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.

This program represents the first Curatorial Intensive in the U.S. 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 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.

For more information or questions, please email Jessica Man at jessicaman@curatorsintl.org.

Application deadline: November 14, 2014

The Curatorial Intensive is ICI’s short-term, low-cost training program that offers a group of curators the chance to develop project ideas and make connections with professionals in the field. It also provides the invaluable opportunity for peer-group education, forging new networks internationally. The Curatorial Intensive takes place annually in New York, and in other locations in conjunction with institutional partners worldwide.

Prospect New Orleans was conceived in the tradition of the great international exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale and the Bienal de São Paulo, to showcase new artistic practices from around the world in settings that are both historic and culturally exceptional, and contribute to the cultural economy of New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf region. Prospect.3: Notes for Now, the third edition of the New Orleans International Contemporary Art Biennial, is on view through January 25, 2015.

The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) is a multi–disciplinary arts center dedicated to the presentation, production, and promotion of the art of our time. Formed in 1976 by a passionate group of visual and performing artists when the movement to tear down the walls between visual and performing arts was active nationwide, the CAC expresses its mission by organizing world class curated exhibitions, performances, and public programs that educate and enlarge audiences for the arts while encouraging collaboration among diverse stakeholders composed of artists, institutions, communities, and supporters throughout the world.

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