Curating Live Arts - by Dena Davida & Marc Pronovost & Véronique Hudon & Jane Gabriels (Paperback)

About the Book

"Situated at the crossroads of performance practice, museology, and cultural studies, live arts curation has grown in recent years to become a vibrant interdisciplinary project and a genuine global phenomenon. Curating Live Arts brings together bold and innovative essays from an international group of theorist-practitioners to pose vital questions, propose future visions, and survey the landscape of this rapidly evolving discipline. Reflecting the field's characteristic eclecticism, the writings assembled here offer practical and insightful investigations into the curation of theatre, dance, sound art, music, and other performance forms--not only in museums, but in community, site-specific, and time-based contexts, placing it at the forefront of contemporary dialogue and discourse"--

Book Synopsis

Situated at the crossroads of performance practice, museology, and cultural studies, live arts curation has grown in recent years to become a vibrant interdisciplinary project and a genuine global phenomenon. Curating Live Arts brings together bold and innovative essays from an international group of theorist-practitioners to pose vital questions, propose future visions, and survey the landscape of this rapidly evolving discipline. Reflecting the field's characteristic eclecticism, the writings assembled here offer practical and insightful investigations into the curation of theatre, dance, sound art, music, and other performance forms-not only in museums, but in community, site-specific, and time-based contexts, placing it at the forefront of contemporary dialogue and discourse.

Review Quotes

"The volume appears as an assemblage that is not immediately easy to approach, but precisely because of that, it is an extremely interesting polyphony that can illuminate our understanding of what we are talking about when we talk about curation today." - JRAI

"[This book] provides momentum for the evolution of research in the curation of performance, performing arts, theatre, music, and other media included in the live arts." - ESSE (European Journal for the Study of English)

"Anyone interested in the significance, purpose, or agenda of curating and curators in performing arts should read this book. The curators promoted here are not rock stars, they don't wear expensive designer clothing or hang out with celebrities, but they are deeply committed to their work, to the artists they work with, and to the communities they serve." - thINKingDANCE

"The outstanding group of researchers in this innovative book engage in a lucid flow of passion and creative power. Its narratives are drawn from experimental approaches grounded in their authors' rich lives. This anthology is comprised of unexpected revelations about curation that break the barriers of its canonic definitions, while remaining concerned with Beauty as a fundamental value and the live arts as a celebration of living." - Alma Salem, independent curator, Syria Sixth Space

"This is a rich, global compilation of pieces that explore issues of power, community, inclusiveness, belonging, aesthetics, history, embodiment, epistemology, and pedagogy, all within the context of performance and the live arts." - Nicole Stanton, Wesleyan University

"In seeking to reinvigorate one of the art world's most ubiquitous terms, Curating Live Arts both interrogates and celebrates the historical in tandem with new possibilities for intervention into the complex space between artists, arts workers, art projects, participants and audiences. It asks critical questions about the values, the sensibilities, and the preoccupations of curating the live arts, and includes writing from artists, curators, and activists working in politically urgent contexts far removed from the centres of 'high' art. This wide-ranging anthology makes an invaluable contribution to the complex aspirations of this ever-expanding field." - Sarah Miller, University of Wollongong

About the Author

Véronique Hudon is a researcher, author and curator of living arts whose work is situated in the space between gallery and stage. She is a PhD candidate in Arts studies and Practices at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She currently collaborates with several periodicals in the arts field.