Discover contemporary art and design curatorial thinking and practice, with sector leading curators, researchers and writers, live online with a multi-disciplinary staff team of the Curating MA at the RCA.
Dates: 6 July – 17 July 2026
Application Deadline: 15 June 2026
Early bird discount finishing: 31st March 2026
For more information on bookings and applications, please click here.
The live online Curating Contemporary Art and Design Summer School provides an intensive introduction to contemporary curatorial thinking and practice in art and design. It offers critical perspectives from the viewpoint of experts who curate, research and write in the cultural sector, with opportunities for participants to engage with cutting edge curatorial approaches emerging within and beyond London.
The 2026 focus is ‘Art in Public: Curating and Commissioning Contemporary Art in Social Contexts’. Participants will explore creative and critical work in public space as an expanded curatorial practice.
Framed around a series of considerations – such as the role and shared value of public art, the ethics of community collaboration, understanding the complexity of public space, embedding environmental concerns, and the course offers an overview of innovative and contemporary global approaches to curating and commissioning art in public and social contexts.
This short course will be of interest to those curious about non-gallery settings and public spaces as locations for art and to those interested in learning to activate the meaning of a space, place or community.
From their various perspectives – professionally, geographically, culturally – all of the guest speakers will talk about the importance of creating diversified and dynamic public spaces through contemporary art and curatorial practice.
Guest speakers include: Jeanne van Heeswijk (Artist, Netherlands), Amal Khalaf (Curator, UK), DAAR – Decolonising Architecture Art Research (Architects, Palestine/Sweden), Tamsin Dillon (Curator, US), Marie-Anne McQuay (Curator, UK), Alia Farid (Artist, Kuwait/Puerto Rico), Rose Lejeune (Curator, UK/Qatar), Veeranganakumari Solanki (Curator, India), Jaspar Joseph-Lester (Artist, UK) and Adam Kaasa (Artist, UK).
Led by the School of Arts & Humanities, the course team is composed of curators, critics, researchers, historians and writers. The course combines analytical debate with practical, hands-on activities taught from the world’s leading art and design university and delivered online. As a forum for learning in a collaborative, highly dynamic atmosphere, the course also provides the opportunity to gain one-to-one support and advice from our faculty of experts and visiting speakers.
The Curating Contemporary Art and Design course has been running successfully since 2016. As well as experts from the Royal College of Art and other British art and design institutions, previous years have included sessions with renowned curators and researchers from Raqs Media Collective, Chimurenga (collective, South Africa), Lumbung Press, UBERMORGEN, Rihzome and influential contemporary galleries and commissioners such as Art on the Underground, Eastside Projects, Open School East, Cubitt Gallery and UP Projects.
In the past we have welcomed participants from across the world from a variety of different backgrounds and institutions including: Qatar Museums, DesignSingapore Council, Royal Court Theatre, NEOM, National Gallery of Victoria – Melbourne, Ministry of Culture – Saudi Arabia, Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum, Budapest’s Museum of Applied Arts, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the Sharjah Art Foundation, the Warwick Arts Centre and the Design Trust, Arusha Gallery, to name a few.
Image credit: Rana Begum No.700 Reflectors (2016) Photo: Anthony Upton PA/Wire
