Curationist

Reimagining how people access art, knowledge and culture online.

09/02/2026

Our work of the week is this stunning 1875 Alexandre Cabanel painting. 🧜‍♀️🪉

Here is the Curationist description of the work:

The goddess of love and beauty, Venus has been the subject of many works of art. For example, the more famous Botticelli’s Birth of Venus depicts the goddess in a modest pose, with her right hand and long blond hair covering her nakedness. A young woman also brings her a flowered cloak to cover up. In contrast, Cabanel’s rendition is much more sensual. Venus is lying on her side atop a wave in a seductive pose, her nudity fully revealed and her long, auburn hair floating around her. Her face is partially obscured by her arms, though she is looking directly at the viewer through heavy eyelids. Rather than trying to cover her up, Cabanel paints five cherubs flying overhead, twisted in motion, trying to witness the birth of the goddess and announce her arrival by playing conch shell trumpets.

Image:
Alexandre Cabanel, The Birth of Venus, 1875. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cherubs witness the birth of Venus as she poses dramatically atop an ocean wave. Public Domain.

09/01/2026

Thank you to everyone who attended our Learning with Curationist Webinar with the Open Platform Archive Network (OPAN) last week! 📸🎞️🌎

The OPAN team gave us an exciting look into the important work that their organization does to preserve, display, and share local and vernacular histories through images. We are feeling so inspired and are excited to join the OPAN mission - we hope you are too!

Missed the webinar? You can find the full recording on our YouTube page. Link in bio!

08/31/2026

A recent curated collection from artist, weaver and community member Jen Chen-su Huang is an excellent example of how practice, curiosity, and accessible research resources can allow us to shed light on otherwise hidden histories and begin to piece together a history beyond dominant ones defined by colonial pasts. 🪡🧵

Learn more about the often overlooked similarities between European needle lace and Chinese needle-loop embroidery histories in “Chinese Needlework: Reading Between Lace and Embroidery.” Link in bio!

08/27/2026

August’s staff pick comes from Curationist’s Executive Director, Christian Dawson! 🎨

“Helping people understand one another better is really at the core of a lot of what I do and what I’m committed to, so I was drawn to this piece because it is such an interesting exploration of language, communication, and cultural understanding. It also happens to bring a couple of my worlds together in a way I really love.”

Image:
Thomas Rowlandson, Refinement of Language, October 1, 1802, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

08/26/2026

This work of the week reflects the complicated role the Cotton Club, one of New York’s most famous Jazz clubs, played in the Harlem Renaissance. 🎺🌃

Curationist-Enhanced Object Description:

Commonly known as the “Aristocrat of Harlem,” the Cotton Club was a famous jazz club. This illustrated hand fan advertises the club at its original location on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue. While one side depicts a modern, light-skinned woman, the other side illustrates a much different scene. Rendered in black silhouettes, a jazz band plays beneath palm trees in a jungle motif. Such representations of Black talent as savage and exotic were common at the Cotton Club.

Image:
Unknown, Fan from the Cotton Club, 1923–1935. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. CC0.

08/24/2026

In a recent feature for Curationist, writer Reina Gattuso examines the complicated and highly contested history of yoga, and how it has been retold in the archives over time by surveying some of the objects associated with yoga in the Curationist database. 🧘‍♀️🪷

Read “Yoga in the Archives” at the link in our bio!

Images:
Tibet, Ta***ic Enlightened Being (Vajrayogini) Queen of Bliss (Dechen Gyalmo), 18th century, Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.

Digambara Sect, Image of the Jina Rishabha, 9th century, Brooklyn Museum. Creative Commons-BY.

Man Dhata in Yogi Position, c. 1690–1700, Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0.

Indian, Ascetic Deity, 10th-11th century, Walters Art Museum. CC0, GNU Free Documentation License.

Rishabha enthroned, folio 1 (verso) from a Yoga-shastra of Hemachandra, c. 1275, Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0.

08/20/2026

Meet the panelists for our next Learning with Curationist Webinar! 💫🎨

Next week, Bettina Fabos, Felipe Bengoa Trucco, and Véronique Stenger from the Open Platform Archive Network (OPAN) will give a brief overview of the organization and a tour of the new platform, outline major public outreach initiatives and transnational projects, and share ways to get involved.

The Open Platform Archive Network is an international network of public photo history platforms developed to preserve, display, and share local and vernacular history.

Register today! link in bio.

Event info:
Thursday, August 27th
12pm ET / 9am PT.

08/18/2026

This Work of the Week archives evidence of practices in pleasure, power and s*x education in the Moche civilization in Peru from around 100 BCE–500 CE 🫶

Check out this enhanced object description from the Curationist Community:

The Moche civilization thrived on the northern coast of Peru between the first and seventh centuries C.E. Since they left no written records, their history is told through art and artifacts. This molded bowl is an example of the erotic pottery that was common in Moche culture. Many examples survive in which various s*xual acts are depicted. Many scholars believe that erotic Moche pottery was used as an educational tool to demonstrate methods of contraception.

Want to learn more about the significance of nudity in art history? Browse Noa Rui-Piin Weiss’s collection, “The Gaze in N**es,” at the link in our bio!

Image:
Moche, Bowl with Molded N**e Female Figure in the Interior, 100 BCE–500 CE. Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.

08/13/2026

Announcing this month’s Learning with Curationist Webinar 🚨 The Open Platform Archive Network: Reaching a Global Public with Curated Vernacular Photo-History Collections

In this session, Bettina Fabos, Felipe Bengoa Trucco, and Véronique Stenger from the Open Platform Archive Network (OPAN) will give a brief overview of the organization and a tour of the new platform, outline major public outreach initiatives and transnational projects, and share ways to get involved.

Event info:
Thursday, August 27
12pm ET / 9am PT

Register at the link in our bio!

As part of the Learning with Curationist webinar series, this conversation invites our community to learn from digital cultural heritage projects and the people shaping them. All of our webinars are pay-what-you-will. Your contribution is essential to helping Curationist continue offering accessible programming and creating space for conversations on metadata, open knowledge, and digital collection stewardship.

08/07/2026

Curationist community member Taniqua Martin archives an important legacy of African American women designers in the U.S. in her recent Curated Collection, “African-American Women Designers.” Visit the link in bio for more! 👗🪡

Works:
Louvinia Price, American, 1857 - 1935, Brown and black striped silk moiré bodice and skirt, 1860s, 1870s, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

Unidentified Woman or Women, Dress made by an unidentified enslaved woman, (1840s, 1860s, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. CC0

Unidentified Artist, Elizabeth Keckley (frontispiece to “Behind the Scenes”), 1860s, 1870s, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

Fredsapp, American, Reproduction of evening bodice and skirt made by Elizabeth Keckley, 2000s, 1900s, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

Henry Ulke, German American, 1821 - 1910, Carte-de-visite of Hubert Gideon Welles in outfit sewn by Elizabeth Keckly, 1860s, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

Rosa Parks, American, 1913 - 2005, Dress sewn by Rosa Parks, 1950s, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. CC0.

Address

2920 W Broad Street, Suite 80
Richmond, VA
23230

Telephone

+15045150769

Website

https://linktr.ee/curationist

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Curationist posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Curationist:

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Richmond?