Introduction: conceptualising Curatopia

As museums continue to change in the twenty-first century, the ‘figure of the curator’ is in flux. This introduction explores how curating globally is being (re)conceptualised through engagement with Indigenous people in the Pacific, and collections and exhibitions in Euro-American institutions. It provides an overview of this book, which brings together curators, scholars, and critics from a range of fields in international institutions to engage in debates about curatorial histories, theories, and practices. The introduction ponders the past, present and future of museums and curatorship. It identifies, in the plurality of approaches evident in this collection, an emerging curatorial ‘heterotopia’, a critical but ethical approach to curating. This new vision of curatorial practice, Curatopia, facilitates the reinvention of museums with ethnographic collections from the colonial period, and offers pathways for future development, research and experimentation.