Mike Tooby[1] (born 20 December 1956) is an independent curator and researcher based in Cardiff, Wales. His interests lie in integrating the practices often separated in curating in the arts and heritage settings: research, display, promotion, participation and learning. His own practice centres on curating in collaborative or site-specific contexts, where negotiating and celebrating relationships with audiences are at the core of projects.[2]
Tooby's commitment to participation and social engagement is exemplified[3] by his role in, Journeys with 'The Waste Land', a major exhibition exploring the significance of T.S. Eliot’s poem 'The Waste Land' through the visual arts. Tooby described himself as the "initiating curator"[4] of this project, elsewhere he is described as its "architect".[5]Journeys with 'The Waste Land' was exhibited first at the Turner Contemporary[6] in Margate and then at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum[7] in Coventry. Information about the project (including its timeline, methodology, downloads, videos[8] of its research group in action and visitor data) is available on the Turner Contemporary Website.[5]
Tooby gave the 2018 Ursula Hoff Lecture[9] in curating at the University of Melbourne. In this lecture, Tooby explored how testimony has played a key role in his recent curatorial projects. His starting point was the use of William Blake's Illustrations to Dante in Journeys with 'The Waste Land', which was created by the collective sharing of different life experiences and expertise by over 100 participants in its curating. He will show how this process was informed by his previous interest in testimony when co-curating faith-based and minority cultural projects in Wales, such as The Muslim World on Your Doorstep[10] and Hineni: belonging and identity in a Jewish community.[11]
Since 2012, Tooby has been Professor of Art & Design at the Bath School of Art & Design at Bath Spa University.[2] His teaching specialisms are: History of Art & Design; Museology; Contemporary Curatorial Practice.[2]
2020: '"Who me?": the individual experience in participative and collaborative projects.', O'Neill, M and Hooper, G, eds. Connecting Museums
2017: 'When forms become attitude: a consideration of the adoption by an artist of ceramic display as narrative device and symbolic landscape.', Petrie, K and Livingstone, A, eds. The Ceramics Reader
with Scott, T (2016: 'A journey with 'The waste land'.' Arts & Education (8)
2014: 'Interpreting and learning.' Engage (35)
2012: 'When forms become attitude: a consideration of the adoption by an artist of ceramic display as narrative device and symbolic landscape'. Behind the Scenes at the Museum: Ceramics in the Expanded Field[15]
2012: 'Order and disorder: Some relationships between ceramics, sculpture and museum taxonomies.' Interpreting Ceramics (14)
2011: 'Home and away: collections abroad.' Engage (28)
2010: 'Edmund de Waal: the hare with amber eyes' Interpreting Ceramics (12)
2009: 'More than skin deep: the new Art Gallery of Ontario.' Museum Practice (45)
2006: 'St Ives and Cardiff: two experiences of cultural tourism.' Nexus (35)
2019: Julian Stair: Tea and sensation. Summer 2019, co-facilitator, Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park[16]
2018: Modernism, image and text: reflections on T.S.Eliot and visualisation of 'The waste land'. 29 October 2018, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
2018: 'I can connect': the power of curating to share experiences. 18 October 2018, The Ursula Hoff Lecture 2018, University of Melbourne, Australia
2018: Trevor Bell: his time as Gregory Fellow and its position in the trajectory of the Gregory Fellowships. 14–15 June 2018, University of Leeds, UK.
2015: Tooby, M, Smith, R and O’ Keeffe, D A journey with T. S. Eliot’s 'The Waste Land' 8 October 2015, Ilkley Literature Festival, Ilkley Playhouse, Ilkley, UK.
2015: Another side of Stanley Royle. 29 April 2015, Lunchtime Talk Series, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, UK.
2018: Journeys with 'The Waste Land' [curator]. Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK, 3 February - 7 May 2018.[6][7]
2015: wavespeech [curator]. The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Scotland, 20 June - 12 September 2015.
2014: Storio - store. Settlement, Spit and Sawdust Skatepark, Cafe and Artspace, Roath, Cardiff, 17 October 2014.
2013: At the mad shepherdess. Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography., Chapter, Cardiff, 12–19 May 2013.
2013: William Scott: Simplicity and Subject. Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, UK, 7 September - 17 November 2013.
2012: The Museum of Amazing Coincidences. Made in Roath, Cardiff, UK, October 2012.
2011: Kelvin Road mantelpiece. Made in Roath, Cardiff, 2011.
2008: National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff: complete redisplay of art galleries, representation of natural history gallery and learning spaces. National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK, 2008.
1997: A Quality Of Light: A Collaborative Visual Arts Event. Tate Gallery St Ives, May - July 1997
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