Curated by Julie Lazar and Tom Finkelpearl, Uncommon Sense allowed a number of artists to realise projects not normally supported in traditional museum programming. It is an exploration of the relations between artist, institution and public communities both as participants and viewers.
. . . the exhibition sought "to create a public dialogue within a space that is historically hostile to this sort of endeavor." ("Uncommon Sense" catalogue, p. 32) Finkelpearl cites projects that take art audiences away from galleries and museums into cities and communities (such as "Places with a Past"), but he also advocates for "fostering interaction" in the museum. (Ibid.) Lazar references Joseph Beuys's ideas on art and teaching. She asks: "How can a museum, which produces (one-way) transmissions of curatorial theses, become engaged in sympathetic dialogues or debates with artists and audiences?" (Ibid., p. 40) She also cautions that the "projects may not look like art at all." (Ibid., p. 41)
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/visarts/globe/issue5/zstxt.html
http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag98/phllps/sm-phlps.htm