Following the reflections on last week’s curatorial practice, I began to reconsider the exhibition not only as a spatial and visual structure, but as a public-oriented platform shaped by its audience. While previous research focused on narrative, media, and spatial control, this week shifts attention toward who the exhibition is for, and how engagement can be extended beyond viewing.
Defining the Target Audience
Reflecting on the experience of JIJU Collective, I realised that without clear outreach strategies, the audience may remain limited to existing social networks. Therefore, audience is not a passive category but something that must be actively constructed through curatorial planning.
Given that the exhibition focuses on mythical animals, cultural narratives, and power structures, the audience is divided into children and adults. Children are included because myths shape early cultural understanding and they are naturally drawn to mythical animals. Adult audiences include students, researchers, and visitors interested in contemporary art, cross-cultural narratives, and immersive experiences.
Public Programme as an Extension of Curation
Based on this, I began to consider public programmes as an extension of the exhibition rather than a supplementary component. Proposed activities include the following:
First, an artist talk with Eryao, focusing on the transformation of traditional narratives in contemporary practice. This event targets adult audiences, including students, researchers, and visitors interested in contemporary art. It is planned as a 60–90 minute session, combining an artist presentation with a moderated discussion and Q&A. Scheduled during evenings or weekends, it accommodates working audiences, with a capacity of 20–30 participants to support focused interaction. Light refreshments may be provided to encourage sustained engagement. （加入适合summerhall的什么场合举办）
Secondly, a shadow puppetry workshop, engaging participants with both material and performative aspects of the medium. Aimed particularly at children and families, but open to all, the workshop lasts around 2 hours, including introduction, making simple figures, and a short performance. It is scheduled during weekends or daytime, with 15–20 participants per session to ensure guidance and access to materials. （加入适合summerhall的什么场合举办）
Third, reading or discussion sessions on myth and contemporary culture, creating a reflective space for engagement. These 60 minutes sessions target adult audiences interested in theory and curatorial practice, with 10–15 participants to support in-depth discussion. Short texts are provided to enable accessible yet critical participation. （加入适合summerhall的什么场合举办）
Together, these programmes extend the exhibition from a visual encounter into a temporal and social platform.
Hi Luosijie, good to see you are posting, make sure you do so for all 13 weeks. Across your posts, check for correct language/terms by looking at how they used in context, in Week 7 for example, you have ‘Understanding enforceability from cases’, do you mean logistics, or feasibility? Enforceability is not the right term. In Week 8 you refer to ‘generation mechanism’ it is not clear what you mean, where have you seen such a term being used as a method/approach? I think you likely haven’t and need another term.
It is good in Week 7 to see you reference an exhibition, but give all the key info needed ‘Disappearance at Sea” of the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art’ when, curated by who? Key artists that demonstrate your point about mixed career stages?
Statements need depth of evidence. Same in Week 9 ‘the exhibition of Talbot Rice Gallery’ which one, curated by who etc.?
You spend most of the post in Week 7 talking about whether not to curate ‘famous artists’ but miss the key question/concern to discuss: the fact that emerging curators feed the curatorial field. Go back to Week 2 to look at discussion of this in comparative texts, from there it has been a thread that has been developed throughout the course. It is crucial to demonstrate that you understand the relationship between practical and conceptual concerns is thoroughly entwined in curating. This is relevant to Week 10, which is largely descriptive, but also needs tp critically address the challenges of visibility and agency emerging curators (or event visual arts) face: https://artmeetsculture.substack.com/p/the-curators-shaping-contemporary
https://callforcurators.com/blog/a-curators-digital-toolkit-strategies-for-visibility-and-engagement/
When in Week 8 you introduce Song Weiran, give context of who they are so you ‘tell the story’ to your readers. You discuss power but need to give research references to support this, eg agency/power featured in discussion of ethics, it came up in archives week in terms of how histories are made, in featured in relation to ‘publics and public programmes’, it features in many texts on curatorial agency from the course reading list. Or add independent research references, ideally both. In Week 9 you mention Kiki Smith, again, who are they? Quote from their artist website. You are looking to tell the story of their work and its fit with your ideas. Week 9 needs research references on exhibition design and the features you mention
(and ideally exhibition practices) eg https://www.on-curating.org/issue-55-reader/transdisciplinary-curation-in-the-performing-arts.html
Does your Blog as a whole weave together to form a portfolio, that develops threads and lines of enquiries, narratives/themes, from across your practice and research across the course and which adds new relevant content each week on the SICP and Collective? How are you consistently demonstrating you are engaging with course content from different weeks, and synthesising/connecting it to form new applications and insights?