Participatory Curatorship: A Collaborative Project Between a Museum and a School in Spain
Collaborations between museums and schools in Spain rarely position schools as active agents in shaping exhibition narratives. This article examines Under[re]construction, a participatory curatorial project developed in 2016 through a collaboration between the Museo Patio Herreriano of Spanish Conte...
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| Udgivet i: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/midas, |
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Anglais |
| Udgivet: |
MIDAS
2026
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| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | Collaborations between museums and schools in Spain rarely position schools as active agents in shaping exhibition narratives. This article examines Under[re]construction, a participatory curatorial project developed in 2016 through a collaboration between the Museo Patio Herreriano of Spanish Contemporary Art and the Safa-Grial School in Valladolid. In this experience, a group of Year 13 students replaced the conventional study of Art History with the design and production of an exhibition based on works from the museum’s permanent collection. Drawing on an autoethnographic approach, the authors – the museum’s Education Coordinator and the school’s Art History teacher – reconstruct the design, negotiation and implementation of the project from their dual perspective as both facilitators and researchers, while also incorporating the students’ voices. The students selected the artworks, investigated their contexts of production, meanings and aesthetic dimensions, and designed mediation resources for museum visitors. Direct participation in curatorial processes fostered a more nuanced understanding of contemporary art and a broader appreciation of the museum’s social role. It also enabled students to assume an active role in the interpretation and communication of the artworks. The experience demonstrates the potential of a shared curatorial practice between museum and school, in which students and teachers collaborate as equal partners in shaping exhibition narratives. It also highlights the value of arts-based research as a framework for documenting and interpreting collaborative processes of this kind. |
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