SLOW
CURATING
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Art History, art and design, contemporary art theory and practice, curatorial and museum studies, museum display and design, social practice, creativity in post-conflict sites, community art, visual culture, community creative entrepreneurship, non-profit arts management, feminist and women’s studies, Irish and British contemporary art, professional development in art history, museums, and curatorship, Post-Institutional Critique and Relational Aesthetics.
Forthcoming PUBLICATION
Slow Curating: A Handbook for Socially Engaged Practices in Museums to be published by Routledge Museum and Heritage Studies, UK, to be published in 2026
Forthcoming Podcast - Slow Curating: Socially Engaged Practices (currently under development)
Currently developing an internationally reaching podcast on socially engaged artistic practice, pedagogy and educationalists, and curators based on my research for a new book. Currently in discussions with publishers.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
PhD University of Ulster, PhD in Practice (School of Art, Design, and the Built Environment)
Museum Studies, Curating, and Social Practice (slowcurating.com)
Dissertation: Curating in Context: Slow Curating as a Reflective Practice
Cert. University of St Thomas Opus School of Business, Minneapolis, Certificate for mini-MBA and Marketing
MA University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Irish Visual Culture
Thesis: Seeing Orange, Reading Orange: Images, Icons & Identity in Northern Ireland.
Cert. University of Ulster, Belfast, Certificate in Non-Profit Management Practice
BA University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Major: History of Art, Advisor: Gabriel Weisberg, PhD
External Senior Paper Advisor: Griselda Pollock, PhD (visiting scholar to University of MN)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Minnesota, Morris, Morris, MN, USA Spring 2024 - present
Adjunct Professor
Minnesota State College and Universities (MNSCU)
Metro State, St Paul, Minnesota, USA, Spring 2025
Minneapolis College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Fall 2022 to present
Century College, White Bear Lake, Minnesota, USA Fall 2018 to present
Adjunct Professor
Concordia College, St Paul, Minnesota, USA - Summer 2014 to present
Adjunct Professor of Practice
Minneapolis College of Art and Design, August 2013 to July 2015
College of Liberal Arts, Adjunct Professor
North Dakota State University (NDSU), Fargo, North Dakota, USA, Spring 2012 – Summer 2013
Art Department
PUBLICATIONS – EDITING & ESSAYS IN PUBLICATIONS
“The Role of Listening in Slow Curating,” in upcoming book by Rachel Epp Buller, to be published in 2025
“Beautiful Disruptions: Portals and Healing in the Work of Gregory J Rose,” Essay catalogue for “The Gates of Awakening: Provide and Nurture,” Spring 2024
Editor and Project Manager for exhibition catalog, The Nexus of Well-Being and Art: Anne Labovitz, at Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN Fall 2023-2024
“Poetic Embodiment: New Work by Eyenga Bokamba,” Essay catalogue for “The Blue of Distance” exhibition at Concordia St Paul by Eyenga Bokamba, Fall 2022
“The Entanglement of Hope,” Essay catalogue for “Beacons of Hope” exhibition at Concordia St Paul by Anne Labovitz, Fall 2021
“Entgrenzung / The Dissolution of Boundaries: Conviviality, Memory and Storytelling in Contemporary Art,” in DISH, an exhibition catalogue essay for Su Legatt on DISH project. Spring 2021. Essay on social practice.
“If you can be heard, then you exist,” in Hoping You Are Well, an exhibition catalogue for Rachel Epp Buller’s exhibition Hoping You Are Well. Fall 2020. Essay focused on social practice.
Editor and Project Manager for exhibition catalog, 122 Conversation: Person to Person Art Beyond Borders, Anne Labovitz at Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Fall 2018
Editor, Contributor & Production Manager, “Placemakers: Rochester Prototyping Festival, 2016,” Project catalogue and assessment document. Rochester Art Center, Destination Medical Center, Rochester Downtown Alliance, Fall 2016
“Engaged Process: Temporality, Place & Memory in the Work of Clea van der Grijn,” Catalogue essay, 2016
“Materiality, Texture & Form: A Lived Practice in the Work of Judy Onofrio.” Exhibition catalogue essay, 2016
“For Peace Comes Dropping Slow”, In Art, Architecture and Place: The Lake Isle of Innishfree. Essay in the exhibition and project catalogue for Liminal Spaces exhibition at The Model, Sligo, Ireland, 2015
“Visual Art Project: Six Artists + A Designer + A Town Planner”, Co-authored with Clea van der Grijn in Art, Architecture and Place: The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Exhibition and project catalogue for Liminal Spaces exhibition at The Model, Sligo, Ireland, 2015
“What is the role of ego in this work? When is it useful?” with Michael Birchall in Questions We Ask Together, Gemma Turbull (ed), Open Engagement Publications, 2015
“There is No Authority But Yourself”, I Believe in You: New Work by Mark Clare. Catalogue essay, 2014.
“Shades of Grey: Visual Art and Contemporaneity in Northern Ireland,” catalogue essay, Archiving Place Archiving Place & Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement, 2010
“Method in the Making: The Relevancy of Contemporary Craft in Northern Ireland,” Making Changes: Contemporary Craft In Northern Ireland, exhibition catalogue essay commissioned by Craft Northern Ireland to coincide with the ‘Made In Northern Ireland’ exhibition at the Ripley Institute at The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, 2007
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: What works for art, and is there such a thing as the ideal space?” Space: Architecture for Art, CIRCA publications, 2005
PUBLICATIONS – ARTICLES
“Slow Curating: An Alternative for Museums,” Published CAA panel discussion paper presented in Spring 2021 in ArtLines, bi-annual CAA publication of Women’s Caucus for Art, Summer 2021.
“Using the F-Word in 2016: the Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover”, Spring 2016, Art21 online blog.
“Slow Curating: Re-Thinking and Extending Socially Engaged Art in the Context of Northern Ireland,” OnCurating, Issue 24, Autumn 2014
“Misfit Cup Liberation Project,” Studio Potter, Vol. 38. No 1, Autumn 2012
“Do We Still Need the ‘F’ Word,” an article on the All-Ireland Guerrilla Girls Research Tour and New Work Project. Visual Artists of Ireland Newsletter, September 2009
“Not Just Orange and Green: Opening Up Space for Culture in Northern Ireland,” Contexts, 2005
“New Notions of Space,” Visual Arts Newsletter, Sculpture Society of Ireland, 2004
“It Ain’t Money for Nothing and your Kicks for Free,” Contexts, Autumn 2004
“The Art Market: Some thoughts on Venture Capitalism,” CIRCA Art Magazine, August 2003
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & PANELS
2025 Slow Curating: The nexus of museology, curating, and social practice for Panel Discussion, College Art Association, New York.
2024 Socially Engaged Curating & Teaching Panel Discussion, College Art Association, Chicago, IL.
2023 Slow Curating & Radical Museology, University of Minnesota, Morris, MN
2023 Slow Curating: A Model for Museum Professionals. Tate Museum, UK. Emerging Professionals
2022 Slow Curating: A Practical Guide for Curating with Care and Reciprocity for panel discussion at at Universities Art Association of Canada entitled “Slow Curating and Relational Care in Public Art,” UAAC-AAUC conference, Toronto, Canada
2021 Curating Fast and Slow: Changing Times, Changing Tempos, Association for Art History (UK) and forarthistory.org.uk. Panel presentation with James Lingwood, Britta Peters, and Fatos Ustek. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDmv8Rct90
2021 Slow Curating: An Alternative for Museums and Curators. CAA Panel on Slow Art. February 2021
2020 Slow Curating: How to Make Art with Others. Presentation and panel discussion. Learning to Use Meaningful Action Research and Community Engagement at Universities Art Association of Canada (UAAC), Vancouver, Canada, October 2020
2019 Slow Interventions: Moving Toward Connection in Creative Practice, Presentation and panel discussion at Slow: A Symposium in Praxis & Theory, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), November 2019.
2016 Dialogical Spaces: Engaging Audiences for The Permeable Museum: Socially Engaged Institutions. Presentation and panel discussion. Open Engagement Conference, California Museum of Art & History, Oakland, CA. (May) * organized by M Johnston panelists also included former Queens Director Laura Raicovich and John Spiak
2015 It’s My Revolution: Inverting Curatorial Discretion—Power, Privilege, Expertise and the Space Between. Open Engagement Conference, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. (April)
2015 The Permeable Museum. Irish Museums Association Conference, Ulster Museum, Belfast, N Ireland
2014 The Curatorialization of Activism in Art as a Neo-Avant-Garde, Panel Discussion. Open Engagement Conference, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (May) * organized by M Johnston and M Birchall with panel members Gregory Sholette, Elissa Blount Moorhead, and Arthur Jaffa.
2012 Mapping Spectral Traces, October 2012, University of Minnesota. Presented paper “Architecture, Art & Memory: Creative Actions in Sites of Post Conflict and Trauma”
2012 Open Engagement: Art and Social Practice Conference, Portland State University - "After the Flood" - Presentation and Panel discussion, Presented: “FLOOD DIVERSION: A social practice initiative.”
2009 International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), Presented Paper: “Our Digital Ontology: The Use of Mobile Interfaces and New Technologies in Northern Ireland Galleries and Museums.”
2009 Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University Session: Irishness and Intertextaulity: Re-Reading the Visual in Irish Culture panel discussion. Paper presented: “(Un)Covering history in black and whitewash: Visual Culture in Northern Ireland Today.”
2009 Manchester Metropolitan University Conference for exhibition, Archiving Place Archiving Place & Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement, 2009 – 2011. Presented Paper: “Curating in Context: What is socially engaged curatorial practice.” * organize by myself and F Barber (Manchester University) to coincide with our exhibition of the same name
2006 University of Ulster, Interface Conference for Research Department Faculty, Visiting Lecturer, “Relevancy of Art Today,” [initial presentation on my socially engaged curatorial practice]. Panel with Grant Kester.
MUSEUM WORK / PROFESSIONAL CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE:
Professional and experienced director, curator, and educator with experience in US and European contexts and an emphasis on contemporary art and architecture collaboration, and socially engaged practice in communities.
Independent Curator I Museum Specialist January 2017 – present
Clients include various artists, arts organizations, and Washington County. See exhibition list below.
Metro State University, St Paul Jan – June, 2025
Interim Director
Rochester Art Center October 2015 – January 2017
Executive Director & Chief Curator
The Model: Home of the Niland Collection August 2014 – October 2015
Director & Chief Curator
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis College of Art & Design and St Catherine’s College, St Paul & Minneapolis, MN Sept 2013 – May 2016
Instigator and initial project manager on Guerrilla Girls in Twin Cities project.
Weisman Art Museum (WAM) Sept 2013 – August 2014
Guest Curator for Lust for the Local: The Birth of Modernism in Marketing at the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Plains Art Museum (PAM) August 2011 to March 2013
Director of Curatorial Affairs & Interpretation, Fargo, North Dakota, USA
LaGrange Art Museum (LAM) December 2009 to July 2011
Executive Director and Lead Curator, LaGrange, Georgia, USA
Millennium Court Arts Centre (MCAC) March 2003 to December 2009
Arts Director and Lead Curator, Portadown, Northern Ireland, UK
Smithsonian Institute / Craft Northern Ireland November 2006 to November 2007
Lead Curator and Project Manager, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Leadwhite Gallery August 2002 – February 2003
Gallery Manager / Curator, Dublin, Ireland
Metropolitan Museum of Art October 1999 to August 2002
Publications Production Manager, New York, USA
Irish Art Center October 1999 to January 2003
Curator, New York, USA
Walker Art Center February 1993 - June 1995
Docent and Internship, Education Department, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota April 1993 - February 1996
Education and Curatorial as Paid Intern & Student Teacher, USA
SELECTED CURATED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
2025 - Deep Breath: New Work by Melissa Borman, Gordon Parks Gallery at Metro State, St Paul, MN
2024 - Transience: New Work by Amy Sands at Concordia Gallery, Concordia St Paul University, St Paul, MN
Convergence: Health and Creativity: Anne Labovitz, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
North Shore Blue: New Work by Anne Labovitz, Holiday Center, Duluth, MN
Building A Legacy: Washington County Historic Courthouse Revealed, Historic Courthouse, Stillwater, MN
The Gates of Awakening: Provide and Nurture: Gregory J Rose, Concordia
2023 - Bureau of Radical Accessibility, intervention University of Minnesota, Morris
Bureau of Radical Accessibility, Faculty Show, Concordia St Paul
The Nexus of Well-Being and Art: Anne Labovitz, Rochester Art Center, MN
2022- The Blue of Distance: Eyenga Bokamba, Concordia St Paul
Through the Eyes of Others Open Exhibition, Historic Courthouse, Stillwater, MN
2021 - Beacons of Hope: Anne Labovitz, Concordia St Paul Gallery, September
2020 - The Life of An Object: Stories, Meanings & Moments curated project, Washington County Historic Courthouse, Stillwater, MN.
122 Conversations, Anne Labovitz, Installation at Minneapolis / St Paul International Airport.
Nature’s Art Gallery, an award winning (national and state) art education program (outside gallery) with Washington Country Parks Department
Freedom, Independence & Citizenship: The History of Voting Rights in Washington County, Washington County Historic Courthouse, Stillwater, MN. History Exhibit, June 2020 – January 2021.
2019 - Spokes & Folks: The Evolution of Bikes & Trails in Washington County, Washington County Historic Courthouse, Stillwater, MN. History Exhibit, June 2019 – Jan 2020.
2018 - 122 Conversation: Person to Person Art Beyond Borders, Anne Labovitz at Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Fall 2018 (organizing curator, catalog editor)
People & Places: Architecture in Washington County from 1850 – 1960, Washington County Historic Courthouse, History Exhibit, June 2018 – January 2019.
2017 - Andy Warhol: Minnesota Goes Pop, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN. Co-curated with Sheila Dickinson a group show with 36 Warhol prints (Myth/Cowboy & Indian Series) with 11 contemporary Minnesota-based artists.
2016 - Institute of Informal Creativity: The Froebel Studio with Eamon O’Kane. Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota.
Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover. Instigator, lead curator, and project organizer, working with a consortium of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Weisman Art Museum, and Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Minneapolis, MN, USA. Autumn 2015 to Spring 2016.
2015 - Liminal Spaces: Art, Architecture and Place, The Model, home of the Niland Collection, Sligo, Ireland. A collaborative project co-curating with a team of myself, artist Clea van der Grijn and three architects from Sligo IT. History, architecture and art exhibit with international call for architectural model proposals.
Bureau of Radical Accessibility, The Model, home of the Niland Collection, Sligo, Ireland. Think – and – Do Tank with visiting artists, museum staff and the public in dialogue about sociopolitical and historic issues in the community.
Things Left Unsaid: New Work by Paul Seawright, MCAC Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. Toured to the Ulster Museum, Belfast, N/Ireland.
Shared Visions: The Niland Collection Re-Hang, The Model, home of the Niland Collection, Sligo, Ireland. Significant exhibition re-positioning collection
I Believe In You: New Work by Mark Clare, The Model, home of the Niland Collection, Sligo, Ireland. Touring project with Crawford Municipal Museum, Cork
2014 - Lust for the Local: The Birth of Modernism in Marketing, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. History of Tourism posters.
2013 - Wing Young Huie: Hidden Fargo in Plain Sight, Plains Art Museum, ND Commission of new work, community projects, and solo show
Andy Warhol: Creating Myth and Icon, Plains Art Museum, North Dakota, USA. Utilizing Slow Curating to create a large-scale design with collaborators from Sundog Marketing (sponsors). Focus on Warholʼs Myths and Cowboy & Indian Series.
2012 - PROJECT Flood Diversion. Artists Andrea Stanislav, Michael J Strand, Jeff Knight, Rebecca Krinke, NDSU + MSUM students. Fargo, North Dakota, USA. Commissioned work (six art interventions of site-specific installations and collaborations) by artists who addressed the issue of annual flooding in Fargo.
Ice Music: Paul D Miller / DJ Spooky, Plains Art Museum, North Dakota
Creative Actions: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Plains Art Museum, North Dakota, USA, 2012-ongoing. Permanent Collection re-hang based on research and collaboration with Fargo School District art teacher
The Return of the Sodbuster: Luis Jiménez in Fargo, Plains Art Museum, ND
Misfit Cup Liberation Project: New Work by Michael J Strand. Asocial practice work intervention as part of Temporality Series. Plains Art Museum, North Dakota, USA.
2011 - You Like This: A Democratic Approach to the Museum Collection, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
Creative Obscurity: Noel Rockmore, LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, GA.
Dream House: New Work by Mark Clare, LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, GA.
Legends of The Printmaking Workshop: Will Barnet, Bob Blackburn, Chaim Koppelman and Tom Laidman, Cochran Gallery @ LaGrange Art Museum, GA, USA.
Cult of Personality: From Warhol and Dali to Lady Gaga, co-curated with LaGrange College student Kathryn Schroeder, LaGrange Art Museum
Night–Light–Reflections: Visions of the New South, photography by John Dowell,LaGrange Art Museum, LaGrange, GA, USA.
2010 - Archiving Place & Time: Contemporary Art Practice in Northern Ireland since the Belfast Agreement, artists: Willie Doherty, Paul Seawright, John Duncan, Rita Duffy, Sandra Johnson, Conor McGrady, Mary McIntryre, Aisling O’Beirn, Philip Napier, Michael Hogg, and Conor McFeely. Co-curated with Fiona Barber. Toured Manchester, Portadown, and Woverhampton.
2009 - I’m not a feminist, but if I was…Guerrilla Girls New Work Revealed, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. An all-Ireland research project and exhibition tour; was a new work commission collaboration with partners Glucksman Gallery, Cork; the University of Ulster, Belfast; and the National College of Art & Design, Dublin.
2008 - Everyone Knows this is Nowhere: New Work by Andre Stitt, MCAC Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. Toured to University of Wales, UK.
Template 2.0: An Exhibition of Digital Art, MCAC Portadown, N. Ireland, Ireland/UK. In collaboration with the International Symposium for Electronic Art (ISEA) 2009.
2007 - Wade Ireland: Irish Kitsch or Regional Vernacular, MCAC, Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK.
Cuchulain Comforted: A Visual and Verbal Collaboration with Rita Duffy and Paul Muldoon, MCAC, Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK
2006 - Frank Gehry, Architect: Designs for Museums, Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. In collaboration with Frank O Gehry and the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Magic Stones: A Soundscape by Robert Jarvis, MCAC Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. Commission won British Composer of the Year Award for New Media.
Orange Elements: The History of the Orange Order and Seeing Orange: Northern Irish Artists’ Use of Orange Imagery, MCAC Portadown, Northern Ireland, Ireland/UK. MA Thesis exhibits. History and Art Exhibits.
1996 – 2005 - The above exhibitions are a selection of the more than 350 projects I have curated and/or produced with artists, architects, designers, historians, academics, and communities. Additional exhibition information is available upon request. Please see my website www.slowcurating.org for more information.
Megan Arney Johnston – PhD Summary for Curating in Context: Slow Curating as a Reflective Practice
Johnstonʼs curatorial practice is inspired by the Slow Movement, which is an international phenomenon defined as a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace. Rejecting the ʻrat raceʼ, those who prescribe to the Slow Movement fundamentally want to change their life perspective and embrace life, health, the environment, and local connectivity. In relation to the curatorial process, Slow Curating is a rejection of the Biennale model and what she terms the Easy Jet/Jet Blue curator—one who jets around to sites and ʻplopsʼ down an exhibition that is devoid of local context and relativity. For some time now her curatorial process includes a meaningful and deep understanding of local context, working with local experts in the community to investigate issues that affect everyday lives. Notions of temporality (or taking time) is important as is working in collaboration with a sense of place and alongside working artists and the community. It means promoting reciprocal relationships, open-ended proposals and outcomes that can be decided by different people and at different times in the process. The element of control and power ebbs and flows, and self-reflection and self-evaluation are continual and an important part of the process. Johnston has developed an expertise in socially engaged practice and work with artists whose work engages with socioeconomic and political context and issues and with artists/s who create dialogical projects unfolding through a process of performative interaction. Imperative to this process is the role of the audience and the community.
ABSTRACT: The 2000s introduced us to the epoch-changing realities of the internet and social practice, the slow and self-care movements, and the radical politics of the Occupy and protest cultures. Post-2010 has been marked by international responses to right-wing politics, Black Lives Matter, and the Me Too movement. The world has dramatically changed, and museums have had no other option but to shed out-dated conventions and ways of working and thinking. Social engagement with the world around us is now imperative. In this dissertation, I examine the sea change museums are experiencing and the need for more socially engaged practices. I conclude that there is an imperative for seismic changes in curatorial practice. Museums are important civic institutions with enormous social impact. My research focuses on the changes in art museum curatorship in the second half of the 20th century in Western Europe, primarily in the UK and Ireland, and the US and the role of the curator. The purpose of this practice-based, multi-site enquiry is to investigate the use of socially engaged curatorial practice in regional museums and art centres to create relevant engagement opportunities with audiences and local communities. It also provides a critical reflection on socially engaged curatorial practice, as it evolves and adapts to political contexts. After researching examples of socially engaged art practice used by curators, artists, and educators working in American, British, and Irish museums, I tested and re-tested methods and approaches using my own curatorial practice in four 3 sites: Portadown, Northern Ireland, LaGrange, Georgia (US), Fargo, North Dakota (US), and Sligo, Ireland. The key research question was: How can art curators in regional museums and galleries meaningfully engage with audiences and local communities? The experiments facilitated an understanding of shifts in how art is presented and mediated to better engage with audiences and communities. This research generated a reflective, transferable working framework.
My research reflects new knowledge in the fields of curating, museology, and social practice. While work has been published on socially engaged art practice and its audiences/participants/communities, little has been written on a socially engaged curatorial approach. More importantly, no working framework has been devised to support experimentation in the field. The framework of slow curating is a curatorial process and practice that enables, explores, and expands museum and exhibition experiences for more relevant audience engagement. Slow curating extends previous academic knowledge of curatorial practice, exhibition-making, and institutional critique. As a social practice, it portends alternatives to current museology and provides a map for alternative approaches to mediating contemporary art in a museum context.