'Curating' in a new world?

Interesting article on the cover of this week’s SundayStyles section of the New York Times on how the “curating…has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to pass it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting.”   The article mentions ‘curators’ who run sneaker stores, flea market swap meets, consignment shops, music websites….  It’s such a sought-after moniker that the article mentions that serving as a guest curator of a design blog, craft fair or department store has become an honor.

It’s easy to write this off as a fad, but in the past few years that we’ve been talking about the concept of the public embracing the role of ‘curating’ their worlds outside the museum sphere, there are a few points that have been fun to kick around:

The obvious driver behind this is the continued acceleration of the internet.  Sure, some of us of a certain age may have made mix tapes in our younger years, but it’s a rather different ballgame when the depth and breadth of creative inputs are far greater than ever before, as is the potential to build a sizable following.  Simultaneously, in a digital world where we’re bombarded with inputs, there’s a real role that these new ‘curators’ fulfill.   Given that we don’t see the internet slowing down anytime soon, this shift clearly fits in our model for fundamental trends likely to continue rather than short-lived fads likely to fade away.

But perhaps a bigger driver behind this shift is that there’s a generation under 30 years old that’s simply far more likely to be wired this way.  That might mean they assume that the curators in their lives are their peers or strangers online…or they think of themselves as curators for their peers…or they view their digital time as a means to curate their own lives.  In part, it’s a logical extension of how young adults have always tried to separate themselves from prior generations.   But our museum audience research and our broader consumer research is pointing towards an entirely new level of generational separation.  The segment within this generation that we call “Extremely Creative Consumers” is a real force, dramatically reshaping the definition of creativity for themselves and those around them.   We’re pretty certain that this shift will end up as one of the defining characteristics of this generation of young adults, even as they progress through later life stages.  The folks at the AAM's Center for the Future of Museums have cleverly coined this as part of the "MyCulture" trend, and we view this as a real force that we're going to see play out for decades to come.

So here are a few interesting questions to ponder:

First:  Does the use (or overuse) of the word "curator" help or hurt museums?  We would argue it might be negative for museums that simply ignore this trend.  Likewise, acknowledging this trend could really help open up the eyes of the public about the role and value of the curating that museums do...but that might take some 'curating' of the work of curators to help audiences see more of how the curating work of museums really matters.

Second:  As more of the public (at least among younger audiences) redefine the role of curating in their lives, does this mean that museums will have to redefine that role as well?  While it’s highly unlikely that this trend gets to the point where we’ll see people mounting their own Calder or dinosaur exhibits from home, is there a way to help passionate amateurs engage more with museums?  We’ve seen some museums start to engage community groups to help curate exhibits or even ‘crowdsource’ some of the key decisions for an exhibit.  Will we see museums enlist amateur 'curators' to assist with online efforts?  Or will we see curators become a far more prominent public face of museums, where a younger audience that is increasingly migrating to a new type of curator can cultivate their passions someplace unexpected...like a museum?  (Any examples out there of where rethinking the role of curating is having positive -- or negative -- impact?)

Third:  We’ve seen in many fields how these shifts have decimated the role of the 'expert.'  The relevance of the editors at Britannica and the World Book has been completely blown to bits by the Wikipedians.  In many markets, for many subjects, the power of the newspaper editor has been usurped by bloggers.  One of the differentiating factors here is that museums deal with more than digitizable bits; there’s also a physical component that’s rather important to many out there. But it’s undeniable that we’re in the midst of a fundamental shift in public attitudes and expectations of the role of the ‘expert’ and their relevance in the lives of the audiences they serve.

A bit frightening…but also sort of exciting to think about ways museums can serve an audience that is increasingly hungry for curated work that enriches their lives.

As always, we look forward to the conversation…  Simply click on “comments” below (and if you are reading this from your e-mail subscription, go to our blog to comment).

Comments

[Clayton Drescher]

Interesting insight about the curating phenom from my local NPR affiliate
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/johnrabe/2009/10/05/jrblog-curateban/

[Paul Orselli]

It's goofy when Web notoriety/popularity gets confused with expertise --- to the point where anyone with Internet access can suddenly become an "expert". The overuse of terms like "curator" and "expert" cheapens their meaning and value.

Fortunately, as you mention in your post, almost all museums deal with real "stuff" that can't always be reduced to digital facsimiles devoid of context.

The challenge for museums is to continue to use ALL the tools available to them (including social media and Web tools) to work with their staff and their communities to share the compelling stories about their collections, programs, and exhibits --- not to hook up with bogus internet "experts" or fad pushers.

I'm not sure I'm ready to cede the role of curator (in my view someone with training and experience in a given field) to the person with the largest digital megaphone.

[James Chung, Reach Advisors]

Clayton, thanks for the link. Yes, overusage of the phrase is likely to lead to the demise of the 'trend' part of this, but the underlying issues are likely to persist.

Paul, yes, goofy is a really good way to say it. It's interesting, however, that the amateurs aren't using the phrase 'expert' but are embracing the phrase 'curator.' And that's part of the challenge for museums...how to navigate a fundamental redefinition of that phrase in the eyes of the public.

Couldn't agree more that the key challenge is about deploying all the tools available (both digital as you mention...as well as the previously unstated role of museum exhibit design) that bring to life the work of the museum's curating process to an expanding audience.

But here's a closing thought that I think blends both of our sentiments: Why can't museums use their existing platform to be the ones (instead of a random 'expert') to create the largest digital microphone to share their core knowledge with the audience looking for curated information outside the confines of museum walls? Some museums are already doing this brilliantly.

But how can museums fare better than newspapers, encyclopedias and other 'experts' of the past, beyond just having the physical element that Paul mentions? Museums have something that newspapers rarely had...public trust. Museums have something that encyclopedias never had...the ability to generate a personal connection. Even though the pressure from the changing landscape won't dissipate, if museums can harness these shifts for its own benefit while continuing to build trust and personal connection with its audience, I'm not expecting museums to suffer the same fate as the newspaper and encyclopedia publishers that thought this could never happen to them.

[Sheila Grinell]

This desire of under 30s to jump on-line and "curate" their lives is bound to suffuse all their occupations and preoccupations. Can Reach Advisors probe the implications for museums in future survey work? Thanks!

[James Chung, Reach Advisors]

Sheila, OK, first I had to admit that I had to look up the definition of "suffuse" (to spread over or through in the manner of fluid or light). Perfect definition for why this has caught our attention. We've been digging into this issue for some of our corporate clients since it's totally knocking them off balance, and it's now starting to pop up in preliminary examinations of museum audiences as well. This issue regarding the latest generation of young adults will definitely be on our agenda for future museum research that we hope to share with the field. One of the really interesting questions to ponder is what this will mean for children's museums and science museums as these young adults hit their peak parenting years? We live in interesting times...but times that could be rather productive for museums that figure out if they can harness any of these kinds of shifts productively.