Ethics of Contemporary Collecting

Ethics of Contemporary Collecting addresses pressing and pertinent issues around ethical contemporary collecting, reflecting on how practices are evolving or in flux.

Across three sections, each containing live sector subjects from the climate crisis to digital collecting to centring communities, this book collates a combination of case studies and in-depth chapters by leading practitioners working in the field. These pieces are instructive and provide practical, transferable examples of how people have approached these challenges. It highlights examples of leading practice in the field and illustrates ethical approaches to contemporary collecting as work in this area progresses and our conversations about it advance. To reflect this ongoing growth, the book closes with an ’Activations’ section of discussion prompts intended to keep the conversations and progress - on individual, institutional and societal levels - going.

Ethics of Contemporary Collecting is an indispensable tool for informing, training and educating the next generation of curators and collection professionals, and inspiring future collecting projects.

Jen Kavanagh is a freelance curator and oral historian based in London.

Dr Ellie Miles is a curator and researcher based in London.

Rosamund Lily West is a lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester, UK.

Susanna Cordner is a Senior Research Fellow at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.