Curating.info

New Work UK: Open Call for Curatorial Proposals

For the screening series New Work UK LUX and Whitechapel have been inviting individual curators to present programmes of the best of new British work as part of Whitechapel’s film programme. Now we would like to extend this invitation into an open call for curatorial proposals, one of which will be selected for presentation at Whitechapel on 28 February 2008.

Proposals are invited from anyone based in the UK – curators, artists, filmgoers – to develop a programme that will showcase new British artists’ moving image work in distinctive and revealing ways. You will determine the format and content of your programme and how it is presented. It could be a selection of work by one artist or a group of artists containing works that are formally, aesthetically, politically or otherwise connected, whether these connections are implicit or explicit, provocative or symphonic. The programme should consist primarily of new British work that has not been widely seen in London with a total running time of up to 90 minutes. There is a total budget for your programme of £500 which includes your fee and any screening fees, and you will be responsible for presenting the programme and getting agreements from artists to show their work.

In selecting the programme for presentation particular attention will be given to the coherence and originality of proposals and the clarity of your curatorial statement.

Proposals should take the form of a one-paragraph outline of the programme, accompanied by either a list of artists or a list of individual works that you would like to show.

Proposals should be sent by Friday 30 November 2007 to nwuk -at- lux.org.uk or by post to NWUK, LUX, Shacklewell Studios, 18 Shacklewell Lane, London, E8 2EZ.

NB: Whitechapel can show the following formats: 16mm, all video formats, DVD.

Curating a Second Life by Daniele Balit
October 26, 2007; 8:00 pm, Skopje
Contact for more info: Tel: +389 2 3228 594 Email: presstoexit [at] on.net.mk

The word “avatar” derives from the Sanskrit term Avatāra, meaning “incarnation” and today, it commonly designates the identity assumed for exploring virtual worlds and online communities such as Second Life. The avatar is not only a tool or a threshold to the virtual, but often becomes an incarnation of desires. It represents the will to be different or, at least, the illusion of holding the threads of existence. At this point, the boundaries between ‘the virtual’ and perceived realities start to become very porous.

The lecture will introduce Daniele Balit’s curatorial practice and will focus on Second Night, an exhibition curated together with the French artist Christophe Bruno, for the recent Nuit Blanche (White Night) in Paris. As part of the lecture artworks by Yona Friedman, Claude Closky, Miltos Manetas, Andreas Angelidakis, Alain della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita will be presented and discussed.

Daniele Balit (Rome, 1976) is a freelance curator and art critic based in Paris. He is a PHD researcher at La Sorbonne with a research on the intersections between sound based art and experimental music. He is a founding member of 1:1 projects, established in January 2006, which functions as a platform for cultural production based in Rome and London. 1:1 projects are devoted to promote art projects, artists and artistic practices. Balit has developed projects and collaborations with different institutions, including Fondazione Pistoletto (Biella), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), CNEAI (Paris), Careof (Milan), NICC and MUHKA (Antwerp). He is currently a guest of the Visiting Curatorial Initiative (VCI) programme at press to exit project space. (via)

Lorie Mertes, Director of the Galleries at Moore and Janet Kaplan, Director of the new BFA in Curatorial Studies announce: Curating and Education: Conversations with an International Panel

Saturday October 27, 2007, 10am – 5pm
Moore College of Art & Design
20th and The Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Curating and Education is the second in an ongoing series of public conversations about issues and ideas in contemporary curatorial practice presented by The Galleries at Moore in conjunction with Moore’s new BFA in Curatorial Studies. Through a series of paired conversations with an international roster of distinguished panelists, we will discuss the creative nexus between curating and education. Questions to be considered include: What do the growing number of projects in which curators are creating educational forums as exhibitions suggest about opening up the creative exchange between curating and education? Given the institutional hierarchies that often impede creative collaboration between curators and educators, how can curating and education work together as powerful laboratories for the production of ideas? What is at stake and what is possible?

The program is free but pre-registration via e-mail is requested for planning purposes. Please RSVP by October 22, 2007 to: jkaplan -at- moore.edu

Continue reading "Curating and Education: Conversations with an International Panel"

Smack Mellon, based in Brooklyn, NY, is accepting proposals from emerging curators for its emerging artists summer show. Smack Mellon’s mission is to nurture and support emerging, under-recognized mid-career and women artists in the creation and exhibition of new work by providing exhibition opportunities, studio workspace, and access to equipment and technical assistance for the realization of ambitious projects.

The Emerging Artists Summer Show will be curated by a selected Emerging Curator and will be made up of Emerging Artists. An Emerging Artist is considered to be an artist without commercial representation who has been working as an artist for less than 10 years and who may not have had previous opportunities to show at a gallery or non-profit space. An Emerging Curator is defined as an independent curator who is beginning their career as a curator.

Proposals are due at Smack Mellon on November 1st. After being chosen, the selected Emerging Curator will review submissions from Emerging Artists with the Smack Mellon staff. Curators will be expected to select some artists from these submissions for their show.

Continue reading "Call for curators: Smack Mellon Emerging Curator Programme"

Tales of the Unexpected: the Future of Curating Contemporary Crafts
Thursday 8th November, mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) 9.45am-4.30pm

Organised by the Crafts Council and MA Curating Contemporary Design, Kingston University (in partnership with the Design Museum), Tales of the Unexpected is a conference that will explore the challenges of curating contemporary craft through a series of exciting and innovative case studies. Examples of best practice have been drawn from fine art, architecture, design, fashion and craft to explore and provide a platform for discussing future strategies for approaching curating contemporary craft. The themes for the day are:

- Craft and the Visual Arts: Pushing Boundaries
- Curating Craft in Public Spaces
- Curating Outside the Vitrine: New Approaches
- Curating Craft as Performance

Continue reading "Curating Craft: Conferences at mima"

The document below, being circulated by the Kamloops Art Gallery in Canada, poses some incisive questions that many cultural institutions, not just museums in small cities, are facing. Input from curators on some of these issues would greatly benefit this study. Full text follows:

Dynamic Art Museums in Small Cities
The Board of Trustees of the Kamloops Art Gallery, a not-for-profit art museum located in the interior of British Columbia in western Canada, met recently to consider its future and to address our considerable responsibilities to various communities.

The Board hopes to develop a new paradigm, an ideal model that emphasizes the compatibility of popular success, scholarship and museological responsibilities that can be used to benchmark our future outcomes and achievements. It also intends to look at the vital and critical role of the "small city gallery" within the global environment.

To these ends, our Trustees would like to know about art galleries in similar small communities with a population between 50,000 and 150,000. It is inviting museum professionals and scholars to define what constitutes a successful small city art museum. How, for example, are historical/traditional and contemporary art programming integrated? What are the inherent responsibilities that come with being recognized as a rigorous institution committed to research and scholarship? What is the potential of small art museums as learning hubs, especially given the opportunities available through the use of new technologies? And lastly, the Board is trying to determine how art museums make a difference in their own immediate and diverse communities and how success is defined in these terms.

The first part of this multi-faceted project is to compile a list of small-city art galleries world-wide that are recognized as leaders in their field. The next step is to refine this list and prepare case studies of 20 to 25 of these institutions for inclusion in a publication about the challenges and possibilities facing the small city gallery. We would appreciate receiving your opinion on the most outstanding galleries based on the objectives of the study outlined in this email. Please forward them to jlmb @ kag.bc.ca

We would also appreciate if you would take the time to forward this inquiry to your email list of colleagues in order to expand the search for outstanding art galleries in small cities. Please include your full name, title and work affiliation for reference and follow-up.

Thank you for your time.
Jann LM Bailey
Executive Director, Kamloops Art Gallery
101-465 Victoria Street, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada V2C 2A9
t 250 3772412 / f 250 828 0662

[Via Christine Castle, on behalf of Jann Bailey. Please respond to her directly at jlmb @ kag.bc.ca. Anything posted in the comments will also be forwarded to Jann.]

The Crafts Council UK is delighted to announce the launch of a new Award scheme for curators.

The Award:
This annual Award scheme will enable successful applicants to each receive a £5,000 Award (inclusive). The Spark Plug Curator Award scheme aims to provide each year a minimum of four selected curators the opportunity to develop an ambitious and innovative exhibition project.

Award Objectives:
- To enable the development of curatorially robust and innovative projects through front end research and development.
- To provide leverage for funding applications.
- Increase the number of challenging and pioneering craft based exhibitions available nationally and regionally.
- Drive the debate into the role of craft in the 21st century.

Criteria:
The Crafts Council Spark Plug Curator Awards are aimed at curators to enable the research and development of a proposed exhibition idea or concept. Each Spark Plug Curator Award consists of a fixed fund from the Crafts Council of £5,000 (inclusive) and lasts for the fixed period of 12 months of research activity, during which time the awardees are required to research and develop an original exhibition project. The application must outline an ambitious and inventive exhibition proposal which engages with contemporary craft. Projects that engage with the following themes are encouraged:

- Interdisciplinary & New contexts; craft in the 21st century; for example: fashion, architecture, design, visual arts.
- Internationalism
- Globalism & Identity

The proposal can be for an exhibition or curatorial event inside or outside the gallery space. Proposals for projects that address the content of the exhibition, concept and staging of the exhibition in imaginative, creative and original ways are welcomed.

Who can apply?
Applicants must be domiciled in the UK. The project proposed must take place in the UK, although the idea may be realised as a virtual or web-based activity. Applicants must have a minimum of three years of proven curatorial experience, either as part of an institution or as a freelance curator. Partnership projects are welcomed.

Closing date for applications: 20th October 2007

For further information, please visit the Crafts Council website.

[Italics are mine - I found the statements that I highlighted to be insightful, though sometimes contentious, viewpoints on the future roles of curators and critics. -Ed.]

Announcing a new, innovative and interdisciplinary two-year program in critical writing and curatorial practice leading to the Master of Arts degree at Konstfack, Sweden’s leading University College of Art, Craft and Design. Our curriculum develops and strengthens the student’s understanding and practice in critical writing and organizing exhibitions in the fields of art, craft and design. But it also promotes inventive responses to recent changes in visual culture and critical practice. As studio practices have become increasingly interdisciplinary, the roles of curator and critic have been reconfigured and new sites of practice have emerged alongside the continuing relevance of established publications, galleries and museums.

Our program is led by an exceptional international faculty, including Rolf Hughes, Ronald Jones, Sara Kristoffersson, Marysia Lewandowska, Håkan Nilsson, Måns Wrange, and Kim West. Students will also be able to study with an array of distinguished visiting faculty – speakers have included Vasif Kortun, Jennifer Allen, Marjetica Potrc, Tirdad Zolghadr, Bruce Hainley, Jens Hoffmann and Claire Bishop – and take advantage of our standing associations with international cultural institutions.

What is distinctive about our program is that students enroll either as a critical writing student or one studying curatorial practice, but collaborate across disciplines while deepening their own practice as a critic or curator. We assume a broad definition of art, craft, design, architecture and media, informed by history, criticism, and theory channeled though new forms of research. As a result, this program prepares students for positions in cultural and educational institutions, scholarship and research, journalism, the art market, and publishing.

Our work, while often speculative, remains practically engaged socially, culturally and ethically. We invite applications from scholars, critics, curators, artists and designers of unusual promise. Applicants should have completed a BA in art history, philosophy, aesthetics, architecture, art, crafts, design, new media or have comparable professional experience. Selection is highly competitive. The program is taught in English.

Applications to the MA in Critical Writing and Curatorial Practice must be received by the Konstfack Admissions Office by May 4, 2007. Please visit our website for further details, and the application form.

The eighth Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF) opens today in Rotterdam. One of the most important international art and technology festivals, DEAF is organized every two years by V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media. This is a special year, as V2_ is also celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary during DEAF07 with a night of music and performances at Staal in Rotterdam on Saturday, April 14. The theme this year is Interact or Die!

Of special interest to curators is the GLOBAL BENDING: Opening Creative Space - Rooting Curatorial Media Practice in China panel discussion that will take place on Friday, 13 April, from 14.00 - 16.30. I am an invited respondent to this panel and look forward to engaging with the panelists. If you are unable to make it to Rotterdam, you can watch live streams for many of the events, including this panel on curating.

Download the full DEAF 07 programme (PDF file) here, read more about how to tune into the live streams here, and follow along on the DEAF 07 blog here.

De Appel is a contemporary arts centre, located in the heart of Amsterdam. Over the 25 years of its existence it has been operating on an international level and for 10 years de Appel has been running a renowned Curatorial Training Programme.

In September 2007, the new version of the eight - month long Curatorial Programme of de Appel, with a renewed curriculum and an extended tutorial team will start. Initiated in 1994, the course wishes to offer young curators a condensed package of experiences and skills which can be used as tools and instruments during the further development of their professional career.

This year an international selection committee, chaired by Ann Demeester, director of de Appel and Head of the programme, selects about 6 participants of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

1. A letter of motivation in which what your personal drive and what you expect from the programme is stated.
2. A proposal for a show (5-15 pages), including: concept and location of the show (main focus), the participating artists (including some image material), a budget of the show, a publicity plan (not obliged)
3. A CV, including an extensive description of one's relevant working experience
4. Two written references of (former) tutors, professors or employers, in English.

On the basis of the submitted documents a pre-selection is made in February. Approximately ten candidates will be shortlisted; they are invited to come to Amsterdam in the end of February or beginning of March for an interview.

Application deadline: 31 January 2007

Send completed applications (in duplicate) to:
de Appel
Att: Roos Gortzak, CTP 07/08
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10
1017 DE Amsterdam
The Netherlands

For further information please visit our website: http://www.deappel.nl Or contact Roos Gortzak on + 31 (0) 20 6255215, roosgortzak -at- deappel.nl

Though at first blush this opportunity may seem to be exclusively for artists, not curators, Collaborative Director of Elsewhere George Scheer tells me that one way to approach this unique residency is to tackle the "...museum as medium and artist as curator within a site-specific and always changing environment".

The opportunity sounds very intriguing and open. Check out the short description below, but do visit their site to obtain further details.

Elsewhere, a living installation, museum of process, and art production space in downtown Greensboro, NC, is seeking artists-in-residence for its Spring, Summer, and Fall 2007 residency seasons. Set within a former thrift store housing a 58-year inventory of American surplus, thrift, and antiques, Elsewhere invites artists-in-residence to utilize the immense collection of objects to pursue site-specific material, conceptual, and/or technologically-based projects. Elsewhere’s building—two full stores on the ground level, a 14-room boarding house on the second, and warehouse on the third—provides dynamic architectures for the creation and installation of works. Artists live and work within changing installations, engaging interactive environments for re-conceptualizing the theory and practice of art-making. Experimenting with museum-as-medium within a store where nothing is for sale, Elsewhere offers an unparalleled framework for merging art practice and everyday life. The complete call for artists is available here. Elsewhere is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

I've just added a new feature to this website that I'd like to draw your attention to.
In the sidebar on the right, you'll see a new search box - called "art + curating Google search". When you enter search terms into this box, a Google search is performed, but it is a pre-refined search, privileging results from a group of art and curating websites that I have defined. I used Google's new Google Co-op platform to build this. Check it out, and enjoy! If you make your own culturally-related custom Google search feature with Google Co-op, let me know in the comments. Also if you have suggestions for sites I should add that would tweak the search results, leave those suggestions in the comments.

International Curating Management Education
Dept. of the History of Art/School of Business
Stockholm University, Sweden
2007/2008

Next course starting January 2007
Application Deadline: 15th October, 2006

The International Curating Management Education at Stockholm University specialises in the combination of arts management, art history, law, and practical curatorial work in a composition that is unusual in comparison to similar courses internationally. Furthermore, the academic level of the education is in keeping with the university environment that we are a part of. We encourage applications from persons within the academic field as well as with curatorial and artistic experience.

The International Curating Management Education is a full time course programme offered by the Department of Art history and the School of Business in collaboration with the Department of Law at Stockholm University. The course faculty consists of representatives of these departments, as well as directors and curators at the Liljevalchs Konsthall and Magasin3 Stockholm Konsthall. Guest lecturers include practising artists, critics, curators and scholars practising in Sweden and internationally.

The education programme spans over a 15 month period and consists of theoretical courses, including a Master’s thesis, a ten weeks internship in Sweden or abroad, a summer workshop, and work on an exhibition project. The teaching takes many forms within the education: lectures, seminars, and supervised work both individually and in groups. Furthermore, each student has a personal tutor from the course faculty. Depending on the make up of the student group, the course is presented in either English or Swedish.

We aim at an education that encourages creativity and innovation as well as an awareness of traditions and a responsibility for museum collections. In other words, we envision a field that bridges institutional and alternative environments. We are attentive to the student’s individual focus and students are encouraged to develop their own profiles.

Upon completing the International Curating Management Education at Stockholm University, the student receives a course diploma. Students who previously hold a Bachelor’s degree fulfil the criteria for a Master’s degree.

For detailed course description, prerequisites and application directions, please refer to our web site. E-mail: curator -at- arthistory.su.se

Please note that no scholarships are offered. International students are also recommended to obtain general information for visiting students in Sweden from the University's web site.

Méta Femmes br@nchées 05 – Nat Muller
October 5th 2006, 10AM, at Studio XX

StudioXX celebrates its 10th birthday under the auspices of Event X, 2 days of conferences, round table discussions and performances. In connection with this event StudioXX will host visitor Nat Muller to present her own curatorial practice.

Nat Muller will be at StudioXX in the morning, on the 5th of October to host an intimate talk on her curatorial work. Her primary research directions have concentrated on the intersections between aesthetics, technology and politics, as well as new media and art practices in the Middle East. Nat will update us on her position as curator working between Europe and the Middle East, bringing up questions emerging from this networked practice which is, according to her, often schizophrenic. You are cordially invited to take part in this discussion.

In order to orient and animate the discussion we have invited active local curator Alice Ming Wai Jim who has recently returned to Montreal after working for 3 years in conservation at the Vancouver International Center for Contemporary Asian Art (Center A). Alice is now a professor at Concordia University. Her main fields of interest include contemporary Asian art, the art of the Diaspora, new medias, theories of representation, globalization, urban studies and curatorial practices. The links between the practices and orientations of Alice Min Wai Jim and Nat Muller promise to foster a dynamic discussion between these two interventionists and the attending public.

The discussion will be in English. $5, free admission for members. Register: programmation@studioxx.org or call (514) 845-7934

Studio XX
338 Terrasse Saint-Denis, Montréal (Québec) H2X 1E8 Canada

Dedalus Foundation, Inc., New York, NY
U.S. citizens only
Deadline: September 15, 2006

Senior Fellowship Program: 
The Dedalus Foundation invites applications to its program of grants in support of art historians, critics, and curators pursuing projects related to the study of modern art and modernism. 
Applicants need not be affiliated with educational institutions or museums; they may not, however, be candidates for a degree. Applicants must be U.S. citizens. 

Awards will be made for periods of up to one year. Stipends will vary according to need, with a maximum of $30,000. 

Submission Guidelines:
Completed applications and supporting letters must be received at the Foundation by September 15th. Announcement of the award will be made by mid-December. 

Request for fellowship application forms and guidelines should be addressed to: 

Dedalus Foundation, Inc. 
555 West 57th Street, Suite 1222 
New York, NY 10019 
Attention: Senior Fellowship Program 

More information