Curating.info

For its inaugural presentation, and in the spirit of championing emerging talent, the Flash Forward Festival is proud to announce this call for proposals from emerging Canadian curators to program the Outdoor Canadian Exhibition component of the festival. The chosen candidate will be awarded the privilege of mounting a group show featuring the work of emerging Canadian photographers. Full entry details are listed below.

What we are looking for:

We invite exhibition proposals from emerging curators for a group exhibition that features the work of emerging Canadian photographers. In keeping with the vitality and the range of work that Flash Forward showcases every year, we are looking for a thoughtful and dynamic presentation suitable for the outdoor locale. This competition will provide a platform for an ambitious young curator to truly make his or her mark among international peers.
Eligibility

For the purposes of this application, the criteria that The Magenta Foundation will use to define a candidate as an emerging curator is as follows:

- Potential candidates must be under the age of 35 and have been curating projects for no longer than five (5) years.
- In that time, potential candidates must have curated at least two (2) exhibitions at public/regional or university galleries (should the candidate wish, this may include any programming commissioned as a requirement of their graduate or undergraduate studies).

Submission requirements

Candidates who meet the above eligibility requirements should submit, via the online application process, the following materials by 12:01 a.m., June 1, 2010:

1. A current Curriculum Vitae
2. A one- to two-page essay (double-spaced using 12-point type) that outlines the reasons why the candidate wishes to be considered for this curatorial position. The document should describe the applicant’s curatorial philosophy and demonstrate a solid comprehension of the current state of fine art photography and/or photojournalism in Canada and its international context.
3. A sample of previous critical art writing (an exhibition review or a curatorial statement from a previous exhibition).
4. A thesis, no more than one-page (double-spaced using 12-point type), proposing an exhibition that will feature the work of emerging Canadian photographers at the Flash Forward Festival. Candidates may not include their own works of art in the proposed exhibition. NB: The exhibition will be mounted in an outdoor courtyard in Liberty Village. Visit this link for photos of the exhibition venue that the winning candidate will program and should refer to in their thesis.
5. A maximum of 20 images may accompany and support the proposed exhibition. Upload jpegs only, no larger than 1MB per image (around 72-150 dpi and 800 x 600 pixels). For each uploaded image please list its title, name of the artist, date, media, and dimensions. For each artist, please include a brief bio and, if possible, a link to their website.

The submission deadline is 12:01 a.m., June 1, 2010.
Candidate Review Process

Applications will be reviewed by a curatorial panel of industry leaders:

- Sophie Hackett, Curator of Photography, Art Gallery of Ontario
- Jennifer Long, Artist, Curator, Educator
- MaryAnn Camilleri, Founder and Executive Director, The Magenta Foundation

The winning candidate will be publicly announced on June 4, 2010. The Magenta Foundation will work in tandem with the selected emerging curator to implement their vision and carry out the production of the exhibition.

Please note that the curatorial panel has the right to decline any application that is incomplete or does not meet the eligibility requirements as outlined above.

The Winning Emerging Curator Will Receive:

- One return ticket to Toronto to the Flash Forward Festival, plus accommodation (this component has no transferable value should the winning candidate live in the Greater Toronto Area)
- A VIP pass to attend all festival programming
- A speaking opportunity, as part of the official programming at the Flash Forward Festival, to present the Outdoor Canadian Exhibition
- Publication of the winning curatorial proposal in the Flash Forward Festival’s official program

Full details are on how to submit here.


About the Flash Forward Festival

October 6-10, 2010

The Flash Forward Festival is an international five-day bi-annual event launching in Toronto’s Liberty Village in October 2010. The Flash Forward Festival is an extension of The Magenta Foundation’s successful annual emerging photographers competition, Flash Forward. The competition, established as a platform to promote emerging artists from Canada, the US, and the UK, has positioned itself as the critically important vanguard for introducing international emerging talent to a global audience.

The Flash Forward competition receives highly favourable international coverage and is widely considered to be one of the most important emerging art incubators in the world.

The Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Emerging Artist Program once again does what its name implies: it freezes a brief moment in time, preserving it for closer inspection and demonstrating the promise of what is to come in the international photography community. (Boston Globe 2008)

Flash Forward’s mission is to showcase the future of photography, focusing on emerging talent that renowned jurors have identified as having great potential. The bi-annual festival will provide an in-depth experience for emerging photographers through educational and networking opportunities including events with collectors/arts enthusiasts and industry professionals (academics, gallerists, media/art directors and photo editors). The festival will include five curated exhibitions (representing the three host countries plus one guest country invited to showcase their best emerging photographers), as well as workshops, a lecture series, nightly events, an art fair and a closing party all taking place within Toronto’s Liberty Village, the host neighbourhood of the Flash Forward Festival.

Salon Contemporary, located in London's Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, is hosting a competition for aspiring curators. This competition will feature a series of pop-up galleries across the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), each lasting 1 week to 2 months. These pop-ups will take place in sites left empty by the recession, and each will combine different elements of art and lifestyle – Art & Design, Art & Fashion, Art & Music, Art & Environment, Art & Food, and so on.

Six contestants will be chosen to each run a gallery. Each competitor will have the opportunity to pitch a pop-up gallery theme, help select artists, curate a show, and run the gallery for the length of its operation. Once all of the shows have been launched, a panel of renowned figures within the art world (to be announced next month) will judge the galleries and select the two best curators. The new top curator will be chosen from these two by a public vote run through Salon Contemporary's website.

This competition provides a huge opportunity for any art student with a talent for curating, and any business student with an interest in applying his or her skills to the art market. It will be the experience of running a small business (with the support of a parent organization), of interacting with renowned art-world figures, of dealing with artists and collectors, and of branding/marketing an operation. Additionally, the winner of the competition will receive a £5,000 bursary (full tuition) for the Salon Contemporary apprenticeship program – the most promising curator will get a chance to build on his or her skills and gain the education necessary to run a fully-independent art dealership.

To enter, please submit your CV and a cover letter (of no more than 500 words) to curator -at- salongallery.co.uk. Only current students and graduates of the last two years are eligible to apply. Please note this is an ongoing competition.

MARCO/FRAC Lorraine Award for Young Curators
Deadline: 7pm, Friday 30th October, 2009

Organized by the MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Spain and FRAC Lorraine, Metz (Fonds regional d’art contemporain de Lorraine), France, the purpose of the MARCO/FRAC Lorraine Award for Young Curators is to offer participants the chance to execute an exhibition project to occupy MARCO’s first floor and the exhibition venues at FRAC Lorraine. Entries will focus on the field of contemporary artistic creation and contemplate the participation of two or more artists.

The exhibition project will have a budget of a maximum sum of 30,000 Euro for each venue. The exhibition will take place from May to September, 2010 at MARCO Vigo, and from October, 2010 and January 2011 at FRAC Lorraine. Proposals that include works from the Collection FRAC Lorraine shall be taken into account. To visit the Collection: http://collection.fraclorraine.org

All curators born in and after 1970 are eligible to enter the competition. If an entry is a group creation, one person will be chosen from that group to represent it and act as mediator with the institution. Curators will not be allowed to participate as artists. Entries must be previously unpublished and must contemplate the participation of two or more artists. No more than one project per entrant will be accepted.

The curator of the winning project will sign a contract with the Fundación MARCO and FRAC Lorraine, agreeing to comply with the functions derived from curating an exhibition, the characteristics of which will be specified in the contract. These will include the selection and location of the works, the design and supervision of the installation, and the writing of at least one text for the catalogue. The curator will receive the sum of 7,000 Euro, tax included, as an honorarium.

A jury made up of professionals of the art world will select the winning project and two finalists in November. The jury’s decision is final. The jury may declare the award void should they consider this necessary. The criteria for evaluating the entries will be based on quality and suitability to the characteristics of the first floor of the MARCO as an exhibition space and exhibition spaces at FRAC Lorraine.

The jury will be composed of:
Beatrice Josse, FRAC Lorraine Director
Iñaki Martínez Antelo, MARCO Director
Kevin Muhlen, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain Director
Agar Ledo Arias, MARCO Head of the Exhibitions Dept.
Pedro de Llano, Art Critic and curator

The jury’s decision will be made public in November 2009 and all participants will be notified.

Entries must be exclusively and simultaneously submitted, PDF format to the following e-mail addresses info at marcovigo.com and fraclorraine.coordination at wanadoo.fr, subject: ‘Award for Young Curators’. In case of sending additional information, please send it to: MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo. Rúa Príncipe, 54. 36202 Vigo (Pontevedra), Spain and 49 Nord 6 Est - FRAC Lorraine. 1 bis, rue des Trinitaires. 57000 Metz, France. Dossiers received in only one venue will not be accepted. Projects must be preferably written in English, although Spanish, French or Galician languages are admitted.

The closing date for the reception of entries is 7pm, Friday 30th October, 2009. Dossiers received after this time will not be accepted.

For more information:
http://www.marcovigo.com
http://www.fraclorraine.org

The Fifth Curator - International Curatorial Competition
Deadline : 4 September, 2009

The British Council is launching an innovative programme to find an international curator to select its final exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Following on the heels of Michael Craig-Martin, Jeremy Deller, Nicholas Penny and Paula Rego, a fifth curator is to be selected through an imaginative competition for curators worldwide.

The Fifth Curator competition is a unique new opportunity for an aspiring curator to select an exhibition of works from the British Council Collection. We are looking for someone who is based permanently outside the UK, who believes they have the passion and knowledge to be a leading curator. The winning curator will be given unlimited access to the Collection, which includes over 8500 key works of British art and the resulting exhibition will be shown at the prestigious Whitechapel in the vibrant East end of London in April 2010.

The Fifth Curator exhibition will be the fifth and final exhibition in a series of five exhibitions showcasing the British Council Collection in the Whitechapel Gallery. Artist Michael Craig-Martin selected the first exhibition Passports - Great Early Buys from the British Council Collection, focusing on some of the most prescient acquisitions in the Collection's long history.

'My selection of works for this exhibition barely scratches the surface of the Collection. For every work I felt able to include there were half a dozen I had to leave out... This is a collection that contains hidden treasures, many of which I know will be included in subsequent exhibitions of this series.' (Michael Craig-Martin)

The British Council Collection is widely regarded as one of the greatest collections of modern and contemporary British art in the world. It includes over 8500 works by artists living or working in Britain, and the majority of the works are shown in exhibitions around the world. The series of exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery marks a rare opportunity to view works from the Collection in the UK.

For The Fifth Curator exhibition, aspiring curators from outside the United Kingdom are invited to submit an exhibition proposal which features works drawn exclusively from the British Council Collection. We particularly encourage new views and fresh perspectives on the Collection, as these are vital to ongoing debates about British art within an international context.

In November 2009, six short-listed applicants will be invited to London to take part in a week of professional development with the Visual Arts Department of the British Council. During this week, applicants will be encouraged to refine their proposals with the advice, guidance and resources of the Visual Arts team and they will be given the opportunity to visit the Whitechapel gallery to view the proposed exhibition space and meet with the Whitechapel curatorial team. At the end of the week, the winning proposal will be selected by a panel of senior art world figures at a special presentation dinner.

The Fifth Curator competition forms part of the British Council’s ongoing commitment to promote the Collection to new audiences, both in the UK and worldwide and to engage aspiring curatorial talent with one of Britain’s finest collections of British Art.

For more info and how to apply: http://collection.britishcouncil.org/about/news/2210/2212