Curating Contemporary Art and Design: Why Publish? Publishing as Expanded Curatorial Practice.', with sector leading curators, artists, researchers and writers.
Key details
Fees
- Spring Discount until 25th April: £1,575
- Full Fee: £1,750
Dates
Location
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Live Online
The 2025 focus for this two-week intensive online short course in Curating Contemporary Art and Design is 'Why Publish? Publishing as Expanded Curatorial Practice'.
The course will explore publishing as a significant creative and critical mode in contemporary curatorial practice. Organised around different curatorial motivations – such as documenting and archiving, constructing (new) histories, collaboration and radical collectives, self-organisation and activism – the course offers an overview of contemporary approaches to curatorial publishing practices in different global contexts.
As a forum for learning in a collaborative, highly dynamic and participatory atmosphere, the course combines analytical debate with online workshops, group activities and practice-led approaches taught by the world’s leading art and design university.
The 2025 guest speakers are:
- Dora García (artist, Norway)
- Raqs Media Collective (artists/curators, India)
- Abbas Zahedi (artist, UK)
- Annie Jael Kwan (curator, UK)
- Morgan Quaintance (curator/writer, UK)
- Chimurenga (artist collective, South Africa)
- Lumbung Press (collective printing practice, represented by artist Erick Beltrán, Spain)
- Ben Cranfield (academic, UK)
- Grant Watson (curator, UK)
- Feral Atlas (online/interactive platform represented by visual anthropologist, Victoria Baskin Coffey, Denmark)
- Ania Dabrowska (artist, UK)
With further speakers to be announced, the July 2025 course is convened by Elisabeth Del Prete, Associate Lecturer, School of Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Art, in collaboration with Dr Gerrie van Noord and Dr Laura Vallés-Vílchez. The Course Director is Professor Victoria Walsh, Head of Programme for MA Curating Contemporary Art.
From their various perspectives – professionally, geographically, culturally – all of the speakers will talk about the importance of publishing as a mode of practice.
The course builds on, but also significantly expands on concerns explored in the earlier short course ‘Publishing, Editing, Writing Intensive’.
Please submit your application for July 2025 dates.
About the course
What will I learn?
You will learn about:
- Current debates in art and design by engaging with professionals working at the forefront of the field.
- Latest developments in contemporary critical and curatorial practice by encountering a range of institutions, exhibitions and curated programmes.
- How curatorial projects are conceived, researched and delivered.
- How to develop and pitch curatorial project ideas.
- How to work collaboratively.
How will you learn?
Learning takes place through a dynamic ten-day programme, delivered over two weeks. Each day features at least two sessions, comprising three-and-a-half hours of live interaction via zoom.
In these sessions, participants are taught as a group and work in smaller teams.
The sessions are delivered by RCA tutors and invited experts, including curators, artists and cultural practitioners.
These sessions feature:
- Seminars
- Presentations
- Workshops
- Encounters with exhibitions and institutions
- Collaborative group work and group discussion
- In-depth feedback through ‘crits’
- Project development and presentations.
Course History
The Curating Contemporary Art and Design short course has been running successfully since 2016. Previous summer courses have focused on the Ecologies of Curating, Archives and Collections, and Curating after the Internet. Each course includes sessions with RCA experts, renowned curators, artists, writers and critics from the UK and across the globe.
For the last five years the course has secured a score of 5/5 from its participants who frequently highlight the diversity of speakers, the breadth and depth of knowledge and practice encountered, the open and informal environment for discussion and debate, and the pleasure and challenges of peer to peer learning and developing projects with other international participants.
Course delivery
The course is organised in synchronous sessions in a live virtual environment that combines various digital platforms and tools.
Zoom
Using the videoconferencing service Zoom, RCA tutors and invited experts deliver a mix of:
- seminars
- presentations
- workshops
- collaborative group work and group discussion
- in-depth feedback through ‘crits’
- project development and presentations
- participants interact with the faculty and peers in breakout rooms in real-time.
Miro
Participants engage in cross-functional teamwork with the use of visual collaboration tools.
Through the online whiteboard platform Miro, participants get to:
- interact with various formats and templates
- plan and brainstorm ideas
- create processes and workshop activities in the digital workspace.
Moodle
The College's learning platform Moodle is personalised according to the course's requirements to provide participants with a secure integrated system where they can access the course content.
The hub hosts a wide range of useful resources to enhance the learning experience, including comprehensive timetables, pre-reading materials, course slides, curated videos, tutorials, and session recordings.
Slack
Participants stay connected and communicate via the channel-based messaging platform Slack throughout the course.
In this space, academics, facilitators, and delegates can network, plan the course activities, and share documents and files during live sessions or offline.
Course outcomes
Participants will learn how to:
- engage with current debates in art and design
- explore contemporary critical and curatorial practice
- understand how curatorial projects are conceived, researched and delivered
- develop and pitch project ideas
- work collaboratively.
Course benefits
Personal and organisation benefits include:
- Exploring a range of fine art and design disciplines in international contexts.
- Access to curators, critics, researchers, historians and writers.
- Learning in a collaborative, highly dynamic atmosphere through an interdisciplinary approach.
- Interaction and networking with international peers from different backgrounds.
- Certificate of online attendance.
Since 2016, we have welcomed participants from Singapore's Asian Civilisations Museum, Budapest's Museum of Applied Arts, the Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Warwick Arts Centre and the Design Trust, Gabriel Caruana Foundation, Daiwa Foundation, Arusha Gallery, to name a few.
Who should attend?
- Art and design graduates
- Early- and mid-career professionals from the cultural sector
- Curators and arts programmers
- Artists and designers
- Writers
- Researchers
The course will be of interest to those curious about the potentialities of new forms of public sharing and encounter with creative ideas and practices through talks by international speakers, discussions and group work with feedback from course tutors.
Admission criteria
Participants must:
- have a successful application
- have an undergraduate degree
- have a good level of English language
- be 21 years old or over.
Application process
Submit your 2025 application here
How do I apply?
The online form requires you to submit:
- a 300-word statement explaining relevant professional and/or academic experience and outlining your interest in the course.
- a CV.
Application notes
- Please name the CV file before uploading using the following naming convention: Full Name_CV_2025 Curating Application
- Once you submit your application you will not be able to make changes.
- Only applications submitted via the online form will be accepted.
- Applications that are not complete or exceed the maximum file size will not be considered.
If your application is accepted you will be emailed with a booking link. A deadline for accepting and paying for your place will be provided in the email. The place will be held until this deadline, if you do not make payment by this date then your place will be released and offered to another participant.
Application deadlines 2025
- Participants are advised to apply early to avoid disappointment as places are strictly limited.
- Applications will be assessed by the RCA course team every two weeks until June 2025 or until the course is fully booked. We will inform all applicants by email within two weeks after they submit an application about whether or not they have been successful.
- Unfortunately we do not provide further feedback information.
- If the course is fully booked and your application is successful we will add your name to a waiting list.
How will I know that my place is confirmed?
The offer of a place will only be secured and confirmed when the RCA receives 100 per cent of the course fee payment. Places are secured on a first-come basis on receipt of appropriate payment.
How can I pay for the course?
The course needs to be paid in full by one instalment and via the online payment system using a debit or credit card. Once you are offered a place on the course you will receive a secure online booking link. Please complete the registration and booking process to make the booking. Please ensure that you are using the most up to date version of your internet browser. We regret that it is not possible to pay the course fee by instalments.
Course team
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Contact us
Get in touch with us if you'd like to find out more about this or any of our other short courses.
short-courses@rca.ac.uk
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