{Curating through care / 2025}
Undergraduate thesis
Critical & exhibition design

This thesis is a research project which explores feminist curating as a transformative tool for challenging normative and patriarchal narratives sustained by cultural institutions. It critically examines how curatorial practices, particularly within the context of contemporary art museums, can be remodeled through frameworks of care and feminist thought. Historically, curators have occupied authoritative, gatekeeping positions within museums (O’Neill, 2016). However, a shift toward feminist, discursive, and care-centered models of curating has opened possibilities for dismantling institutional hierarchies hoping to foster more inclusive, dynamic and socially engaged creative practices and cultural institutions.

By positioning curating not solely as the preservation of objects but as an ongoing process of mediation between curators, artists and audiences, this research engages with a curatorial philosophy that focuses on caring for the broader fabric of society. Drawing from feminist theory, this thesis argues that feminist curating acts as a form of care, holding the potential to create spaces of resistance, positioning the museum as a place with the capacities for collective healing.

This thesis incorporates a case study of the Museum of Modern Art of Medellín (MAMM), considering its institutional history and curatorial approach. This project highlights both the gaps and opportunities for more inclusive practices within the museum, and devises a proposal of an exhibition guided by feminist curating and curating through care frameworks. By envisioning a subtle yet transformative future for curatorial practices, more specifically for museum exhibitions in Medellín, this project ultimately argues that curatorial practices are not passive nor neutral, but act as focal agents of social change, community building and activism.

Valeria Sierra Echavarría

Works

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