Angelina Reid
10/4/25
Professor Doris Cacoilo
Towards a Curatorial Activism
Quote: "After even a cursory glance at art world statistics such as these, which are (sadly)
almost identical in every mainstream museum throughout the world, it is evident
that sexism and racism have become so insidiously woven into the institutional
fabric, language and logic of the mainstream art world that the inequities in
representation often go undetected."
Response: Sexism and racism are two harmful concepts that divide the world still to this day. Sexism is prejudice, discriminatory,& stereotypical towards their gender. This issue is still ongoing because of healthcare, abortion rights, economic stability, racial trauma, housing and wealth inequality, disparities in the justice system & ETC. Gender-based violence an everyday issue in America. LGBTQ+ community faces so many violent situations everyday just because of the way they express themselves; just because of the person that they are, people antagonize them, physical assault, unemployment issues, inequality & many more issues. Women are treated unfairly; such as unfair pay, sexual harassment, rape, motherhood penalty, racial profiling, & ETC. Men go through the same thing a lot of the times, they go through sexual harassment as well, stalking, unemployment issues, and both genders go through serious mental health issues because of everyday trauma that stems from these concepts. Racism is a barrier that is always in the way of America uniting together. Racism is discrimination, antagonism, disadvantaged, harassment, bullying, or degrading people based off the color of their skin or the community they come from. Racial is a huge division between the world because of police brutality, healthcare, housing & unemployment issues; more of the same issues that's sexism causes. This quote is factual & important because the main issue that's trying to be expressed from this quote is that racism & sexism was a huge problem back in the day & this issue is still a problem today!
Quote: "In 2OO4, when the Museum of Modern Art in New York City re-opened its greatly
expanded exhibition spaces, including a reinstallation of its permanent collection,
of the 41O works in the fourth and fifth floor galleries, only a paltry 16 artworks were
by women. That’s 4 per cent. And even less by artists of color. A recent dash
through the same galleries in 2OO9 revealed that little has changed, except that
now there is a room dedicated to feminist art."
Response: This quote caught my attention because on our first day of class, we talked a lot about the Gorilla Girls; we talked about injustices between women & people of color coming from white people, we mainly talked about how unfair the treatment was towards women & people of color. We also talked about the difference & similarities between art & activism. This quote mainly talks about how women are discriminated for attempting to get their beautiful artwork into museums, shows, events & ETC. I think its atrocious how women don't get the recognition or respect that they deserve for all of the hard work that's goes into their artwork, their protests, their comedy specials; their careers! The way women do their form of artwork is extremely unique! They deserve their flowers & their credit for all of the amazing pieces they've put on onto the world! This quote also has power & spreads awareness about the sexism that women experience in the art industry.
What Is Curatorial Activism?
Quote: “Curatorial Activism” is a term I use to designate the practice of organizing art exhibitions with the principle aim of ensuring that certain constituencies of artists are no longer ghettoized or excluded from the master narratives of art. It is a practice that commits itself to counter-hegemonic initiatives that give voice to those who have been historically silenced or omitted altogether—and, as such, focuses almost exclusively on work produced by women, artists of color, non-Euro-Americans, and/or queer artists.
Response: This quote introduces what Curatorial Activism is. Curatorial Activism means that people of color that are artists will be able to flourish through their hard work; they will be recognized & not stereotyped or stigmatized. Their work will be talked about all over America; their paintings will be in museums & events all around the world. Curatorial Activism also teaches new artists valuable history about people of color, women, as well as queer artists.
Quote: The racial demographics of the show were particularly disheartening, especially given the widespread vocal activism of groups such as Black Lives Matter: a mere 5 of the 120 artists were African American—just one of whom (Senga Nengudi) was a woman. To my knowledge, not one critic has yet noted these gross disparities.
Response: This quote talks about when black people go through police brutality, discrimination, racism, death threats, news channels, press, TMZ, do not show awareness to this issue. For example, Shanquella Robinson was a beautiful women of color; she was a businesswoman, hairstylist, founder of a woman's fashion clothing line, and a social media personality that was born & raised in Charlotte NC. This woman was brutally assaulted, alcohol poisoned by her friends that took her on a birthday trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She unfortunately, died on October 29th, this issue didn't get talked about until November. Most people around the world, found out about this through social media, mainly Instagram, there was a video of what happened to her starting to go viral on Instagram, & that's how the awareness started to be spread, not by the news. Not to mention, the feds didn't start to investigation until mid-November. This quote definitely reminded of that situation, & so many other unfortunate life threating situations that happened to black people, that are not talked about enough. Our issues are serious & real, they deserve recognition, so it brings awareness to other families that went through similar events.
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