Tony Krol spent much of 2020 in conversation with other influential members of Tampa’s art community trying to come up with ways to create more opportunities for Black artists in Tampa. The biggest gap, says Krol, is at the curation level.
“I think that’s where most of the change can happen,” Krol–who, together with his partner Michelle Sawyer, runs Mergeculture—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “If we look at what curation is, it’s really a representation of the curator’s own experience, their likes and dislikes. If we diversify curation, then we’re going to diversify the arts in a much quicker and effective way.”
The vast majority of local gallery curators are white. In the four years I’ve been writing for CL, the only Black curators I recall conversing with are the Woodson African American Museum’s Celeste Davis and Studio@620’s Artistic Director Bob Devin Jones.
So how do we get more Black curators in Tampa Bay?
“Give up a space to Black artists and have them curate a new show,” says Krol, “or have them co-curate a show, or have a class on what curation means. These are some real great ways to open up that conversation.”
Right now, some of Tampa Bay’s Black artists and photographers are so far removed from the world of curation, they’re not even sure exactly what the word means.
Take someone like Ashley Canay for example. Canay is an excellent wedding photographer and a college grad. She did a fantastic job of documenting Tampa’s Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, along with about a dozen other Black photographers living in Tampa. But when Krol offered to let Canay curate the group’s photographs for their Eye of the Storm exhibition at Café Hey, she wasn’t sure what to do.
That’s exactly why the Tampa Bay area could use some academic programs or community classes on curation.
Programs “that talk about how to curate an art show, or what curation looks like,” says Krol. It’s one of the best ways to welcome folks to the table who aren’t normally a part of the institutionalized world of curation.
“Give not only Black artists, but diverse artists, minority artists, the opportunity to learn about the curation process and what it means to develop a collection, or to come up with a collection based on their own likes and dislikes and their experiences so the art is representative for them,” says Krol.
“Everybody can hold lectures and they can be open to the conversation, but if curators aren’t willing to give up their seat at the table, and say, ‘step into my seat,’ then that’s really where the problem is.”
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This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2021.