By Zachary Hall
(Photos by Anthony Mead)

The term curation is surprisingly vague in its definition. And unlike writing that is illustrated by images, curating is unique in its relationship with viewing. “In curatorial work, we are using the artwork as a medium to create space,” offers Anthony Mead, curator at the Morlan Gallery on the campus of Transylvania University in Lexington. It’s in a space like Morlan Gallery where viewers can engage in a conversation begun by the artist and enriched by the curator.

On assignment from Undermain for a summer series exploring the work of the curators of Lexington, I recently sat down with Mead, who, in addition to serving as curator and manager for the gallery, teaches as a professor of printmaking and graphic design.

From a historical perspective, curation has been about the care and stewardship of artwork collected and commissioned by monarchs. In a contemporary sense, curation can refer to how we manicure our online personas—which pictures we decide to post, who we follow, and what we like. From these two definitions alone, we can see how broadly curation is defined. But what does it mean to be a curator in a professional sense?

Operating at the intersection of multiple disciplines, Mead defined curation as “inherently about conversation. It is inherently about relationships.” Mead defines art as something made with intention and empathy by humans, for humans. Simply put, in Mead’s world, art is the building block of curation and an inspiration for dialogue.

So often, many of us think of art-making as creative, while any work taking place in and around a gallery is something less than creative. Why are curation and art-making defined as mutually exclusive disciplines? Sure, we have the artist-curator, but what about the curator-artist? I asked Mead for his thoughts.

He began by telling me that he often invests a great deal of thought in the display of his own work. For Mead, the way a work is exhibited is as central to the ongoing life and identity of an art piece as the materials and processes that produced it. Mead reveals this same degree of thoughtfulness when it comes to selecting and exhibiting the work of other artists. “You can’t have the same redundant display over and over again. It becomes visually boring,” he insisted.

His aversion to a one-size-fits-all exhibition format is an expression of his own understanding of art-as-dialogue. When a work of art is exhibited, it is not just a simple exchange between artist and viewer. A curator must navigate between what the artist envisions, what the viewer expects and perceives, the parameters of the gallery space, and their own authorial voice. With all of these moving parts, curation can be a daunting task, but Mead views the work as an opportunity for creative problem-solving, collaboration, and learning.

In a time of online purchasing, social media, algorithmic content generation, and artificial intelligence, the values of collaboration and creative problem-solving seem to be endangered. With the ability to completely shape our world from the comfort of our own homes and with ready access to the internet, the work of the professional curator seems to be carried out by every person with a digital device.

I asked Mead whether he believed this was true. He paused briefly and chuckled, noting that while algorithms and artificial intelligence do put ideas together, they do not meaningfully situate ideas in the context of a larger discourse. Mead was also quick to point out that the primary goal of automated curation is to sell the user a good based on trends in their searches. Any automated system, therefore, robs the individual of the choice to engage in conversation and to gain and share knowledge, diminishing self-determination and trading choice for convenience. For curation to truly occur, you have to be intentional in what you select and present, whether that be the content of your bookshelf, your media feed, or an exhibition. “AI is good for systems-based tasks, but I don’t think curation is a systems-based task,” Mead said.

To press the point, he spoke of the first humans who created art. From the moment our ancestors began to create, they had to make choices about how they would present their work and what that would communicate to the world around them. One need only think of the images dotting the cave walls of Lascaux. For Mead, this choice is core to our identity as human beings. Curation is the exercise of our ability to choose, to make connections, and to draw others into conversation. Curation is an act of self-determination and, for Mead, it is more relevant now than ever.