Call for applications: PhD in Curatorial Practice

Expression of interest deadline (mandatory prior to application):
International candidates: July 15, 2017 (for commencement February 2018)
Domestic candidates: September 15, 2017 (for commencement February 2018)

Application deadline for scholarship consideration: 
International candidates: August 31, 2017
Domestic candidates: October 31, 2017

Monash University Art Design & Architecture (MADA) in Melbourne, Australia invites applications for the PhD specialisation in Curatorial Practice. The PhD in Curatorial Practice is practice-based, and supports a spectrum of doctoral projects that reflect critically on how we engage with our cultures, our cities, and our world. It fosters curatorial projects that test the limits of art institutions, and supports advanced scholarly work on exhibitions and their histories, the conditions of art’s public appearance, and the politics of display. The program also nurtures spaces of retreat to allow forms of research beyond those that normally occur within the framework of educational institutions.

Candidates
Candidates will have advanced knowledge of art, art history, arts institutions, and curating, or relevant fields of inquiry. They are required to hold a minimum four-year Bachelor’s degree with Honours, and preferably hold a research Master’s qualification in a relevant discipline. Candidates must apply with a specific research project in mind. The program is open to applicants whose projects are interdisciplinary or historical in nature. Scholarships (tuition and stipend) are available to qualified applicants, subject to university scholarship assessment and terms and conditions.

Communities
One of the strongest advantages of the Curatorial Practice PhD is its location within an art school. MADA is a catalyst for creative engagement in the visual arts and supports an active community of the country’s leading artists, designers, architects, thinkers and cultural producers. Curatorial work is inherently dialogic, research based, and interdisciplinary, and candidates benefit from regular formal and informal encounters with artists. In addition, the PhD program collaborates with key local and international institutions, including the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), a museum of contemporary art committed to innovative and research-based art and curatorial practice. Recent and upcoming events include lectures and workshops by Denise Ferreira da Silva and Mihnea Mircan, as well as the year-long “The Artist As…” series co-presented by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and Curatorial Practice at MADA, which included lectures and performances by Brook Andrew, Céline Condorelli, Emily Pethick, Cecilia Vicuña, Tirdad Zolghadr, and others.

MADA’s Curatorial Practice Advisory Board includes Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement, New Museum; Charlotte Day, Director, MUMA; Juan A. Gaitán, Director, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City; Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director, Artspace, Sydney; Callum Morton, Head of Fine Art, MADA; Julian Myers-Szupinska, Associate Professor, Curatorial Practice, California College of the Arts; Tom Nicholson, artist; Daniel Palmer, Associate Dean Graduate Research, MADA; Anne M. Wagner, Class of 1936 Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of California, Berkeley; and Tirdad Zolghadr, writer and curator.

The PhD program is led by Tara McDowell, Associate Professor and Director of Curatorial Practice at MADA. McDowell publishes and lectures frequently, was a curator of the 2015 Tbilisi Triennial, and was founding senior editor of The Exhibitionist. She has held curatorial appointments at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where she mounted numerous group and solo exhibitions. She holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Helen Hughes joined the program in 2016 as Lecturer in Art History and Curatorial Practice. Hughes is Research Curator at the Monash University Museum of Art, co-founder and co-editor of the contemporary art journal Discipline, and co-curator of the 2016 TarraWarra Biennial. She received a PhD in Art History from the University of Melbourne in 2015.

In 2017, the program welcomes Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva as an Adjunct Professor. Currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Social Justice Institute at The University of British Columbia, Ferreira da Silva’s academic writings and artistic practice address the ethical questions of the global present.

Application details here
EOI and how-to-apply process details here

CRICOS provider: 00008C
CRICOS course code: 037830A