesn't reflect how the "title" has
been appropriated by those who organize exhibits independent of museums,
today.

My opinion on curating new media:
Working with new media isn't fundamentally different from curating exhibits
or collections of other media. I agree with Jemima, new media's biggest
promise is its interactive nature. New media, particularly work online, is
resulting in audiences greater and different from those that walk through
our doors. As artists explore new technologies and strategies, and create
hybrid media however, the nature of their "exhibition" necessitates close
collaboration with the artists. These projects are much more about
collaborative production, and are very different than the selection and
arrangement of say, paintings in a room. Overall the obligation to exhibit,
collect and conserve new media work is challenging as it is in addition to
sustaining "traditional" programming. It challenges resources, particularly
maintaining and replacing equipment, and sustaining technical expertise.

A little background on me:
I serve as the Curator of Exhibitions & Collections for the Surrey Art
Gallery, a regional contemporary art museum. I am responsible for
exhibitions, publications, a permanent collection and the operation of the
TechLab. I have been "curating" exhibits since 1986, for museums, galleries
and artist run centres. I think of my work as producing meaningful bridges
between audiences and art.

About the Surrey Art Gallery:
While we have built a reputation for supporting new media art and artists,
it is only one aspect of our overall operation. Surrey is a community of
350,000, located just under an hour from downtown Vancouver, British
Columbia. There is no other art gallery or artist run centre in our (mostly
agricultural) community. The Surrey Art Gallery focuses on art made since
1975, and provides a full range of typical museum programming. In 1999, in
anticipation of our first major exhibition exclusively devoted to digital
media artworks, we established a space, literally a Plexiglas enclave within
our exhibition hall, that we called a "media lab." The lab was equipped with
a variety of hardware and software, to support an artist in residence for
the production of a new work. It was our thinking that an artist present
within the gallery would serve two more functions: assist our visitors with
understanding the work on exhibit and educate staff within our institution,
to better anticipate future new media programming. The lab concept was a
success, for the public, the artist, and for our institution.

Because of the lab's success, and the vision Gallery staff and lab artists,
our recent facility redevelopment resulted in cable raceways throughout our
building, network access in every room, and the lab made into a permanent
facility with acoustic glass, walls and a high ceiling for the production
and presentation of new media art projects. We now maintain an ongoing
stream of "new media" projects as part of our programming, not only in the
lab (exhibits, residencies, projects www.surreytechlab.ca) but also within
our regular exhibit halls and education areas. Soon we hope for productions
in the Surrey Art Centre's two theatres www.arts.city.surrey.bc.ca. Our
building was envisioned to support any form of art practice. We attempt to
bridge between serving the desires of existing audiences (for traditional
media) and the desires of artists (to show challenging work).

We recently acquired a website as an artwork into our collection, as well as
a power point program. We're still working out licensing agreements for
presentation and platform migration. We have partnered on many new media
productions developed for exhibition, and have been generous with the loan
of our equipment to artists. Funding for new media programming from our
overall operations budget is in competition with all other Gallery projects.
A successful argument is dependent on the articulation of the project's
benefits. Content counts, far more than the "razzle dazzle" of the latest
technology. And we have found that artists are more than capable of
producing "plug and play" new media installations that can survive thousands
of visitors (even children).

Liane Davison