English Version
Back in France on the exchange program, I went to see the last show of its kind
at the Centre Pompidou until it was closed for renovation – Wolfgang Tillman's
"Nothing Could Have Prepared Us — Everything Could Have Prepared Us". Tillman
transformed the Centre Pompidou's 6,000-square-meter space for public information
library, displaying 500 pieces in a sense of visual collection, mixed with the library’s
metal shelves, walls, and display cases. The exhibition let me see that curating works
are not simply "stuffing into a 'white box'." The line all visitors should pass, the space
has brought, and the way that works arranged are also a way of curatorial language.
Through my undergraduate study of art history, theory, and arts management, as
well as the exchange experience in France, I slowly developed an interest in
researching how art museums establish an interactive relationship with their audience.
The two projects below reflect my research and work on respectively the
technological aspect and the emotional aspect of this interactive relationship.
In an English-language group research project on participatory strategies in Paris
museums, I served as the principal writer. When defining the inquiry, I moved beyond
describing how VR, touchscreens, and immersive projection enhanced the visitor
experience and focused on a managerial question: why do museums adopt these
technologies, and how do they judge their effectiveness? To make this question
researchable, I helped develop a qualitative framework and compared field
observations, documents, and interviews from twelve institutions across four
dimensions: project objectives, target audiences, implementation conditions, and
evaluation practices. Because the institutions disclosed information in inconsistent
formats, I closely analysed materials from five museums and used the gaps in
evidence to refine our semi-structured interview guide, allowing otherwise
fragmented data to support cross-case comparison. I then integrated the analysis into
the report's English argument and took the lead in drafting the twenty-page paper. The
project strengthened my ability to formulate management questions from cultural
phenomena, translate abstract concerns into comparable analytical dimensions, and
construct a reasoned argument from incomplete evidence.
As a core member of the team behind An Unfinished Poem: One Hundred Proposals
for a Mother’s Life at Shanghai Biyun Art Museum, I was mainly responsible for
coordinating the curatorial content across different stages of implementation. I
observed that exhibitions about motherhood often centre on sacrifice, maternal love,
and parent-child relationships, leaving little room for mothers’ experiences as
independent individuals. I therefore proposed reframing the exhibition around the idea
of the mother as a creator and worked to translate this concept into specific content.
The exhibition labels introduced each mother by name and identity before using
concrete experiences to present her interests and unrealised aspirations, avoiding
generalisations such as “great” or “selfless.” As the submissions included photographs,
objects, and letters, I reviewed the submission criteria, exhibition texts, and visual
language to ensure that they remained consistent with the central theme, while
coordinating responsibilities and deadlines among team members. I also proposed
maintaining an evolving submission area where visitors’ stories could become part of
the formal display. Through this process, I learned how to turn a curatorial position
into standards that a team could apply consistently, keeping the content, visual design,
communications, and on-site presentation aligned. It strengthened my ability to build
consensus, coordinate interdependent work, and move a cultural project from concept
to delivery.
Through my undergraduate theoretical learning and curatorial experiences, I hope to
further study on curating and public education based on audience participation, and
explore how the design of the exhibitions and the activities of workshops can make
visitors from different backgrounds participate in and understand the exhibitions more
actively. I have also gradually formed a clear direction of my career plan, which is to
engage in public education and program management in art museums or cultural
organizations.
To this end, I need to carry out more systematic training on curatorial methodology
and design of public programs. I believe that the MA in Arts Management of CUHK
is an appropriate venue for this kind of training. Its teaching in exhibition space
design and audience experience in Exhibition and Curatorial Studies course can help
me construct a framework for analyzing and anticipating the space layout and visitor
flow and the effectiveness of display. Through the Arts and Communities course, I
could further learn about the design of educational activities for visitors, thus
furthering the participation in and dialogue of sustained participation and activities of
visitors. After graduation, I plan to embark on the working position of the program
planning assistant in the department of public education and gradually develop as a
cultural worker who is capable of independently planning public education programs.