Curator Michal Raz-Russo Visits!

Michal Raz-Russo, the Assistant Curator of the Department of Photography at the AIC, came to visit us in the studio today! She talked about her upcoming exhibition, Invisible Man: Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison in Harlem, which will present the artistic collaborations of Parks and Ellison and include photographs and texts that have never been publicly presented before.

We prepared for her visit by coming up with a short set of questions:

How did you become a curator?

Is curation time consuming? How much time does it take to gather information and what time is spent researching, organizing, etc.?

Where do you begin?

Which exhibit has been your favorite to curate?

What are the most important parts curation?

When you curate, is it always from a new source or do you use the AIC’s collection for reference?

Michal told us that this exhibition was born from a group of about 20 photos by Parks that were gifted to the AIC. While researching those photos, Michal came up with ideas for a larger project.She explained that it’s commonplace for the research concerning a small group of art objects to develop into big exhibitions.

In addition to giving us the inside scoop on her process gathering images, texts and information for the upcoming exhibition, she shared some funny stories about her experience as a curator and gave us some tips for curating our own shows.

Thanks for the visit, Michal!