Intro to Curatorial Studies

Additional course fees apply to this course. Please reach out to your Prague Program Manager for additional information about these fees.

Course Description
The focus of this course is on the theory and practice of curatorial work in cultural institutions, independent art spaces and galleries, with a preliminary focus on curating contemporary art. Reading and discussion of selected texts as well as series of lectures on contemporary institutional and curatorial approaches will provide the participants with an overview of current issues, trends and possibilities. A part of the course will also be based on personal meetings with curators and art theoreticians active on the Prague art scene and discussions of their practice. During the course, each student will continuously work on developing his or her own exhibition project proposal and looking into all the major aspects of curatorial work: research, artist and venue selection, working with the gallery space, with existing and newly commissioned artworks, exhibition architecture, texts, accompanying programs etc. The projects will be widely discussed during the semester and presented in the end both in a verbal presentation and written form accompanied by visual documentation.

Course Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand major current issues and theories in curatorship in its conceptual, institutional and management aspects.
• Develop basic skills in curatorial thinking and working methods (preparing and managing the exhibition projects).
• Develop an ability to analyze and critique art exhibitions.
• Understand and implement the main steps in the process of exhibition making, such as research, work with text and concept of the exhibition, installation plan etc.
• Understand the possibilities of working with an exhibition space, analyze diverse strategies of display and presentation of artworks.
• Design their own extensive curatorial project proposal.