What does curating your own context mean?

Curating my own context has developed from my dual experience as a musician and arts researcher. I have found a productive space between those two modes of practice, bringing together performers, artists, and researchers to develop projects such as an arts assemblage on climate grief or a dance production in tandem with an academic conference.

What does curating mean to you?

Curating of course implies care, and this is important to me as I strive to foster community, however messy at times, in my collaborative research and artistic projects. Curating for me also means creating critical spaces in which contrasting styles or performance modes do not create a seamless experience. In my current work, I am testing participatory art forms around improvisation that come with artistic and sociopolitical risk, and I am grateful to the OnCurating Academy for enriching my theoretical and practical resources.

What is the most valuable thing that the OnCurating Academy has brought to you?

I most appreciate the reflective community the Academy has formed, from slow readings of theoretical texts to engaged discussions with presenters and workshop leaders. Thank you! 

Heidi Hart (PhD Duke University 2016) has developed a research-curatorial practice focusing on music in political and ecological contexts. Her curatorial work includes visual art, music, theatre, and dance, and she is a guest instructor at Linnaeus University in Sweden.

Photo credit:  Heidi Hart with Annea Lockwood’s Piano Garden, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, 2026. Photograph by: Carolyn Zaldivar Snow.