The MA Curatorial Practice Department at the School of Visual Arts Presents Curating the Curatorial: An International Summit Saturday, November 2, 2013, 9:30am – 6:30pm SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, New York City.
The MA Curatorial Practice Department at the School of Visual Arts presents Curating the Curatorial, an international summit on the state of the vastly expanded curatorial field today and its ethics and responsibilities, with more than 20 prominent curators, museum directors, artists and theorists from around the world. Organized by Department Chair Steven Henry Madoff and Deputy Chair Jovana Stokic, the event, which is free and open to the public, takes place on Saturday, November 2 at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, New York City.
Coinciding with the launch of the MA Curatorial Practice Department at SVA, the program takes account of the many ways that curators and institutions are reconsidering the objects and collections that are the materials of their practices at the same time that they adapt, question and attempt to renovate their formats of knowledge production and display.
Says Madoff: “If a curator may be defined as one who cares for things, knowledge and people, then the ongoing challenge for curators is to continually examine and re-conceive their practices within the speculative, philosophical, artistic, administrative, economic, scholarly and social currents of the times.”
In addition to three keynote speeches, to be announced in October, the program includes three panels that engage different aspects of the field: “Thinking Objects,” “Remapping the Collection,” and “Ecology of the Expanded Curatorial Field.”
Speakers and panelists include: Wassan Al-Khudairi, independent curator and former director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Daniel Birnbaum, director, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Saskia Bos, dean, School of Art, The Cooper Union, New York; Ana Paula Cohen, independent curator, São Paulo; Bice Curiger, director, Van Gogh Foundation, Arles; Clémentine Deliss, director, Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt; Okwui Enwezor, director, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Eva Franch i Gilabert, director, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York; Graham Harman, philosopher, American University in Cairo; Jens Hoffmann, deputy director, Jewish Museum, New York; Maria Lind, director, Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm; Steven Henry Madoff, chair, MA Curatorial Practice, SVA, New York; Chus Martinez, chief curator, El Museo del Barrio, New York; Josiah McElheny, artist, New York; Shamim M. Momin, director, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division); Gabi Ngcobo, director, Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg; David A. Ross, chair, MFA Art Practice, SVA, New York, and former director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Jeffrey Schnapp, co-director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University; Simon Sheikh, director, MFA in Curating, Goldsmiths, London; Jovana Stokic, deputy chair, MA Curatorial Practice, SVA, New York; Mick Wilson, director, Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg; and Ari Wiseman, deputy director, Guggenheim Museum, New York. Additional panelists and speakers will be announced.
For the full program of Curating the Curatorial and to register, please go to macp.sva.edu/summit. The summit is free and open to the public. Prospective students for the MA Curatorial Practice are welcome.
The summit will be followed at 7:30pm by an Information Session for those interested in applying to become students in the MA Curatorial Practice Department. For more information and to register specifically for the Information Session, please go to cpopenhouse.eventbrite.com.
The Master of Arts degree in Curatorial Practice (CP) is a two-year, 50-credit professional training program that addresses the exponential growth of curatorial venues worldwide and the ongoing establishment of curatorial practice as a discipline. The program emphasizes hands-on training with working professionals, a thorough grounding in history and theory, and attention to curatorial work across the visual arts, design, film, new media, performance and research-based cultural production.
School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers, and creative professionals for more than six decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, dynamic curriculum, and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprised of more than 6,000 students at its Manhattan campus and 35,000 alumni in 100 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 32 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.