Yet to examine the etymology and history of the word "curate" is to find a direct, fascinating link between the professional curator and her pop culture counterpart, engaged in the activity of selecting and displaying.
"It's tough to have looks and brains!" says Jess Scully, festival director of Vivid Ideas and also a curator of TEDxSydney.
Edwina Throsby, head curator of TEDxSydney, says: "The fact that you can go to TEDxSydney on Thursday, Semi-Permanent festival on Friday, Sydney Writers' festival on Saturday and Vivid Ideas on Sunday speaks to a city that really values ideas and cultural achievement, equal to any other city in the world.
"My guess is it is probably the last time it is going to be out there for a while," said Michelle Krowl, a civil war specialist and co-curator of the exhibition.
It wasn't deliberate, but the curator Lucy Shanahan found that many of the most powerful pieces dealing with crime and its aftermath in the exhibition were by female artists, and perhaps the most moving works are all by women.
The jewellery historian Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, the show's other co-curator, said most other gems, whether emeralds, diamonds or opals, were subject to the vagaries of fashion.
Ralph Rugoff, the director of the Hayward and curator of the exhibition, says the show will be "mind-boggling" and promised – or perhaps warned – prospective overnighters: "On awakening they may find that the Hayward will never look the same again".
Anita O'Brien Director curator, Oliver Preston Chairman, Kenneth Baker Vice-chairman, Steve Bell Trustee, Martin Rowson Trustee Cartoon Museum, London.
Related: From the archive, 7 June 1944: Editorial: Europe's hour The artists in the exhibition, which opens on Saturday, include several former winners of the BP Portrait prize: Stuart Pearson Wright, Ishbel Myerscough, James Lloyd and Catherine Goodman, who is also artistic director of the Royal Drawing School and curator of The Last of the Tide.
Jonathan Jones's article on Penelope Curtis, outgoing director of Tate Britain, (misogynist subtext?) is a highly unpleasant attack on a formidable scholar and curator.
"Over here, she's right up there," says Yvonne Büdenhölzer, director of the Berlin Theatertreffen festival, where Mitchell was this year's guest curator.
