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Curating Sydney: Imagining the City's Future

Jill Bennett and Saskia Beudel

What happens when artists, architects, writers and designers and curators take on the planning of the city?

In the face of unprecedented environmental challenge, Curating Sydney proposes a bold new remit for creative thinkers – to curate the city. Jill Bennett and Saskia Beudel challenge the assumption that art is something to be curated, insisting instead that art can transform and care for the urban environment. A host of creative projects – from a roadtrip to Botany Bay with architect Teddy Cruz, to a swim in the harbour with artist David Watson, or Ash Keating’s procession of rubbish in a shopping mall – open up new ways of envisaging Sydney while identifying a radical new concept of public art.

‘Bennett and Beudel liberate public art from the confines of mere spectacle, opening up new possibilities for art and urbanism alike.’

– Adrian Parr, Director of the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center and UNESCO Co-Chair of Water Accessibility and Sustainability

‘What might happen if we stopped developing Sydney and commenced curating the place instead, caring for it and encouraging transformations in the city? This book leads us into the really imaginative speculations we need.’

– Ross Gibson, Centenary Professor in Creative & Cultural Research, University of Canberra