Program Duration: September 2024 – June 2025 (Curatorial Programme) | September 2025 – June 2026 (Fellowship)
About the Program
Join the 30th edition of De Appel’s Curatorial Programme, a transformative experience for curatorial and artistic collectives. Collaborate and learn about lumbung, self-organization, and sociopolitical art practices, with a focus on collective organization. This edition is dedicated to collectives deeply rooted in sociopolitical movements, where art is an extension of communal life.
Collaborative Learning
Participate in collective assemblies (majelises) and exchange knowledge on self-organization, economic sustainability, and cosmologies of local commoning. Experiment with collective artistic economies and work closely with artist collectives from Sandberg Instituut and Gudskul programs. Organize public learning sessions and practice collective curating.
Lumbung: A Cultural Inspiration
Explore the lumbung concept, a rural pre-colonial practice where surplus harvest is collectively governed and celebrated. Lumbung practices from around the world, including Indonesia, Mali, Morocco, Latin America, Hungary, and the Netherlands, inform the curriculum. Discover ‘lumbung’ as a collective of collectives, self-organized practices, a discourse about art, and an aesthetic language.
Immersive Experience
Spend an intensive 10-month period in Amsterdam, deeply engaged in the local art scene. Benefit from De Appel as your institutional base, and broaden your horizons through collaboration with Sandberg Instituut and Gudskul.
Eco-Conscious Approach
In light of environmental concerns and the COVID-19 pandemic, participants will engage in longer-term exchanges in each other’s localities, building lasting relationships and collaborative projects.
Access to Resources
Gain access to De Appel’s three-part institutional structure, including the Archive, Curatorial Programme, and Education Initiatives. Collaboratively shape the institution’s DNA and form working groups with Sandberg Instituut and Gudskul participants.
Future Initiatives
Alumni and advisors, including members of the lumbung and other commons initiatives, continue to transform the social life of art. Join a network of practitioners who build interconnected, sustainable infrastructures based on shared values.
Application Details
Application Deadline: January 15th, 2024
Who Can Apply?: Entire collectives or selected members (with collective agreement) unable to participate fully.
Application Requirements:
- Cover page with personal information.
- Motivation letter (max. 500 words).
- Responses to two questions (max. 300 words each).
- CVs of collective members (max. 2 pages).
- Two written references in English.
