as i begin to birth my ‘work of body‘ [site under construction!] art show/coming out party and such, some words have been showing up. when i first was deciding on what to call my role in the process, i went with curator, because i want to collaborate with other artists that are a part of the container that is my process. then i looked up the word in the dictionary and given it’s root “cure” i realized that there is a healing element to this process, which is both obvious and implicit. thus it was no surprise when talking with my therapist last week about my show and they were very clear about how some clients of theirs could benefit from seeing “the large container you are constructing, because they are in a very rigid place.” the very next day i was talking with a friend and potential collaborator and when i explained the etymology of curator, they asked me directly if this has been healing for me thus far. in terms of being able to integrate all that i am, i said, yes. and finally, a couple of days ago i was looking at last Sunday’s (March 27, 2016, p. 1, A new museum strives to tell the full African-American story.) NY Times’ cover story on the new National Museum of African American history, which opens this fall. i was struck by this sentence:
“As [current] events have complicated the museum’s original mission to be a ‘healing place,’ curators have rushed to catch up with history…”
first, they seem to imply that the mission of being a “healing place” is unique, original, or something this particular museum has on it’s agenda, rather than what a curator might be charged to do anyway: create healing places; and, second, ‘events’ and ‘history’ don’t complicate the ability to create healing: indeed what might be healing is the ability to integrate, deal with, understand (more about that word later, too!), to create a big enough container for, and so forth, the complications that life brings…