The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
Questions of Practice: What Makes a Great Exhibition?
With contributions by Glenn Adamson, Paola Antonelli with Bennett Simpson, Carlos Basualdo, Iwona Blazwick, Lynne Cooke, Thelma Golden with Glenn Ligon, Mary Jane Jacob, Jeffrey Kipnis, Paula Marincola, Detlef Mertins, Mark Nash, Ralph Rugoff, Ingrid Schaffner, Robert Storr
Rising attendance at museums and megashows plus increased press coverage in the age of the international biennial and blockbuster have translated into a growing interest in how exhibitions are made. The new art histories and the curatorial studies programs springing up across North America and Europe often deal with theoretical issues, yet one of the central questions of curatorial practice frequently remains unstated: What makes a exhibition great? In this book, 14 essays by active curators and historians address the issue head on. Their perspective on realizing high ideals in the face of budget constraints and various, sometimes conflicting, institutional and public imperatives provide pragmatic examples of thinking by doing and ways to address the public through that central nexus of art and audience: the exhibition.
This volume aims to stimulate thought about how overarching issues meet-on-the-ground practicalities. What Makes a Great Exhibition? is vital reading for arts professionals, art and curatorial studies students, art historians, practicing artists, and anyone curious about exhibition-making today.
What Makes a Great Exhibition? is available through Reaktion Books, London and University of Chicago Press.