Møllendalsveien 61
5009 Bergen
Norway
MA Curatorial Practice is a part-time, two-year low residency, seminar-based education.
Established 2015, and open to international applicants, the faculty is looking forward to welcoming a diverse group of ten MA candidates in August 2019 to the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen.
The Faculty encourage applications from curators who are independent or affiliated to institutions. We also welcome applications from art professionals with a practice that is strongly linked to curatorial practice (such as curating artists, educators, writers and others) and those from affiliating fields of culture (theatre, film, literature, music etc.) willing to reflect on and translate their knowledge and practice.
The group of ten candidates will consist of individuals who have a personal commitment to their project and a strong interest in sharing their knowledge and thinking. The candidates should be eager to investigate and question their surroundings and professional contexts in order to create a discussion forum.
The MA candidates are required to develop, produce and contextualise one project each in a public context, with a responsibility to secure and develop the collaborations necessary to make this happen—with artists and other professionals, funding bodies, art institutions or other sites. There is an emphasis on sharing knowledge and debate within and beyond the group of candidates, thus the Faculty will fund a public seminar organised by the candidates in collaboration.
Teaching is organised via a varied group of guest tutors, invited by the course director to respond to the candidates’ particular needs, interests and curiosities, and these are open to suggestions from the group of candidates. Each candidate will also choose an external tutor, who will receive a fee paid by the programme, to follow their project individually throughout their MA.
Seminars will happen in Bergen and in the locations where the candidates live and work. The locations and extent of travel will be decided collectively.
Presentation of the study programme. Presentation of the tutors who have contributed to the study programme.
Seminars have since 2015 taken place in Accra, Amsterdam, Beirut, Bergen, Berlin, Budapest, Hong Kong, Lofoten, Nairobi, Oslo, Paris, Portland, Singapore, Trondheim, Tromsø.
The MA consists of 16 seminars in total. A single seminar is five working days, a double seminar is eight–ten working days. Semester 1 consists of two single and one double seminar, Semester 2 consists of three single seminars and one individual study trip. Semester 3 consists of two single and one double seminar. Semester 4 consists of one single and one double seminar, as well as the final exam-seminar.
Seminars autumn 2019 will be in Bergen, Istanbul and Budapest.
Course director is Professor in Curatorial Practice curator, writer and editor Anne Szefer Karlsen.
The teaching language is English.
There are no tuition fees. Each candidate receives a small traveling stipend of NOK 10,000 in total over two years.
Current candidates have in dialogue with their employers incorporated this MA as part of their working practice within institutions willing to invest in their employees and further their professional development.
The master’s degree in Curatorial Practice allows the candidate to apply for admission to the PhD in Artistic Research Programme.
The candidates will graduate in June 2021, provided they have fulfilled the following criteria:
–A minimum of 80 % attendance and participation is required
–Successfully passed semesters 1–3
–Successfully completed the individual project
–Submitted documentation of this project (images, sound, video, ephemera etc.)
–Submitted a written piece reflecting on and contextualising the individual project (8,000–12,000 words)
–Passed an oral examination with external examiners
Read the programme description
The applicant must hold a Bachelor’s Degree and have at least two years of professional practice to apply.
Applicants are assessed on the basis of a project description, past diplomas/certificates, a portfolio documenting previous projects, CV and an interview, which will be conducted in Bergen, Norway on 23 and 24 May 2019. Interviews are possible via internet. Application form.
