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Independent Curators International (ICI), in collaboration with Prospect New Orleans and the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, presents the inaugural Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans.

Curatorial Intensive in New Orleans

January 18–24, 2015

Application deadline: November 14, 2014

This program represents the first Curatorial Intensive in the US outside of New York since earlier collaborations with the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI) in 2010–11. The course will be part of an ongoing series of programs engaging with curatorial and artistic practices around the Gulf of Mexico—including exhibitions and curatorial research fellowships—and is one of several partnerships that ICI has developed in the Crescent City.

The Intensive is designed to immerse participants in a rigorous schedule of seminars, conversations, and presentations that support the process of developing an idea for an exhibition or program into a full proposal. It will bring together emerging curators from across the American South and around the world for the opportunity to exchange ideas, develop their curatorial projects, and explore Prospect.3: Notes for Now, the international biennial curated by Franklin Sirmans.

Seminars, site visits, individual meetings, and roundtable discussions will be led by a group of professionals that includes Dr. Andrea Andersson (Chief Curator of Visual Arts, CAC New Orleans), María del Carmen Carrión (Director of Public Programs & Research, ICI), Tumelo Mosaka (independent curator, New York), Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (artist, San Juan), Valerie Cassel Oliver (Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), Elvira Dyangani Ose (Lecturer in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London and Curator of the 8th Edition of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, GIBCA 2015), Renaud Proch (Executive Director, ICI), Franklin Sirmans (Artistic Director, Prospect.3, New Orleans and Terri and Michael Smooke Department Head and Curator of Contemporary Art, LACMA, Los Angeles) and Claire Tancons (independent curator, New Orleans), as well as the soon-to-be-announced Artistic Director of Prospect.4, among others.

Application guidelines 

12–14 applicants working internationally will be selected to participate in the Curatorial Intensive. The applicant must have 3+ years of curatorial experience. All applications must include a 500-word description of an exhibition or program idea that the applicant would like help in developing. This description should outline the proposal concept and any artists that the applicant is considering. Also required are a current 250-word bio, a 500-word letter of intent, and a 300-word text that describes a recent curatorial project that has made an impact on the applicant. To apply and for full application guidelines, visit ICI’s website.

Fees and scholarships

The program fee is 1,900 USD. Participants are also responsible for covering travel and accommodation expenses. Scholarship packages that subsidize or eliminate the program fees, accommodation and travel expenses are available and awarded based on merit. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please include a letter of motivation with your application.

Image: CI Curatorial Intensive in New York, “Curating Now,” site visit to the Glass House, September 21–30, 2014.

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