Summative Peer Review of Yuwei Ruan

Most of your blog posts establish a connection to the course content. This effectively demonstrates how you integrate theoretical concepts from the course with practical experience. However, you could analyse more specifically how course ideas shaped your curatorial decisions.

Your Curatorial Pitch has a clear framework, but it would be stronger with specific artists and works.

Suggestions on the Overall Logic

Your blog posts lack coherence. I find it difficult to see how this content helps you make progress on your personal project. I suggest you give each post a title; currently, none of your posts have titles, which makes it hard for readers to quickly grasp the main point of each one.

You can establish deeper connections between your blog posts, which helps readers see the evolution of your thinking. For example, there is a clear contradiction between your Week 3 and Week 4 posts. In Week 3, you mentioned that you did not want to adopt a traditional exhibition model, preferring instead educational and process-oriented formats. However, in your Week 4 blog post, you stated that you hoped to develop the exhibition into a “traditional offline exhibition.” It would be helpful to clarify what “traditional” means here and what led to this shift. This contradiction lends itself well to critical reflection and will also deepen the connections between your blog posts.

ICI’s do it (in school) (2019) could help you understand exhibition formats that prioritise education and process, as it uses artist instructions and audience participation to turn exhibition-making into learning, practice and co-creation.

Currently, your blog is only updated through Week 6. For Weeks 7–13, I suggest focusing more directly on your personal project.

Suggestions on Content

Weeks 1 and 2 cover many topics, so the analysis feels broad. You could focus on one or two points and integrate theory more clearly with your own project. For example, you mentioned “collective work”; you could further reflect on the clashes of ideas that arose during collective discussions, how disagreements were resolved, and what curatorial ethics this involves (Schuppert, 2021). You could also explain what you gained from this collaborative approach and how it has influenced your personal project.

Your references are useful, but they appear only in the final bibliography. Since they are not cited within the text, your argument becomes less persuasive.

Reading Experience

Including some images would make your content even more compelling. For example, since you mentioned that Summerhall’s venue characteristics align well with your exhibition theme, adding photos of the venue or a floor plan would provide a more visual explanation of why you chose this location.

Additional Recommendations

Your topic is valuable and could be supported by further exhibitions and literature. The 2022 exhibition Eternally Yours in London is very similar to your theme, as it explores repair and reuse. I suggest incorporating a public engagement project, as this can help expand the scope of your exhibition (O’Neill and Wilson, 2010, p. 12). Lee Mingwei’s The Mending Project can serve as a reference. Additionally, philosopher Elizabeth V. Spelman’s Repair: The Impulse to Restore in a Fragile World (2003) can help you explore the concept of “repair” from ethical and social perspectives.

 

Bibliography：

Independent Curators International (2019) do it (in school). Available at: https://curatorsintl.org/records/3586-do-it-in-school (Accessed: 26 April 2026).

O’Neill, P. & Wilson, M. (2010) Curating and the educational turn. London: Open Editions.

Schuppert, M. (2021) Learning to Say No, the Ethics of Artist-Curator Relationships. Philosophies (Basel). [Online] 6 (1), 16.

Somerset House (2022) Eternally Yours [exhibition]. Terrace Rooms, South Wing, Somerset House, London, 16 June–25 September. Available at: https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/eternally-yours (Accessed: 26 April 2026).

Spelman, E. V. (2003) Repair : the impulse to restore in a fragile world. Boston: Beacon Press.