Art collections are not neutral repositories; rather, they actively contribute to the production of systems of knowledge. Decisions regarding what is included in a collection, how and where holdings are organized, preserved, catalogued, and made accessible, have profound influence on what becomes discoverable, researchable, narratable as well as who is granted access, and in what ways. In this sense, collections perpetuate social inequalities that are constituted along axes of gender, class, origin, racialization, normative conceptions of the body, sexuality, and other categories of difference.

The seminar examines these processes from an intersectional perspective. It focuses on the material, institutional, and discursive conditions, as well as the specific mechanisms of the institution of art, through which relations of power are stabilized and reproduced. Based on joint readings of theoretical texts and collection visits, we investigate how these institutions simultaneously produce knowledge, marginalization, exclusion, and absences. We discuss the possibilities and limitations of power-critical approaches to collecting practices and explore how diversity can be embedded not only performatively but also within the institutions themselves, their agents and their infrastructures. 

A component of the seminar is a workshop organized collaboratively with the students, in which the questions and perspectives developed throughout the semester will be further explored.

• Minimum attendance of 80% of all class sessions
• Completion of all assigned readings and active participation in class discussions
• Preparation of a written analysis
• Planning, organizing, implementing, and facilitating a workshop (September 30 – October 1,  2027)

The course will be held in co-teaching with Anita Hosseini. Registration for both course entries is required.