Slought Foundation: Fostering Unhindered Dialogue Through Adaptability

Abstract

Slought Foundation fosters dialogue between artists and their wider communities as a strategy to bridge academic and public spheres. In doing so, they create new forums for intellectual engagement over a wide range of topics in public culture. Ventures have included diverse themes such as: Architecture on Display, a research project on the cultural history of architecture at the famed Venice Biennale; How to Get Started, a permanent and interactive installation that invites the public to add to a rare composition by experimental composer John Cage; and Civic War and The Corruption of the Citizen, a public conversation exploring the idea that individuals exist in a state of war in the everyday spaces they inhabit.

Slought Foundation’s structure allows it to adapt to projects at hand. It retains a core staff, networks with a wide range of advisors, and bases its curatorial work on a dialogical process that mirrors the dialogues that emerge in its programs and exhibits. The organization takes risks with program design and strives to be flexible from start to finish, allowing projects to evolve in unexpected ways and adapt to the political and social context in which they participate.