The apexart open call is a unique open call for idea based exhibition proposals and occurs twice per year soliciting 500-word proposals from anyone, anywhere. No images, links, videos, CVs or letters from important are accepted. The jury is composed of approximately 600 individuals and arts-related classes from around the world using an online crowdsourcing system designed by us, allowing each juror to vote on a subset of anonymous and randomized proposals. Our transparent selection process results in exhibitions that reflect the interests and sensibilities of our international audiences, and is the fairest procedure we’ve developed so far.
How your class can participate
As an assignment or an elective, you can specify the number of proposals students review—generally 20–50, according to how much time you wish to devote to voting and subsequent discussion. It takes about two hours to read and rate 50 proposals. Each student is given an individual login through which they review proposals, rating each one on a scale of one to five. They can vote anytime during the month in multiple sessions.
Classroom benefits
Student’s votes help determine next season’s programming and they gain real world, real time experience evaluating proposals and considering what makes a compelling exhibition proposal. As apexart jurors, they’ll review ideas coming from all around the world—our last open call brought proposals in from 68 countries. Being on the other side of the “grading” process is essential to one’s own understanding of the curatorial process and the selection process, and provides great classroom discussion about what art is, what its purpose can be and what constitutes a good well written proposal. The variety of proposals provides valuable insight into the themes and ideas that are pressing in local and international considerations.
What you need to do
Provide a list of all participating students’ names and email addresses (or the number of students for numerical identification) by February 20, 2023. Send this list and information to Lisa Vagnoni at lisa.vagnoni [at] apexart.org.
What we provide
We will send login information, instructions, and voting deadline reminders that we can send directly to your students, along with dates to begin and end the voting process and start discussion. We provide you with a live tally page that will show voting by your students, as well as the ratings for each proposal given by each student, the proposal, and the order of its ranking as determined by all jurors. We also provide sample questions for discussion about content, and how to consider unfamiliar cultural and aesthetic elements on their own terms when rating exhibition proposals.
Educators find that serving on an apexart jury encourages lively discussion about many aspects of curating, culture, writing, politics, and exhibition organization addressing size, location, purpose, and feasibility. To date, more than 100 classes from universities and art schools have participated, including The New School, Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, de Appel Curatorial Program, Makere University, Goldsmith’s and MICA.
More information on the program and how to sign up can be found here. Contact: Lisa Vagnoni, Web Director, lisa.vagnoni [at] apexart.org.
