Kirsty Stopper is a student from MFA Curatorial Practice who has an interest in alternative green spaces. With a background in Digital Interaction Design Kirsty focuses on public facing immersive environments and how they can be used for education.
The role of a curator can be a complicated one to define, especially in the 21st century setting where, as a curator we are now expected to wear multiple hats and juggle tasks that demonstrate both pre and post new museology. In today’s world, curation as a profession is expanding and changing rapidly and so must the skills and abilities of curators. It no longer matches its mid-14th century definition of overseer, manager, or guardian but it more suits, and or fits, the role of producer, commissioner, exhibition planner, educator, manager, and organiser or all the above (George, 2015).
With this rapidly expanding perception of what a curator is it is only fair and right that we lend the same expectation for what we perceive as a curated space. Traditionally, we expect a curated space to fit into the genre of white cube, with a tidy, clean white aesthetic (Herbert, M. 2021) – think V&A or the Tate. However, what if we applied the same curatorial principles and methods that are used in a typical museum institution and apply them to a place, or a space, that is slightly wild, unpredictable, and always evolving, somewhere like a botanic garden? Well, this is what Kevin Frediani and his curatorial team at the University of Dundee Botanic Gardens are trying to achieve. The University of Dundee Botanic Garden is exploring a novel concept: where the curatorial direction seeks to utilise the garden as a canvas to foster emotional connections between people and the planet.
Garden As Canvas: A Curatorial Manual Based on University of Dundee Botanic Gardens is a manual of ever evolving research based on different curatorial approaches used by other institutions within Dundee to home in on the best possible way to curate the gardens. For example, decolonial approaches to botanic gardens and telling the hidden stories and how 21st century curation can aid in promoting the gardens to a wider audience.
Kirsty began her research while on her 10-week curatorial placement at the University of Dundee Botanic Gardens. She worked within an alternatively curated space exploring how the gardens can use the ethos of Garden As Canvas to combine education, research, and outreach opportunities to local communities these elements promote the ethos of thinking globally and acting locally.
Kirsty’s work is just one way The Botanic Garden team is integrating, research, learning and sharing as part of the Garden’s approach to cultural community development.
