PROGRAMME
The World of Art School for Curatorial Practices and Critical Writing is the only programme in Slovenia dedicated to practical and theoretical education in the field of curating. The education of future cultural workers includes acquiring skills and getting acquainted with different methods of practical work encountered in the field of contemporary visual art. The school was founded in 1996 and has been attended by more than 130 participants to date, many of whom are now actively shaping the art space in the local and international context of contemporary visual art.
The two-year programme is constantly upgraded and updated based on experience and with new generations of participants. The school’s participants are introduced to the current curatorial practices of key actors, experts and cultural workers on the local and international scene. They acquire skills and methods that help them develop their curatorial practice and become familiar with the diverse working methods within contemporary art production. The acquisition and sharing of knowledge take place within a formed group, with the school heads and external collaborators on a horizontal level, allowing for greater involvement of the participants in the school’s programme and the work process.
The programme is designed within modules that include lectures by experts, workshops, visits to production and exhibition spaces and artists’ studios, discussions with curators, artists, and other cultural workers, reading seminars, individual writing consultations, etc. This way, the programme aims to be as inclusive as possible and is enriched by the diverse backgrounds of individual participants of each generation.
MODULE 1 | Exhibition
In the first year, through curatorial research and the preparation of a virtual exhibition, participants gain insight into the possible work and research processes of exhibition-making. The final task of the two-year programme is the conception and installation of an exhibition at Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana, to which the entire second year of the programme is dedicated. Through the specific themes, the artists' work and the concept that the group develops, it is possible to learn first-hand about the workflow and the steps involved in creating exhibitions. In the second year, through collaborative curatorial research, the participants curate an exhibition at Škuc Gallery under the mentorship of Alenka Gregorič and Vadim Fiškin.
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YEAR 1
WoA Team
Assisting in the Preparation of the School’s Annual Exhibition at Škuc Gallery
Participants will be invited to participate in the conception and execution of the exhibition that the World of Art team is preparing at Škuc Gallery in June 2023. The curatorial team will meet in working sessions to discuss the concept, artworks and their authors, the workflow, and the tasks and responsibilities of the participants.
Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
Management as a Tool for Bringing Ideas to Life in the Field of Culture
Cultural potential can be realised when ideas are turned into a project and put into practice. The uncertain and rapidly changing social situation calls for new ideas, which are difficult to realise without thorough strategic planning. Cultural management offers us a set of skills and knowledge that can help us achieve our goals, both in promoting and valuing different artistic and cultural phenomena and in preserving collective memory and cultural heritage. Awareness of the importance of culture and the specificity of working in this field are key to the design, communication and evaluation of cultural initiatives.
Adela Železnik
Exhibition’s Accompanying Programme
Exhibition or accompanying exhibition programmes, as they are referred to at the Museum of Modern Art, are a relatively new category that started to gain more traction in the late 1990s, also with the so-called pedagogical turn in contemporary art. The meeting with Adela Železnik, museum councillor and curator of accompanying exhibition programmes, will be devoted to introducing the subject, followed by a practical session. We will discuss who the exhibition is for and with whom and how we build relationships that may continue past its timeframe.
Dušan Dovč (MGLC Švicarija) in dialogue with Katerina Mirović (Forum Ljubljana) and conversation with producers Simon Gmajner (Kapelica Gallery) and Lenka Đorojević (Cukrarna/MGML)
Contemporary Visual Art Producer
What is a producer's contribution to a project, and what tasks do they perform (content and technical preparation of the project, selection of the exhibition space (co-production contract), financing, promotion coordination, documentation of the project, etc.)? We will learn about the contemporary art producer's function through a presentation and discussion with the producers. We will discuss the difference between co-producer and co-organiser and the nature of collaboration between producer and curator.
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YEAR 2
Alenka Gregorič and Vadim Fiškin
Curatorial Course
The main part of the programme is to prepare and realise a contemporary art exhibition. Participants will conceive the exhibition and plan its accompanying events in the school's second year. They will select artworks, invite artists, write the accompanying text, prepare a technical plan and public relations plan, seek additional funding and produce the publication. The mentors, curator Alenka Gregorič and artist Vadim Fiškin will comment on the development of the exhibition concept during weekly curatorial meetings.
Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
Management as a Tool for Bringing Ideas to Life in the Field of Culture
Cultural potential can be realised when ideas are turned into a project and put into practice. The uncertain and rapidly changing social situation calls for new ideas, which are difficult to realise without thorough strategic planning. Cultural management offers us a set of skills and knowledge that can help us achieve our goals, both in promoting and valuing different artistic and cultural phenomena and in preserving collective memory and cultural heritage. Awareness of the importance of culture and the specificity of working in this field are key to the design, communication and evaluation of cultural initiatives.
Urška Jurman
Facilitation
In this workshop, through a process of group research, participants will deepen their understanding of the concept of the final exhibition and identify their own interests and expectations concerning the conceived exhibition, as well as the points of connection within the group. Art historian and sociologist of culture Urška Jurman will facilitate the process.
WoA Team
Technical Plan
A technical plan is crucial in bringing the idea and design of the exhibition from the theoretical framework to the exhibition space. School heads Urška Aplinc, Tia Čiček and Lara Plavčak will present the preparation of the technical plan and address key challenges in communicating with technical teams. During the meeting, the participants will start preparing their technical plan, which they will develop further by the start of the exhibition set up with the school heads and mentors and communicate it with the Škuc Gallery technical team.
MODULE 2 | Curatorial Research
The module will provide an overview of modern and contemporary art exhibiting practices. We will present key moments and mechanisms that have shaped the phenomenons of exhibition-making and the role of the curator throughout history and are still shaping them today. Through visits to art exhibitions and institutions, we will learn about the functioning of various public institutions, independent organisations, and individuals. Moderated discussions with various cultural workers will complement the visits.
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YEAR 1
Vladimir Vidmar
Curatorial Research
In a series of meetings with curator Vladimir Vidmar, participants will learn about curatorial work in practice. We will be interested in how curators approach the conception of an exhibition, finding a starting point and developing a concept. What are the basic building blocks of an exhibition and concept, and how do they evolve or deviate from the initial idea? We will explore how curatorial research takes place in practice. How do we go about researching and gathering information? Do we start with a conversation with the artist, a studio visit, a familiar work or a visited exhibition? Do we browse the web, online databases, libraries and archives? What are the research methods, and how does one work in a curatorial team? The sessions will focus on developing a virtual exhibition, which each participant will design on their own with the help of the curator and school heads during the first year of the school programme.
Alenka Gregorič, Vadim Fiškin and the SU team
Virtual Exhibitions Presentation
After the end of the first year, the participants will independently prepare a virtual exhibition, which will be presented to the mentors and the group before the start of the second year. The design of the exhibition will take into account the specificities of the chosen exhibition venue. Based on the submitted virtual exhibition, the mentors will select and invite a smaller group to enrol in the second year of the school.
WoA team
Curatorial Mapping
During our visits to different contemporary art exhibition spaces, we will meet their collaborators and become acquainted with each venue's specificities, programming focuses, and organisational schemes.
Presentations by Artists, Curators and Other Cultural Workers and Visits to Creative Spaces
Learning about the practices of artists, curators, and other cultural workers is crucial for curatorial work. We will get to know their work through discussions at the school. These encounters offer the opportunity to learn about artistic production, artistic practices, diverse curatorial approaches, etc. The advantage of such presentations is the personal contact, which provides an opportunity for conversation. The meetings build and maintain professional relationships and acquaintances based on following artistic production, dialogue between curators and artists, and a comprehensive approach to creative work as a curatorial responsibility.
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YEAR 2
Vladimir Vidmar
Reading Seminar
The aim of the reading seminar is not to provide the participants with a representative insight into the relevant theory of the field of contemporary art: this would involve too many sources and different fields. Since contemporary art is very fluid in terms of its theoretical canon, we will instead focus on how to situate our interests within a particular theoretical field of reference. We will discuss how to ground our thinking about art in theoretical discourse, not to legitimise it but to be able to develop it further and possibly take it beyond our initial ideas and, above all, beyond the templates of art slang. The seminar will, therefore, be conducted through in-depth readings of texts related to the interests of the participants and the themes of the final exhibition. Through discussions on selected texts that offer starting points for exchanges between art theory and practice, we will develop basic theoretical frameworks and try to explain how their discursive settings can be helpful to us through the dissection of the texts. In parallel, we will try to identify our art affinities and figure out how to develop their research practically and theoretically.
Jana Intihar Ferjan and Teja Merhar
Archives Department MG+MSUM
Since its establishment, the Archives Department of the Modern Gallery has been collecting, processing, preserving and presenting material on exhibitions in Slovenia and exhibitions of Slovenian artists abroad, on exhibition venues and other spaces of creation and presentation of visual art, on artists of the 20th and 21st centuries in Slovenia, and writers on art of the 20th and 21st centuries. At the visit to the archive, we will learn about the main reason for the founding of the department within the MG, its chronology, significant projects (chronologies, bio bibliographies, thematic research), collaborations (with institutions in Slovenia and abroad) and selected archives of the department (Igor Zabel Archive, Modern Gallery Archive, Jakopič's correspondence). The Archives Department at the MG, which has been responsible for recording cultural events since 1971, today represents a focal point for research on 20th and 21st-century art in Slovenia and beyond.
Tia Čiček and Maximilian Lehner
Work, Curator, Work! Thinking and Reading Together About Ways to Do Stuff
The four-day workshop with curators Maximilian Lehner and Tia Čiček is aimed at students and young professionals from various cultural and creative fields with aspirations and/or experience in curating contemporary art. Based on the interests of the participants, we will select texts and use them for our discussion and reflection on current conditions and methods of work within cultural production. The workshop is an experiment in thinking and talking about how to deal with wanting to create projects the best way possible without idealising the means or ways to get there. When discussing exhibition concepts in art, we often forget that their realisation involves finances and the distribution of work. While the curatorial discourse incorporates these questions and launches curatorial ideas into a field of ideals we urge to fulfil, our conversations need to be expanded to discuss the influence of networks, physical or mental health, co-working etc. Work, Curator, Work! gives us the opportunity to discover, comment on and reflect on how to work with these important discourses instead of experiencing them as a burden in how we make exhibitions.
MODULE 3 | Visual Culture and Art Systems
YEAR 1
Lilijana Stepančič
Art System
The first session will be devoted to a historical look at the formation of the art world system in the 1980s in the Western world, which is the basis for the current state of things. The second session will present the institutional system of the local environment by dissecting one of the recent exhibitions in the Slovenian context.
Jasna Jernejšek
Contemporary Art in Visual Culture
The lecture aims to present a possible understanding of contemporary art through the prism of the broader visual culture and its conceptual and analytical apparatus for critical reflection and interpretation of visual representations. We will be introduced to basic theoretical notions of representation, various analytical tools for deciphering and decoding images, and the ideological foundation of the visual.
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YEAR 2
Blaž Vurnik
Museums: From Preserving to the Creative Potential of Movable Cultural Heritage
The lecture will focus on museums as public institutions, their tasks in the field of preserving movable cultural heritage, and the responsibility of contemporary cultural (exhibition, publication, etc.) production. We will learn about the primary legislation governing the operation of authorised museums. Among different museum professions, we will focus on the curator, their position between the primary discipline and museology, and their role in the process of creating a museum exhibition. We will reflect on the power of the documentary and the interpretative value of the museum object, using theoretical background and practical examples.
MODULE 4 | Cultural Policy
YEAR 1
Miha Satler
Cultural Policy and the Status of the Self-Employed in Culture
What affects the work of artists and producers in Slovenia? How does cultural policy function, and which laws are crucial to understanding the status of cultural workers? In this lecture, we will learn about the basics of cultural policy, from the historical origins of the current problems to the legal frameworks and mapping of key actors in culture and the importance of bringing them together in an effort to improve the circumstances of the self-employed in culture.
MODULE 5 | Funding
YEAR 1
Urška Jež
Raising Sponsorship Funds
We will start by learning about the effects and objectives companies pursue through sponsorships to better understand the sponsorship mechanisms from a corporate perspective. We will take a closer look at the key segments of sponsorship partnership development and management that will help us think about finding the right sponsors and designing the sponsorship offer: brand management, sponsorship object analysis, selection and analysis of potential sponsorship partners, target groups, sponsorship activation methods, content of sponsorship partnerships, innovative compensation methods, sponsorship management, reporting and measurement of sponsorship impact. The steps will be presented mainly through examples from the local environment.
Inga Remeta
Map of Open Calls and Calls for Tenders
This session will map the open calls and calls for tenders aimed at young cultural workers. We will look at the call mechanisms of the Ministry of Culture (one-year project call, multi-annual project and programme call, call for scholarships) and the City of Ljubljana (one-year project call, multi-annual programme call, Mladike call). We will learn about the difference between a call for tenders and an open call, which conditions and attachments to pay special attention to, the application process and the notification of applicants, and whether we can appeal against the expert committee's opinion. We will also talk about international calls for proposals that promote mobility.
Ines Kežman, Motovila
EU Funding Programmes – Creative Europe
The representative of Motovila will present the system of EU co-funding programmes: decentralised and centralised calls for projects and the role of the institutions responsible for the designing of these funding mechanisms (European Commission Directorates-General) and their implementation (Executive Agency EACEA), the system of selection procedures, in which independent international experts participate as members of the expert panels. She will present the EU's framework mechanism for promoting and supporting the cultural and creative sectors – the Creative Europe Programme: the programme's objectives and priorities, the individual programme schemes and the most relevant calls, including the eligibility of projects and applicants. The positive effects of international networking beyond the financial benefit for the development of an organisation will also be highlighted. The lecturer will underline this with examples of good practice from Slovenia, which is considered one of the most successful countries participating in the Creative Europe programme. She will present the results of the current and past EU cultural programmes, the representation of the field of visual and intermedia art, the ratio between smaller and larger projects, the representation of NGOs and public institutions, and the system of co-financing from national sources (calls for proposals from the Ministry of Culture, etc.).
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YEAR 2
Urška Jež
Raising Sponsorship Funds
In this workshop, we will use the example of the school's final exhibition to identify the effects and objectives that companies can pursue through sponsorships to better understand the mechanism of sponsorships from a corporate perspective. We will take a detailed look at the key segments of the development and management of sponsorship partnerships that will facilitate the preparation of the sponsorship fundraising plan: brand management, sponsorship object analysis, selection and analysis of potential sponsorship partners, target groups, sponsorship activation methods, sponsorship partnership content, innovative compensation methods, sponsorship management, reporting and measurement of sponsorship impact. The steps will be presented mainly through examples from the local environment.
Dušan Dovč and the WoA team
How Does One Apply to an Open Call?
This practical workshop will focus on reviewing and filling in the call forms of past and current open calls and calls for tenders. Together with the lecturer, we will review the call forms published on the websites of various institutions (Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Ljubljana, European calls, foundation calls, etc.), fill in selected segments of different calls, and compare and comment on them. We will pay special attention to calls that promote mobility. The workshop will be based on the participants' interests.
Urška Aplinc
Financial Construction and Production Plan
This workshop will take a closer look at the production side of preparing exhibitions and events. The practicum will provide basic knowledge, information and skills in financial management. Preparing the financial plan will be the basis for planning the statement of costs of the final exhibition. We will learn about the breakdown of expected/unexpected revenue/expenses of the different segments (exhibition fee, production, honorarium, transport, printing, hospitality, etc.) and handling disbursements, (pro forma) invoices, quotations, purchase orders and cash payments. At the same time, we will outline an approximate production and execution plan for the exhibition.
MODULE 6 | Strategic Communications
YEAR 1
Dominika Maša Kozar
Creating Content on Social Media – #ContentIsKing
Life without social media seems almost impossible today. As online advertising has become more prevalent in recent years, competition has grown, and visibility has narrowed. So, how do you stand out from the flood of content, stay interesting, and keep your followers from getting "fed up" with your posts? We will look at the emergence of online identity in relation to content creation, from learning about the characteristics of different online platforms to research, communication methods and tools to help us create and organise content.
Zala Velkavrh
Getting Familiar With the Audience
Why is there no such thing as the "general public"? Who is already part of our audience, and who should still become a part of it? How do we put ourselves in the users' shoes? Where and how do we communicate with them so our messages don't end up in spam? How do we develop new events and new programmes? How do we find and keep audiences with minimal resources? When is it time to reposition? This lecture will discuss marketing theory and practice in culture, finding, knowing and maintaining relationships with audiences, and how knowing your audience and understanding each channel's basic trends and characteristics can help us communicate better, have better-attended events and create new opportunities.
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YEAR 2
Urška Comino
Public Relations for a Contemporary Art Exhibition
Successful and especially innovative public relations are an essential part of the production of an exhibition event. In the art world, PR techniques are not only used to inform and promote the art event; we aim to make contemporary art more understandable, accessible, and less hermetic. In this workshop, we will learn about different communication tools, with a special focus on preparing and implementing PR strategies, using the school's final exhibition as an example.
Dominika Maša Kozar
Creating Content on Social Media – #ContentIsKing
Life without social media seems almost impossible today. As online advertising has become more prevalent in recent years, competition has grown, and visibility has narrowed. So, how do you stand out from the flood of content, stay interesting, and keep your followers from getting "fed up" with your posts? In this workshop, we will look at the emergence of online identity in relation to content creation, from learning about the characteristics of different online platforms to research, communication methods and tools to help you create and organise content. We will use the example of the school's final exhibition to conceive a communication plan for social media management.
MODULE 7 | Writing
YEAR 1
Urban Šrimpf
The Art of (Un)Clear Writing
This lecture will try to answer the questions that arise and persist when writing academic papers and art texts. How do we deal with the topic? How do we set out and develop a clear thought in the text without falling into the cryptic sweet talk and philosophising? What tools can we use when spelling and style issues arise? What parallel texts can we use to help us, and how can we avoid common mistakes?
Urška Jurman
Catalogue. Editor's View
The catalogue is one of the most common forms of publication accompanying an exhibition, but it can also present research, archival work, a festival or a curatorial and artistic project. Using concrete examples, we will learn about the different types of catalogues accompanying a group, thematic, retrospective and solo exhibition or a documentary and research project. We will examine what role and function a catalogue can play and its relationship to the exhibition and the artworks. We will then look at the devising of an exhibition catalogue: scope, structure, form and content, followed by types of catalogue texts and practical tips for writing. We will also look at guidelines on how the text should be edited for publication, how to cite and how to write a bibliography.
Lara Plavčak
Consultations
In the first year, we introduce group or individual consultations based on the texts the participants prepare as part of their projects and publications. The consultations will aim to develop and consolidate linguistic culture and familiarise participants with reference corpora and normative manuals of the Slovene literary language, which will help them in further writing and solving language use and norm pickles. Consultations will be based on the interests of the participants.
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YEAR 2
Domen Ograjenšek
Creative Writing Workshop
This workshop, led by Domen Ograjenšek, aims to reflect and discuss the possibilities of the texts surrounding us and writing itself. The first part of the workshop will be devoted to reading shorter texts (in Slovene and English), which will be sent in advance by the workshop leader, but participants' suggestions will also be welcomed. The second session will be devoted to reading and group feedback on curatorial, essayistic, fictional, etc. texts in Slovenian or English written by the participants (shorter texts, parts of texts, introductions, conclusions, etc.).
Lara Plavčak
Polishing the Text
As part of the module aimed at developing and consolidating linguistic culture, we will get acquainted with reference corpora and normative manuals of the Slovene literary language, which will help us further write and solve language use and norm pickles. We will learn about some common spelling mistakes and communication recommendations. The lecture's content will be adapted to the characteristics of the texts we usually prepare for a contemporary art exhibition.
MODULE 8 | Accessibility
YEAR 1
Katja Mahnič
Accessibility of Galleries and Museums
According to Slovenian law, culture is a public good and must be accessible to all, regardless of their personal circumstances.
Therefore, curators must be aware of the environmental and personal factors that support or hinder the accessibility of the institutions in which they work, the exhibitions and accompanying material they produce, and the appropriate solutions to ensure accessibility.
The lecture will introduce the legal and expert basis for ensuring the accessibility of museum institutions for all groups of visitors. We will briefly introduce the specific needs of groups of museum visitors with different disabilities and learn about appropriate adaptations to the museum or gallery space, approaches to exhibition design and accompanying materials that support their visit. In a workshop in the second year of school, we will plan adaptations for the exhibition project in a specific gallery institution.
Saša Lesjak, RISA Institute
Information for All – Culture for All
Everybody should be able to access cultural goods. Saša Lesjak briefly outlines how Easy Read, or a more accessible language, has paved its way to books and other media, museums, and other cultural venues. Why must Easy Read branch out, and what does this mean for people needing easy-to-read information? The lecturer, one of Slovenia's most experienced experts on Easy Read, concludes with a challenge for the participants: Can you make reading easy?
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YEAR 2
Katja Mahnič
Accessibility of Galleries and Museums
In the workshop in the school’s second year, we will plan adaptations for the exhibition project in a specific gallery institution, using the school's final exhibition as an example.
Urška Aplinc and Lara Plavčak
Accessibility of a Contemporary Art Exhibition
In the lecture and workshop, we will think together about how to adapt exhibitions to make them accessible for different groups of people with disabilities (people with mobility issues, blindness and visual impairment, deafness and hearing loss, people with intellectual disabilities, older people, etc.). We will learn about smaller cultural organisations' challenges in designing adaptations and programming and the importance of cross-sectoral collaborations and audience building, as the target groups of people with disabilities are usually not regular visitors to contemporary art venues. We will be introduced to access aesthetics, which defines accessibility as a creative practice. We will discuss the accessibility of the final exhibition prepared by the participants and the concrete adaptations of the artworks included.