Conference report
New Plymouth, which has a population of around 50,000, is in many ways a typical provincial town, given an extra dollop of Twin Peaks character by its location- sandwiched between the picture-postcard beauty of Mount Taranaki, which dominates the town, and the rugged West Coast which the town in turn ignores, as it is built facing inwards. Nestled within this is the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery which in the last two years has had a resurgence of profile and energy after the building of extensions and the implementation of a new staff structure. New Plymouth may seem an odd location for a cutting-edge contemporary art gallery, but it was here that eighty delegates gathered for the three-day international conference, Curating Now.
The first morning of the conference was dedicated to exploring and discussing research. The first paper was given by Connie Butler, Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The Govett-Brewster's slide projector, a wilful and petulant tease which eventually forced Butler and others who followed to abandon their visual aids, continued, much like the heavy shadow of the mountain that casts itself over the city, to make its presence felt. This may have been the source of much conversation during tea breaks, but more pertinent is what delegates are talking about in the wake of Curating Now?
A continuing area of concern was raised by Robert Leonard, Director of Artspace, Auckland on the first morning. Although not entirely relevant to the panel discussion on 'The value or research ', Leonard used the opportunity to prompt debate about the sector's ongoing investment in bricks and mortar, rather than in the intellectual and programming infrastructure of institutions. For a