mopop’s guest curator program

MoPOP’s Guest Curator Program highlights emerging curators and voices, providing insights into exhibition creation, development, and final installation. Guest curators receive hands-on experience working with MoPOP’s Curatorial, Collections, and Exhibits teams while sharing valuable new perspectives and interpretations of MoPOP’s permanent and oral history collections. Supporting emerging curators is vital to infusing fresh perspectives here at MoPOP. The contributions of emerging curators invigorate the museum field, making it more inclusive, innovative, and reflective of the ever-changing landscape of popular culture.

Program Timeline:

Interviews: June 2024

Guest Curator Start Date: July 29, 2024

Install Date: March 2025

Program Goals:

• Support emerging professionals in curatorial and exhibition museum fields.
• Provide hands-on learning in exhibition creation, curation, design, and marketing.
• Create a responsive space to address contemporary pop culture.
• Showcase new voices and diverse narratives.
• Utilize MoPOP Permanent Collection objects and oral histories for public accessibility.
• Facilitate collaborative growth with Guest Curator and MoPOP staff.
• Provide teachable moments for MoPOP with new ways to see the permanent collection—and its strengths and weaknesses.

Program Outline:

Guest Curators works closely with MoPOP Collections and Curatorial staff to select objects and oral histories from the MoPOP Permanent Collection to create a mini-exhibition on the topic(s) of their choosing. Curators create the exhibition text and any audio/visual components in their own curatorial voice. The exhibition can be related to existing exhibitions, programs or contain standalone content. Working closely with MoPOP Curators and Collections, the Guest Curator creates layouts for their casework with opportunities to learn more about mounting and exhibition floorplan creation. They are provided with hands-on installation experience as well as the chance to work closely with MoPOP Design and Marketing teams. Location: Approximately 262 square feet of space, a section of the Massive: Power of Pop Culture exhibit.

Core Responsibilities:

• Develop, research, and curate an exhibition including:
• Artifact selection.
• Exhibition text and interpretation creation.
• Curate the selection and interpretation of artifacts.
• Engage with museum visitors, offering insights into the exhibition.
• Work with MoPOP Marketing to create a blog post and social media content promoting the exhibition. And participate in public programs, lectures, press, and panel discussions as opportunities arise.