Curating the Supernatural

Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art opened in June 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and reverberations from racial justice uprisings in 2020. The exhibition took shape over five years, growing and deepening through collaborative practices with several different communities, including Spiritualists. Partnerships with paranormal experiencers and practitioners, as well as sceptics and academics across the humanities, enhanced the exhibition’s curatorial and interpretive framework. Artworks made by trance mediums in ritual settings played a key role in the project and were integrated into a broad context of paranormal visual and material culture. These sacred artefacts, borrowed from Spiritualist camps, had never before left their communities. This curatorial reflection describes the relational approach to curating that prepared me to respond to ethical concerns, informed the interpretive plan and led to a sensitive presentation of this content.