School History

World of Art, School for Curatorial Practices and Critical Writing

 

The World of Art educational programme was developed in 1996 out of the need for theoretical and practical education in contemporary visual art and theory. It was conceived by Alenka Pirman, artistic director of Škuc Gallery, and Lilijana Stepančič, director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts – Ljubljana. In 1998, the school moved its base from the Škuc Gallery to the Soros Centre, and its management was taken over by Saša (Glavan) Nabergoj, who played a crucial role in designing the programme and was the initiator of many ideas that marked the development of the school. By becoming involved in the Soros Centre's international network - which was particularly strong in the former Eastern Europe and the countries previously part of the Soviet Union – the school also became part of a specific international context. The World of Art consisted of a series of public lectures to shed light on and encourage understanding of contemporary art practices and theories; a curatorial course that provided participants with the conceptual and organisational skills needed to work as a curator of contemporary art; study excursions that allowed participants an insight into the international scene and showed them the variety of methods, approaches, and techniques of working in art systems in different settings; and an anthology of texts.

 

In 2003, Igor Zabel, curator and course mentor, and Barbara Borčić, director of SCCA-Ljubljana, designed an additional educational programme within the World of Art framework – Seminar in Writing on Contemporary Art. The seminar introduced participants to different writing genres and encouraged writing about and historicising contemporary art practices. It consisted of mentoring sessions with Igor Zabel and Miško Šuvaković, email correspondence, and a series of workshops and lectures, including those by Tomaž Brejc, Boris Buden, Ješa Denegri, Eda Čufer, and others.

 

In the same year, we transformed the course into the Laboratory of Curatorial Practices for one year. We invited former students and participants of the seminar to participate, selecting seven of those who had already established themselves in the contemporary art world. The joint research and reflection that accompanied the planning of the final event were followed up with an analysis and a reflection of the World of Art's past. More importantly, the laboratory served as a way of reviewing our work and offered an opportunity to re-examine the ideas of the Slovenian curatorial scene. For example, we organised two round tables that brought together virtually all key protagonists in the field of curating in Slovenia over the past forty years. The programme took place twice, with a one-week project entitled LabSUs at Škuc Gallery in June 2007 and the LabSUs osebno/osobno (LabSUs Personally) exhibition at the Labin City Gallery in October of the same year. These were two different ways of realising one curatorial practice: in Škuc Gallery, the curators demonstrated the curatorial everyday life through their constant presence and an intensive multilayered public, semi-public, and internal programme lasting a whole week; in Labin, they expressed their curatorial credo through a selection of artworks and an individual curatorial statement.

 

Under the leadership of Saša Nabergoj and following a series of different formats that we tried up to 2009, with the 13th generation (2010/2011) we have upgraded the individual segments of the school (curatorial course, writing seminar), as well as the different formats (writing workshops, close reading workshop, exhibitions, modules, lectures), and have arranged them in two study years under the name World of Art, School for Curators and Critics of Contemporary Art. The first year was dedicated to acquiring art historical, theoretical, and methodological knowledge, while the second year was devoted to curatorial and critical studies and practical experimentation. The pilot year helped us to reflect further on the structure and content of the programme. The school’s two-year programme is based on several years of research on different curatorial programmes, analysis of curatorial practices, consultations with relevant national and international experts, evaluation of the past programme, and reflection on effective models of education in the field of contemporary visual arts and theories. To the first-year programme of the pilot 13th generation, consisting of chapters on 20th and 21st-century art, close reading workshops, study excursions, workshops on writing about art and interpreting art, and guided visits to exhibitions, we have added a Seminar in Theory and guided visits to artists' studios in the 14th year. Most importantly, we have extended it from the initial 6-month format (in 2010/2011) to a full year.

 

In 2015, Saša Nabergoj, the head of the school since 1998, took up the post of Director of the Škofja Loka Museum. Simona Žvanut, the coordinator since 2011, took over the school’s management, while Miha Kelemina took over the coordination.

 

In January 2017, under the leadership of Miha Kelemina, we returned with a renewed programme titled World of Art, School for Curatorial Practice and Critical Writing, coordinated by Lara Plavčak. Since then, the school has consisted of two years comprised of modules. Lectures in the first year focus on learning about the art system, cultural policies, the history of exhibition-making, and the history of curatorial practices; seminars are devoted to critical writing, the analysis of artworks, and learning about theory, and under the Curatorial Research series we have nested modules on the practical work of curators. The second year includes regular meetings with mentors, studio visits, curatorial mapping, seminars, research and modules on practical work and exhibition design. The public lecture series focused on curatorial practices remains part of the programme.

 

The School has been international from the outset, with several international lecturers and many participants from neighbouring countries.

 

In 2018, Dr. Asta Vrečko and Jasna Jernejšek joined the school as assistants, and Lara Plavčak returned as coordinator for the 18th generation.

 

With the departure of Miha Kelemina in 2022, Lara Plavčak, Tia Čiček and Urška Aplinc took over the leadership of the school. As before, the work process was designed according to the principle of modules, to which they added an accessibility module and increased the number of so-called Conversations with Curators and Artists. To focus on the curatorial methodologies themselves, they introduced Curatorial Research in the first year, based on personal interests and focused on the process of dealing with artistic and contextual material from the initial draft to the realisation of the presentation.

 

In autumn 2024, we will enrol the 20th generation of the World of Art School.

Co-workers

 

Head of the programme: Urška Aplinc, Tia Čiček and Lara Plavčak (2022−), Miha Kelemina (2016−2022), Simona Žvanut (2015−2016), Saša (Glavan) Nabergoj (1998−2015); except: Alenka Pirman (1997), Petja Grafenauer (2008−2009), Urša Jurman (2005−2006)

 

Coordinators and professional assistance: Lara Plavčak (2019−2022), Asta Vrečko (2018−2020), Jasna Jernejšek (2018−2019), Lara Plavčak (2016−2018), Miha Kelemina (2015−2016), Simona Žvanut (2011−2015), Sonja Zavrtanik (2009−2011), Maja Lozić (2007−2008), Tevž Logar (2004−2006), Toni Poljanec (2003−2004), Jani Pirnat (2002−2003), Saša (Glavan) Nabergoj (1997)

Past Years

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