Riposte Presents...
Curating Culture

6th April 2016

Last night we sat down at the Town Hall for our monthly Riposte Presents... event. This month our discussion was on 'Curating Culture' with an esteemed panel consisting of Ligaya Salazar, director and curator of the Fashion Space Gallery; Domino Pateman, festival
programmer for the Southbank Centre and WOW Festival; Jade Coles, events curator and cultural producer for Soho House; Christine Santa-Ana, Photography Curator/Of The Afternoon; and Linsey Young, curator at Tate Britain. We started the evening discussing what it means to curate or be a curator and how it has changed recently over the years. The conversation flowed throughout the night with topics including what it takes to be a great curator, how exhibitions and events require a different approach, diversity within the creative industries, understanding your audience and much more.

We also had some great questions from the audience, here’s an example:

What is the best way of approaching people to say yes to come and speak on your panel?

Domino:
“Good communication about what is it you want to be doing.”

Jade:
“Really understand what your idea is, for example, I got asked to help with a project/event and they gave a selection of four possible days it could be held on, instead know what you want and be precise. Plus, there is nothing worse than when someone emails and doesn’t actually know what my job is!”

The panel also left us with some great advice:

Linsey:
“I think practical experience is key. Do [events] in your flat and in small spaces… that means people will understand who you are.”

Ligaya:
“Work with people you like to work with and work with people you respect!" 

Christine:

"If you just start doing some exhibitions and you gain some sort of following you will get sponsorship because you have proof about your work and exhibitions. It sort of snowballs from there! There’s some spaces in Hackney too and charity spaces which you can hire for £100!”

See our twitter account for more quotes from the evening: @ripostemagazine. Thanks to our great panellists, everyone who came down yesterday, the Town Hall for hosting, Aesop for the gifts and our print sponsor CPI for their support. Join our mailing list to stay in the know with our upcoming events!

All photography by Lou Rolley.

You can follow the Riposte Presents events live via our Twitter using the hashtag #RipostePresents. Look out for the next one as we host one a month!