Open Call
Curatorial Programme 2023
Application deadline: February 6, 2022
This is an invitation to apply for the 28th edition of de Appel’s Curatorial Programme, running from January 9–November 12, 2023.
Local and international curators, artists and cultural practitioners will come together to learn from each other and from people who make a difference, reject narrow narratives, transform perception, feel differently, think spherically and let the shadows in. As de Appel’s programming evolves, we imagine futures with a changing awareness of the world histories that shape the here and now. These futures are emphatically plural and so we are with Audre Lorde when she says: “I believe it is the hyphenated people of Europe who represent a last chance for Europe to learn how to deal with difference creatively, rather than pretending it does not exist, or destroying it.” In other words, we seek different participants who understand themselves and others as plural beings.
De Appel’s Curatorial Programme (CP) is a life-changing opportunity for motivated individuals who seek experience in making art public, beyond what academic degrees can offer. This intensive 10-month period of residency in Amsterdam involves full immersion in the local scene with de Appel as an institutional base. Following a rich curriculum intended to provide direct insight into the work of artists as well as the building of institutions and communities, up to six participants will collectively determine de Appel’s public offering in the fall of 2023.
The 2023 CP will unfold through a series of workshops, sessions, meetings, and studio visits, which are punctuated by intensive site visits and research trips. While de Appel’s CP is known for formative international travel, with the COVID-19 pandemic this ritual is reinvented, with new attention to the worlds within Amsterdam and the surrounding region. Throughout the course, participants gain full access to de Appel’s distinctive three-part institutional structure comprised of our open, lively Archive, our free-thinking, hands-on Curatorial Programme, and our community-oriented Education Initiatives – all of which contribute to the learning ethos in our public offerings. Through collective study and shared responsibility they shape the very DNA of our experimental institution.
The participants, chosen by a jury of distinguished practitioners, will join a network of alumni and advisors who continue to transform the social life of art. People of various backgrounds or formations are encouraged to bring their knowhow and experience to the table. They must be as ready to learn from each other as they are from invited advisors, as well as from those who paved their paths.
Over the last 27 years, CP alumni have gone on to lead and to found world-renowned and locally grounded initiatives; many have made strides as curators of biennials and signature exhibitions, and as the artistic directors of the last and the next editions of documenta. De Appel’s CP now aims to nurture a new generation of cultural practitioners who are allies of artists and builders of institutions and communities. At stake is the role of art as a space and time to pose vital questions—to pause, to reflect, to deliberate in our rapidly evolving and increasingly polarized society. Defending such a space-time for a broader public sphere takes great resourcefulness and organizational agility. It also involves imagination, wisdom and joy.
De Appel’s Curatorial Programme is supported by the Stichting Hartwig Foundation and Ammodo.
More information on de Appel’s Curatorial Programme (curriculum; current and previous participants and advisors; application procedures, including fees and forms of financial assistance) may be found here.
Based on the submitted documents, approximately twelve candidates will be short-listed. Interviews with the jury will take place beginning of March after which the final participants will be selected.
Application requirements
1. The application form, completed and signed (see the Curatorial Programme section of de Appel’s website under "Take part")
2. Motivation letter, max. 500 words
3. Response of max. 300 words each, to the following questions:
–What is the social role of an exhibition or artistic program in your personal experience (describe a formative one) and how do you want to shape that role in the future?
–Please introduce one artwork that you feel makes sense in Amsterdam, as you understand the city at this time.
–Motivate one project you would most eagerly like to realize in the next two years.
4. CV, max. 2 pages
5. Two written references of (former) tutors, colleagues, or employers, in English or Dutch.
Please prepare one single PDF-document with these items (in Dutch or English) in the above order. This PDF and any questions can be emailed by February 6, 2022 to the Curatorial Programme Coordinator, Liza Nijhuis: liza [at] deappel.nl
Please direct all your inquiries to Liza Nijhuis, Curatorial Programme Coordinator liza@deappel.nl