Amsterdam | call for applications for De Appel Curatorial Programme

De Appel invites international curators to apply to its ten-month long, full-time educational platform in Amsterdam.

2019 marks the 25-year anniversary of De Appel’s groundbreaking Curatorial Programme (CP). Within a curriculum dedicated to anticipating and responding to ongoing developments in the field, the 25th year of the programme will place a special focus on constructing better futures for curatorial practice.

The 2019-2020 CP will unfold through a series of workshops, sessions, meetings, and studio visits, which are punctuated by intensive site visits and research trips. Throughout the course, participants conduct guided individual research resulting in a substantive text or creative project, and collectively self-organize a major final project to be exhibited/presented in the spring at De Appel.

In order to situate its participants constructively in a local context, emphasis is placed on immersion within the regional contemporary art field. Significant travels will be conducted around Amsterdam and the Netherlands for various professional meetings with local curators, art institutions, and artists. Participants will also travel internationally; recent trips have taken place in Morocco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Turkey, Mexico, and throughout Europe. Within these travels emphasis is given on introducing a context the participants are not familiar with.

Parallel to these site-based encounters, the programme cultivates direct and profound exchanges of curatorial practice and theory, facilitated by multi-day workshops, one-day sessions, and brief artist presentations. This theoretical and pragmatic approach to curatorial practice encourages continuous questioning and discussion of curatorial models, the ethical and ideological aspects of the profession, and the changing professional parameters of the curator. These themes are considered in relationship to the programme of De Appel, local sensibilities and specificities, and more global shifts in curatorial practice. The CP’s curricular praxis ultimately explores alternative ways of conceptualizing, developing and implementing exhibitions, performances, public programmes, hybrid gatherings, screenings, ephemeral gestures, and long-term investigations, and challenges the institutional and systemic contexts in which these take place.

Application Procedure
The Curatorial Programme 2019-2020 will run from 1 September 2019 until 30 June 2020. The application deadline for the Curatorial Programme 2019-2020 is on 30 January 2019. Based upon the submitted documents twelve candidates will be shortlisted. An international jury will interview the candidates in March 2019 and will select the final six participants.

Only completed applications will be considered. Applicants who are not selected for an interview will receive an official letter by email. Due to the large amount of applications, there will be no further correspondence about the results.

Application Requirements
1. The application form, completed and signed (see below)
2. Motivation letter, max. 500 words
3. Response of max. 300 words each, to the following questions:
–What is one thing that you would like to change about current curatorial practice?
–What comes after Contemporary Art? What would you like to see, or what has already replaced it?
–Motivate one project you would most eagerly like to realise in the next two years.
4. CV, max. 2 pages
5. Two written references of (former) tutors, colleagues, or employers, in English
The application should be submitted in one single Pdf-document with items in the above order. Completed applications should be sent digitally to: cp-application@deappel.nl

See website for all application documents

Please note: this is a paid programme - potential applicants need to consult the financial commitments below.

Tuition fee
The tuition fee for the Curatorial Programme is 7.500 EUR. All workshops, guest lectures, excursions and costs related to other curricular activities are covered by De Appel. De Appel also provides a budget for a project / programming.

Although De Appel cannot grant stipends, we can help selected participants with locating funding opportunities.

Visa & health insurance
Non-European citizens need to apply for a temporary resident permit (student visa). More information can be found on the website of the IND, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the Ministry of Security and Justice. The costs for a temporary resident permit for the duration of the programme are 317 EUR. In order to be eligible for the residency permit, a single person should have a monthly minimum budget of 867,68 EUR throughout their stay in the Netherlands.

Any person living in the Netherlands must have health insurance from a Dutch insurance company. The costs are approx. 110 EUR per month.

Housing
Participants of the Curatorial Programme are required to live in Amsterdam during the programme year. To find housing in Amsterdam can be particularly difficult. Taking into account steep renting prices in Amsterdam, participants should calculate between 400 and 800 EUR for expenses in rent.

Image: Participants De Appel Curatorial Programme 2018-2019. Photo by Boris Postma