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Contemporary art and curatorial work, and the institutions that house them, have often been centers of power, hierarchy, control, value, and discipline. Even the most progressive among them face the dilemma of existing as institutionalized anti-institutions. This anthology - taking its title from Mary Douglas´s 1986 book, How Institutions Think - reconsiders the practices, habits, models, and rhetoric of the institution and the anti-institution in contemporary art and curating. Contributors reflect upon how institutions inform art, curatorial, educational, and research practices as much as they shape the world around us. They consider the institution as an object ofienquiry across many disciplines, including political theory, organizational science, and sociology. Bringing together an international and multidisciplinary group of writers, How Institutions Think addresses such questions as whether institution building is still possible, feasible, or desirable; if there are emergent institutional models for progressive art and curatorial research practices; and how we can establish ethical principles and build our institutions accordingly.

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Paul O´Neill is an artist, curator, educator, and writer based in New York, and has cocurated more than fifty exhibition projects around the world. The author of The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture (MIT Press), he is Director of the Graduate Program at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. He is coeditor of The Curatorial Conundrum: What to Study? What to Research? What to Practice? (MIT Press). Lucy Steeds is Pathway Leader in Exhibition Studies at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, and editor of Exhibition (MIT Press/Whitechapel Gallery London). She is coeditor of The Curatorial Conundrum: What to Study? What to Research? What to Practice? (MIT Press). Mick Wilson is an artist, educator, and writer based in Sweden and Ireland, and the first Head of the Valand Academy of Art, University of Gothenburg. He is coeditor of The Curatorial Conundrum: What to Study? What to Research? What to Practice? (MIT Press).

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