worship curation [1] : opening up a series of reflections

curation is a term usually used in the art world for the role of imagining and overseeing an exhibition space or spaces either working with one or a group of artists. it's a term that has been adopted by quite a few people in alternative/creative worship. in my memory it's mark pierson who came up with this as a helpful way of thinking about worship leading both in the prodigal project and in the cd rom fractals. we have adopted this as a term to describe the person who leads a creative team putting together worship in grace and found it a helpful way to think about it. mark pierson describes a worship curator as

A maker of a context for worship rather than a presenter of content.
(The content would be prepared by others.)
A provider of a frame inside which the elements are arranged and rearranged
to convey a particular message for a particular purpose.

however... i realised the other week that whilst i go to quite a few exhibitions i actually don't really know a lot about curation in the art world other than experiencing the fruit of the work. what is the discipline? what is the process? what are the skills? what makes for good curation? so when i was in a gallery bookshop i bought a book called curating subjects - a pretty obscure text in some ways - that is a series of pieces on curation and what it's role is and where it's headed. i have been so struck by the richness of the ideas that as a result

a) i think if i'd taken another set of turns in life i would love to be an art curator!
b) i'm going to try and blog a few pieces in relation to ideas in this book that might connect if you are involved in worship creation/curation.
c) i think this could be an ongoing series where i want to reflect on particular curators of alternative worship and interview them about how they go about things (i haven't asked anyone yet but it's an idea!)

so first up a pragmatic post. i wrote some notes for people taking a lead role in planning a grace service a few years back when we were first shifting to working in smaller creative teams rather than everybody planning everything (why did we ever think that was a good idea?!) and they might be of interest. they don't really get under the skin of curation. but it's how things get done!

At Grace we have been experimenting with giving one or two persons this lead responsibility role as a way of sharing the load a bit. Maybe after 6 months or so we are better placed to reflect on how that's going and what it involves. When we first discussed it we came up with this list of tasks below. It's pretty good. I have now tried to embellish it a bit. What I am thinking is that we should come up with something as a document so that anyone curating has it as a reference point.

• facilitation of planning meetings
We usually have two planning meetings set aside for planning a service. Sometimes it is less if it is a simple structure such as 'nine'. The first meeting is usually a free flowing brainstorm, drawing out ideas and inspiration for the theme. The second one is the time when the ideas are knocked into shape for a service and reponsibilities delegated for the various components. The role of curator is to chair both of these meetings and keep them focused and on track. It is also worth doing some thinking for both ahead of time to have things to throw in to the mix for the first meeting and maybe some notions or ideas of how this might take shape before the second. Part of the meeting role is either taking notes on the discussion and order of service or asking someone else to and then e-mailing them round the group.

• reflection on emerging direction and content between meetings
After the brainstorm sometimes there is a clear idea for a service that is going to be easy to pull together. But other times the discussion may not have produced too many concrete ideas. In the latter case the curator should take the initiative to think what might help nudge the process on a bit before the second meeting. This could be e-mailing round some thoughts for discussion before the second meeting. Or it might be finding a few new ideas to throw into the mix, or suggesting a litugical framework or an idea of using stations or whatever to help give it shape.

• ensuring distillation of service order
It is crucial that by the end of the second meeting there is an order of service with names allocated for tasks. This must be circulated soon after the meeting as this second meeting is usually the Monday before Grace. As curator it is your role to fill the gaps - the order is sometimes less than complete!

• ensuring allocation of tasks
There are several areas of tasks. Each of these needs to be checked.
1. Tasks for the service order - hopefully most tasks for producing stations/prayers/liturgy/video etc will have been agreed at the second planning meeting. But it may be that there were gaps and you need to ensure that those gaps are filled. This may include asking people who were not present at the meeting.
2. Audio - somebody needs to be at Grace who knows how to run the sound. Usually we now plug into St Mary's PA system. But we can easily use the Grace PA instead. Your role as curator is to check that someone is there who can set this up (assuming there is audio required). You will also need to check that the music or songs required are able to be played via double CD player, ipods or whatever means.
3. Visual stuff - somebody needs to be at Grace who knows how to set up and run the visual side of things. This might involve drapes, slide proctors, TVs, data projectors, video mixer, laptops, and mac classics. These aren't all necessary but your role as curator is to help decide which of these are required and how they will be used in the space.
4. Cafe - ensure that some one has agreed to get food for the cafe and set it up and run it.
5. Welcoming people - this is soething that sometimes gets overlooked especially is setting up gets behind and there is a general sense of panic. But it is important that you ask someone to welcome people at the door. And if setting up is behind so that the service is going to start late, let people know over the microphone so that they know what is happening. At the end of the service someone should give a notice to invite people to stay for the cafe.

• mailing round of service order
Once the order of service is planned e-mail it round. You should ideally e-mail round the brainstorm notes and then the service order after meetings one and two

• checking that people are doing their tasks, have necessary help/support to deliver
usually everyone does their tasks (albeit on the day of Grace!) but if there are tasks that are more complex (e.g. making a new video piece that needs to run on a dvd loop such as we had to do for the Creation installation) these are the things to check are happening ok.

• arranging cover or alternatives if someone can't deliver
If it transpires that someone is ill, unable to be at Grace, or just too busy to do what was planned, you need to rework the order of service - this might mean finding someone else to do the task or it might be finding or getting someone else to find something to replace whatever it was.

• ensure forthcoming service is advertised
There are four usual ways we advertise services: a) e-mail the grace mailing list. It is helpful if you can write one or two sentences to send Mike that describe or intrigue people about the service. b)put the next service on the front page of the web site. Again a few sentences or something intriguing or a visual image if you have one can help in this. c) if appropriate e-mail St Mary's asking them to include it in the news letter. There is only any point in doing this if you can do it after the first planning meeting. It's too late after the second. d) enourage members of Grace to plug it to friends and in any of their avenues of communication

• oversight of setting up
On the day it is your role to have thought about how the space will be and oversee the setting up process. If there are particular items that are not always there (e.g. bread and wine and cup and plate if there is communion) you need to ensure that someone is bringing those. It is also worth checking who is around to help set up and clear up. There have been occasions when very few people are there to set up. It is always easier if you check in advance.

• collecting service material afterwards for publication on grace website and grace noticeboard
Please collect any bits and pieces from the service for the web site.

• collecting feedback about the service [from team or congregation] and reporting to team afterwards
We usually have a brief moment to reflect on the service at a meeting. You can lead that or if you prefer e-mail round for feedback.

and finally...
These notes are meant to be a guideline to ensure the bases are covered. But curation is an art we are all learning so there are probably gaps in the notes and you may have other creative ways of facilitating the process via other communication means etc. So don't let the notes hold you back. There may also be certain services (e.g. Ten) that require much more planning and a different kind of process.

if there are particular worship experiences/events/installations that spring to mind that you think it would be really interesting to know how they were pulled together leave a comment. i want to compile a list of people and events to explore in conversation. if you blog and want to dive in the conversation on curation please do and send me a link if you write something so i can track the dialogue.

Comments

[Existential Punk]

Jonny,

i love this idea of curator. i spoke with Steve Knight who recently attended the EVDC 09 meeting to discuss the future of Emergent Village in the USA. He said someone came up with the idea of curator. i don't know the details but i am sure they will be fleshing everything out. So, when i saw your post today i got really excited! i look forward to your future posts from the curating book!

Questions - Does grace meet monthly? How many people do you have in your service planning groups and how many curators? All it takes is 2 meetings to plan your services? How long about are each meeting?

i am asking because Katryna and i want to start something to our context similar to Grace and Ikon when we are back in Sacramento. Will you pray for us to meet people interested in being dreamers with us?

Cheers!
Adele

[jonny]

yes usually 2 meetings but that's as much about leading busy lives. and we've also got quite experienced at it. it's not hard and fast rule at all and for something a bit more special we might take longer. in some ways it would be ideal to be able to take much more time! we do one service like this per month and one that one person plans and is a lot simpler.

i think if EV claim to have just thought of curation there will be some wry smiles - it's been a discussion around alt worship for around 10 years now at least! sounds like the EV gathering was good though from what i've heard. hope you are well...

[Steve Lancaster]

The most insightful presentation I heard, at a conference on interactivity in museums (V&A, 2003ish), was by a guy arguing that the way you encouraged interactivity was to arrange your exhibition (service) in such a way that visitors to it got caught up in the playing of open-ended games. So, for example, though there might be rules (liturgy?), these would be simple, like the grammar of a language, out of which one can compose a business report or a Shakespearean tragedy or a limerick or ... you get the picture. The holy grail in museums was to create an exhibition where visitors felt able to change the rules of play when they got bored, like children with a dressing-up box.

So rather than an old-fashioned exhibition, where there was only one 'right way' to view it (frequently not even sign-posted - sound like any services you know?), the speaker advocated curatorship that allowed multiple routes through creatively placed exhibits, with opportunities for role-playing and an emphasis on empowering the visitor.

Anyone who wants to see the latest in curator- and librarianship (definite overlaps), get up North to Newcastle upon Tyne! The revamped Great North Museum (with lifesized interactive Hadrian's Wall, and T-Rex) opens on May 23rd, and the new Central Library a fortnight later on June 7th.

[Heather]

Jonny, can't believe how timely this post is, I've just been searching for the Mark Pierson reference to the notion of worship curation this morning! Its a concept that has been so helpful for us at Ambient Wonder.
Cheers! Heather

[betsy]

Heh. "On the day of Grace" indeed.
Thank you for posting this.

[steve taylor]

jonny, does 1 person do all that "curating" work? looks like heaps and heaps,

steve

[jonny]

it's not really steve. we do one service like this a month. some are easier than others of course. i did a quick count in my head and reckon we have 8 people who curate at the moment. so you're only doing this maybe two times a year so can put the effort in to make it something special. i think of worship that is extravagant in terms of creative effort like breaking the oil on jesus' feet - it's worth every bit of effort...

[steve taylor]

thanks jonny. u know i'm all for this curation, but i'm also a thinking type of person. i was reflecting thus on one of the alt.worship critiques of worship-as-normal as being the preserve of a few eg preacher and worship leader types.

and so reversing that thought - the danger of curation becoming equally that consuming in terms of time?

so it's not the length of time, more like the fact that this time is still tucked up in 1 person, whether curator or preacher.

does that make sense?

steve

[cheryl]

jonny - do you reckon you could ask those you interview a question on my behalf? i'd really like to know how people manage the process of creativity in a group... taking a group beyond what it thinks is possible; pushing beyond the obvious into something richer; sifting through all the good ideas and letting the crap go. I'd love to know how others manage the dynamic of that, especially when groups are starting up. I know that after a while the group starts to do that stuff as a whole, but i'm interested in how others who have formed new groups have navigated that first part of a process.

does that make sense?

[LauraHD]

I *love* it when my professional (ahem - ok, working) life starts to collide with real life in this way. We've spent hours and hours at work talking about curation in projects and exhibitions over the last decade; there is no hard and fast approach, or one model held up over another. Some curators in the arts/ culture can be so precious and territorial, but I’d say it's far from the norm to be as open and collaborative as Jonny’s Grace process indicates (unless it's truly a group show).

Steve - I hear your comment and I think it's a concern too, all of this "expertise", or at least function, located in one person. It's a definite gift and skill (and privilege) to be able to act in that capacity. Many people in S1 would tend to shy off doing this role because it seems just so huge sometimes... Having said that, some of my most moving and meaningful worship experiences have been when the curator really acts as the curator, no more - pulling together the framework for worship, the order in and of the space, and allows others to bring the content without control. I think Grace's 9 service works like this (Jonny?) and we've done services like that – making something all together from scratch in one night - in S1 too. The curator simply sets the theme and order and space and allows those who bring the content to surprise everyone, even the curator!

For an S1 example, see: http://www.sanctus1.co.uk/blog/2008/07/next-to-nothingness-were-all-made-of.html

[cheryl]

Is it really that much more time than running any well crafted event for a large group of people? doesn't every worship need a coordinator? someone with a birds-eye view of what's happening, who people can check back with; a reference point...

I know that the curating thing has a whole other dimension to it - coordinating the creative process is only touched on in jonny's list, but it's the hardest thing. Maybe it's not for every community. But I also know that the people who talk to me about curating get far more energy back from the process than what they think they put into it... if you work with a team of people that you love, if you're not doing it every week or even every month; if this is how you work out what you believe and who you are - if, as someone recently said to me, life makes more sense when you're doing this - then it's time well spent... and if not, there are plenty of other ways to plan worship...

[Steve Lancaster]

Jonny, guys, anyone you know of thinking about a curatorial approach to pastoral work as well as worship?

Reading up on multiplicity - the idea that many of the internal dynamics we experience are down to the various 'personalities' we can express in different situations, pursuing their own agendas. The theory's radical, but based on pretty good neuroscientific evidence, and definitely worth exploring - Rita Carter has written a very readable book on the subject.

I'm therefore pursuing the idea a bit further - if our minds are a little like a church congregation, could the same exploratory approaches to outside Church be applied internally as an exercise in spiritual growth?

Does this resonate with the Grace or Sanctus experiences? Might it help?

[jonny]

thanks everyone for the comments. i think your point is interesting laura that there are a number of approaches styles to curation. these could be open and generous or tight and controlling. in that sense curation is just as open to being a power play! but it doesn't need to be.

steve (l) i like the idea of extending thinking around curating to the leadership role, not just worship planning. but i don't think i want to explore it in these posts. one of my words for leader is environmentalist - by which i mean the leader(s) have the responsibility to create the environment for a community. maybe that's close to what you are proposing?

steve (t) i can't think that i could be in a community where a higher percentage of people participate in worship creation than grace. curation has opened this up (and our ethos which includes a value of participation). it's also a role taken by a lot of dfferent people. so your fears are not my experience - the opposite is true. but of course coming back to laura's point, a more insecure curator may be too controlling or find it more difficult to let go of tasks and that could create a problem. but as cheryl says for most of us involved in this it's energising, it's time well spent, hopefully it's a jar of oil extravagantly cracked open on jesus feet.

[Steve Lancaster]

I think so, yes, Jonny - environmentalist, ecologist - exploring the way/s we interact and bringing back the rare medicinal plant from time to time, too...

Will certainly follow these posts: quite like the idea of worship curator as environmentalist ;)