In lieu of the ideal, and perhaps mythic, blank check patronage artists once enjoyed, companies now sponsor artists to propose unique viewing experiences based on the “perceived needs of mainstream audiences” [Cooke]. These immersive experiences may or may not include contextual clues it was once considered the curator’s job to set up, and which allow works to resonate and speak to each other. Cooke is deeply critical of curators’ attempts to claim the creative position of generating experiences themselves, as their role as assemblers and contextualizers is destabilized. And artists in Cooke’s “post-studio” position produce exhibitions themselves anyway, with or without corporate underwriting. Outsourcing the physical labor of production to assistants, the artist as producer arguably negates the need for a curatorial presence in much the same way that the curator attempts to carve a space for him/herself from the artist’s territory.

All of which begs the question: Is this just a power grab via linguistic shuffling of the privileged term? The physical action of producing remains. What changes is who is supporting it, in what way, and what everyone is called. The curator’s role in creating reverberations between works, which allow the viewer to draw new connections and conclusions, may well depend on a viewing situation that is becoming less common, as immersive theme-park-like environments overtake the giant white cube.