British Council Venice Biennale Delegation 2022 for Early to Mid Career Visual Arts Curators

Deadline: September 11, 2022

British Council is seeking applications from five early to mid-career visual arts curators from the UK and five early to mid-career visual arts curators from Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa or Zimbabwe whose practices collaborate and draw on personal experience or interpretation of identity, gender and racial politics. Together they travel to the Venice Biennale for an enriching program of activities and events celebrating the historic number of black and African women artists and countries participating in this year’s Venice Biennale for the first time, such as Cameroon, Namibia and Uganda.

They explore the work of artists such as Golden Lion for Best National Entry winner Sonia Boyce, Alberta Whittle and Zineb Sedira, Golden Lion for Best Contestant winner Simone Leigh, Acaye Kerunen and Na Chainkua Reindorf. The delegation will create opportunities to find synergies between curatorial practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK around shared issues presented by these themes and made more visible in this year’s Biennale.

This delegation is part of the British Council Visual Arts Biennials Connect programme. The program promotes cross-cultural and cross-border exchange and collaboration by providing curators with the opportunity to connect, collaborate and build meaningful partnerships with colleagues around the world and nurture future engagement with British Council arts programs and partners.

Requirements

The delegation is aimed at early to mid-career visual art curators whose practices work together and draw on personal experience or interpretation of identity, gender, and racial politics.

If you are at the beginning of your career, you will have at least one of the following:

Relevant education or experience (rather than formal education) in the arts sector, either within an arts organization or independently Experience with artists on a commission, production or program as part of a wider exhibition or festival Contributed to an exhibition, public program or art publication by through research or organization and administrative support

When you are halfway through your career, you have at least one of the following:

Worked as a visual arts curator, either within an art organization or independently Directed the curation of at least one high profile exhibition that has received a lot of press coverage Conducted research/critical study on one of the themes of the delegation, either for exhibition development or publication

Candidates are not required to have a relevant degree or formal education, but they must:

Be over the age of 18 to applyBe based in the UK but do not need to be a UK national ORBe based in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa or Zimbabwe but do not need to be a national of these countries Not on a full or part time basis formal education Be an early to mid-career curator as defined using the definitions above under “Who can apply” The program is taught in English This program is not for artists We will prioritize applications from those who do not have support received from British Council in the last two years

Benefits
The delegation is fully funded and includes:

A program of networking, events and pavilion visitsTravel to and from the airportAccommodationA daily allowance of £50 for meals/local travelAccess to budget to support atypical needs in childcare, D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent needs of delegates

Timeline:

Open Call for ApplicationMonday 15 August 2022 Application Deadline 11:59 PM, BST, Sunday 11 September 2022 Shortlist decisions to be announced Week starts Monday 26 September 2022Delegation DatesThursday 24 November 2022 – Arrival in VeniceFriday 25 November – Program Day 1Saturday 26 November – Program Day 2Sunday 27 November – Program Day 3 Monday November 28 – Departure Venice Delegates wishing to apply must be available to travel during the month of November to be eligible. Please note that the above delegation dates are subject to change

How to apply:

Applicants are expected to provide the following:

Curriculum Vitae (No more than 2 A4 pages) A ​​signed letter of support from someone you have worked with or worked for professionally, but NOT a family member or friend (No longer than 1 A4 page)

If you have any questions, please contact: [email protected] with the subject of the email: SSA UK Venice Delegation Open Call Question

For more information:

Visit official website of the British Council Venice Biennale Delegation 2022