Application deadline: Friday, January 15, 2016 (financial aid available)
Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP)
Center for the Arts
Wesleyan University
283 Washington Terrace
Middletown, CT 06459-0442
The first and only program to offer a graduate degree in Performance Curation, the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University is a center for the academic study of the presentation and contextualization of contemporary performance. Distinct from graduate programs in Curatorial Studies, Arts Administration, Performance Studies, and the Humanities, ICPP offers its students a graduate-level education in innovative and relevant curatorial approaches to developing and presenting time-based art.
ICPP offers a two-year MA and a ten-month Certificate Program, both of which encourage emerging curators to enrich their understanding of intellectually rigorous, innovative, and artist-centered curatorial models. The mix of instructors—artists, scholars, curators, cultural leaders, writers, and theorists—is intended to spark new possibilities and connections, both intellectually and professionally. Instructors will provide theoretical and practical tools for students to deepen their research methodologies through reading, writing, viewings, and discussion.
The ICPP program is firmly rooted in Wesleyan University’s commitment to the liberal arts and study of the arts in context. Through a low-residency model, ICPP asks its students not only to engage with ideas, but simultaneously to put those ideas into practice in their professional lives, developing responsive curatorial practices that address the inter-disciplinary nature of performance work today.
Faculty
Led by Program Director Sam Miller, faculty members include Wesleyan Associate Professor of Dance Nicole Stanton, Professor of Music Eric Charry, and Associate Professor of Art Elijah Huge, along with field professionals Judy Hussie-Taylor (Danspace Project, New York), Kristy Edmunds (Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA), Thomas Lax (Museum of Modern Art), and Philip Bither (Walker Art Center), among others.
Alumni
Our alumni are active curators, artists, and arts professionals from around the world, working independently and at institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Pepatián (Bronx, New York), New England Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Stanford University, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Fringe Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Keene State College in New Hampshire, Harlem Stage, and Walker Art Center (Minneapolis).
Visiting artists and lecturers
During every campus residency period, ICPP artists-in-residence serve as case studies for course work. Emerging artists, mid-to-late career artists, faculty artists at Wesleyan, and industry professionals offer performances, talks, and workshops, and converse informally with students both inside and outside of the classroom. In recent years, artists/guest lecturers have included Claudia La Rocco, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Allison Orr, Eiko Otake, Will Rawls, R. Luke DuBois, Andrew D. Hamingson, Darrell Jones, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Ralph Lemon, Liz Lerman, Okwui Okpokwasili, Katherine Profeta, Kyle Abraham, Souleymane Badolo, DD Dorvillier, Rinde Eckert, Cynthia Hopkins, Reggie Wilson, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.
Dates for 2016–17 on-campus intensives
Friday, July 8–Sunday, July 24
Thursday, November 17–Monday, November 21
Thursday, March 2–Monday, March 6, 2017
Apply
Applications for both programs are now available online. The deadline for submitting application and financial aid materials is January 15, 2016. For further information, e-mail [email protected] or call T +860 685 3283.
Leadership support provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional funding from American Express Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.
