2 Curatorial Grants * – Practice and Networking

Period I/2017 (January 1rst – June 30th 2017) & Period II/2017 (July 1rst – December 31rst 2017)

one German Curator and one Dutch Curator _ each Period

• Residency_ Schloss Ringenberg | schloss-ringenberg.de/ kunst@schloss-ringenberg.de
• Duration_ 6 month
• Grant_ €1,250/month
• Scope of work_ 2 projects/ exhibitions as a curatorial team in cooperation with TETEM Kunstruimte Enschede (Period I), Museum Kurhaus Kleve (Period II) and at Schloss Ringenberg (Period I & II), financed by plugin
• Requirements_ max 35 years; University degree (Art History or Art/ Cultural studies); demonstration of professional qualification
• Application Deadline: 23rd of September 2016; Application in print form and as digital file (PDF)

Since 2010 the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Mondriaanfonds Amsterdam inaugurated a new model for promoting postgraduate curatorial work by offering a programme-based grant for young German and Dutch curators.

The grant provides €1.250/month in support for each participant for a period of six months. It should support the maintenance and allows the payment of rent for one studio. A lease contract has to be signed with the Derik-Baegert-Gesellschaft for six months (starting 2nd January 2017 for Period I – 2nd July 2017 for Period II).

The curatorial grant is practice-oriented and tied in with the euregional project programme of plugin**.

The programme is located at Schloss Ringenberg, in Hamminkeln on the Lower Rhine. Schloss Ringenberg has been in operation as a studio and exhibition centre for 40 years. With six German and Dutch artist fellows per year, dialogue-focused exhibitions and cross-border knowledge exchange, along with a wealth of activities for the public, the Schloss unites under one roof in an unique exemplary fashion the whole spectrum of contemporary cultural endeavour.

Since 2001 the work of Schloss Ringenberg has centred on European projects involving German-Dutch cooperation. In conjunction with changing project partners on both sides of the border, as the well-known institutions, the Schloss has since 2005 been providing cultural producers and mediators with the means to try out unusual contemporary art concepts and formats.

Twice a year one German and one Dutch curator are invited to work as a team. Both fellows will live and work for the most part at the Schloss together during the 6-month grant period. There are two separate studios and one common office for the curators. Residence at the Schloss and participation in plugin are mandatory for grant-holders.

While guided/ moderated by the plugin-Team at Schloss Ringenberg the project offers a versatile selection of concrete fields of work as opportunity to independently put their ideas into practice. The task of two exhibitions/ projects, financed through plugin provides them with a model for the real conditions under which they will embark on their careers.

Project partners for the exhibitions/projects are: Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster | Museum Kurhaus Kleve | KIT – Kunst im Tunnel Düsseldorf | Museum Arnhem | Museum het Valkhof Nijmegen | TETEM kunstruimte Enschede

The grant serves to equip curators with professional credentials, including:

• developing their own criteria for the quality and relevance of artistic approaches – creating their own curatorial profile/aesthetic approach
• experience with institutional structures and practice-related processes such as mounting an exhibition, public relations, organisation and budgeting
• the ability to discriminate between artistic product and curatorial approach, leading to better comprehension of creative practice – supported by the unique exchanges between mediators and producers of contemporary art via artist and curatorial fellowships taking place under one roof

A Dutch-German expert jury will choose curatorial fellows in October 2016.

* The application for the Dutch curatorial grant has to be done exclusively via Mondriaanfonds Amsterdam. (http://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/aanvraag/bijdrage-gast-en-buitenlandateliers/buitenlandateliers/schloss-ringenberg/) The application for the German curatorial grant exclusively requires a degree at a University in North Rhine-Westphalia. (Application form: http://www.schloss-ringenberg.de/stipendium/bewerbung_.php)

* plugin is a pilot-project to improve the economic skills and situation of young visual artists and The project is aiming to initiate a self-sustaining art- economy-infrastructure that consists on a synergetic exchange of artists, curators, exhibition institutions and small entrepreneurs from the creative economy sphere. Within the try-out project activities, realized in cooperation with the curatorial fellows, new models for distributing artistic products are approved. These models stay independent from the art-market and will maintain independence for artists. While plugin also could re-enact a broad fascination for art and collecting its products, the current society’s appreciation of visual arts as crisis-proof currency might be superseded by alternative concepts of value, towards issues of artistic quality and desire to own art, and in contradiction to speculative capital growth or auction prices. www.plugin-project.com