Well, I didn't expect quite such a flurry of responses to my question,
which I didn't mean as news (well, duh!), but more something to spend a
moment musing on, but I'm glad to see it has turned towards a
consideration of the bigger picture in terms of media art and the
ghetto, and creative cultural industries as a whole...
On 26 Jan 2007, at 13:05, Chris Byrne wrote:
> Will we see the emergence of a Curator's Union?
> Chris
Interestingly there was talk of this in Canada half a decade or more
ago... in line with CARFAC (http://www.carfac.ca/) and the good work
they do setting national (minimum) standards for what artists should
get paid to show their work. I don't think the curatorial union was
ever fully realised (and it was for independent curators more than
institutional ones, whereas the lurker's lament was about institutional
undervaluing of curatorial networked knowledge in relation to employees
with certified skills).
Also, there's been a discussion on the University of Openess list
recently about an initiative by the London Development Agency / digital
cluster? to bring together people who work in the digital media sector
in relation to GPL and free and open source software... and the
discussion has thrown up lots of words like union, guild, and
membership.
And in the meantime, all across the UK new media art organisations seem
to be on a path to figure out how to forge new multi-faceted identities
which encompass the roles of advocacy, advising, networking artists and
opportunities, influencing policy, connecting with with higher
education and research agendas, developing better relationships with
the press/mainstream art world, commissioning market reports and
audience evaluation, making links to the commercial sector, etc. etc.
etc. I wonder still how we can promote better investment and reward
from in curatorial and technical knowledge. I think we all know that
once an organisation is up and running and being successful at what it
does, a greater share of its activities become concerned with its own
survival rather than its reinvention in response to developments in the
field (witness the museum)... I'm glad that some of these new media art
organisations (Node London? Digital North? Enter?) are trying to find
ways to avoid that trap, and would welcome reports from the field as to
strategies which work and those which don't.
sorry, it's late on a Friday and my thoughts are not entirely coherent.
sarah
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