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I feel like a growing number of curators today, myself included, are also artists and begin curating exhibitions as part of an experiential trajectory—an extension of studio-based practices, collaborations with other artists, involvement in arts admin day jobs, and so on—as opposed to the more traditional career paths of museum and art history graduate studies. Consequently, many times the role of curator has come to occupy a more community based, participatory, DIY, hands-on approach. |
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Courtesy of Ground Arts.
I moved to New York after finishing my bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Education. I started working in galleries and as an artist assistant, took night classes at nearly every art school, and painted out of my apartment in between. I didn’t know anyone when I moved here, and took advantage of the opportunity to see work in person, spending all of my free time visiting exhibitions. Eventually I put together a show for an artist I was working for. I then arranged a group show for some friends, and kind of fell into curating.
I feel like a growing number of curators today, myself included, are also artists and begin curating exhibitions as part of an experiential trajectory—an extension of studio-based practices, collaborations with other artists, involvement in arts admin day jobs, and so on—as opposed to the more traditional career paths of museum and art history graduate studies. Consequently, many times the role of curator has come to occupy a more community based, participatory, DIY, hands-on approach.
This kind of community driven attitude led me to start Ground Arts with my partner, Kevin O’Hanlon. We wanted to do something that connected artists both to each other through exhibitions, and to a common aim to preserve the future of the arts in places that cannot normally afford to sustain such programs. We team up with two organizations per year that support the mission of helping children through the arts. This coming year we will be teaming up with Art Start (in New York City), and the Bengal Foundation (in Bangladesh). Our upcoming collaborative project for this season is with Art Start, an organization that provides a range of art programs for at-risk teens and children in homeless shelters.
Courtesy of Ground Arts.
Right now at Ground Arts we produce eight short-run exhibitions a year at the project space in Chelsea, with programs running alongside them including artist and curator talks, quarterly publications, exhibition catalogues, and artist interviews focusing on studio practice through our sister project Studio Spoken. We are also planning a series of “one night only” exhibitions where artists can sponsor a particular cause. We additionally host a bi-annual fundraiser exhibition where children’s work is exhibited with work from artists in the area.
Currently, as people working in the arts, we are offered the opportunity to rethink and revisit awareness and understanding of the relationship between collaboration, social consciousness, and art. Much of our presence year round is actually not in the physical space of the gallery, but online. I want to connect with people outside of Chelsea, outside of New York; technology makes this possible. Through creating and collaborating, there is the unique power to inform, transform, disrupt, and destabilize the viewer’s conventional perceptions of the world. Creativity is a valuable currency. Artists and the public (not just art enthusiasts) should be involved in some kind of conversation. Technology and social media make this very easy to do. The future of the arts should be important to everyone, and for everyone.
Ground Arts is a not for profit organization and art initiative hosting exhibitions and building art programs around the world for underprivileged children. Ground Arts’ home base and project space is located at 508-526 W26th Street, 9E/9F in the West Chelsea Arts Building in New York City. All Ground profits are used to assist schools around the world to build art programs.
