Open Call for Curatorial Programme 2019/2020

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.

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.