Call for Curatorial Curriculum Participants & Grand Union Programme 2018

Grand Union’s Curatorial Curriculum is an alternative educational programme for emerging curators. It is an opportunity to be a participant in a series of intensive workshops to develop your practice with world-renowned specialists in the field.

The workshops will be held over four weekends annually, exploring curatorial practices as they take root in: Birmingham, Conversation, Learning, and Publics.

Sessions will be facilitated by a faculty of professionals from each respective field including Sophia Yadong Hao, Janna Graham, and Annie Fletcher.

Application guidelines
The course is open to 16 people who wish to have more in depth workshops and practical training. It is aimed at emerging curators, however some previous curatorial experience is preferred, with a working knowledge of contemporary art.

Application requirements:
–Letter of motivation in which you state your personal drive as well as your expectations of the programme (maximum 500 words)
–Description of a recent curatorial project that has had an impact on you (maximum 300 words)
–CV including a description of relevant work experience

Fees and scholarships
The course fee is 275 GBP, which covers four sessions, including lunches, across 2018. Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. Scholarships are available to practitioners based in the West Midlands, see website for further details.

Send applications digitally to kim [​at​] grand-union.org.uk.
Applicants will be notified by April 16, 2018.


Grand Union programme 2018


Deeper in the Pyramid, a solo exhibition by Melanie Jackson
February 2–April 21
Deeper in the Pyramid is an expansive new body of work comprising of animation, sculpture, a filmed performance and a publication in a graphic novel format, written in collaboration with Esther Leslie.

We are taken on a journey of lactic abstractions, through the webs of bio-invasion and collective fantasy that interconnect various life forms through milk, its technologies and representations. The ontologies of species and gender have always been shaped by our relations with this primal liquid, and ensuring a ready supply has driven research in genetics, fertility and robotics. It is now open for radical transformation as new bio-organisms emerge, and real science merges with the fantastic.

This project will be delivered across Grand Union, Primary in Nottingham and Banner Repeater in London later in 2018.


Inherited Premises, a two-person show by Rami George and Tako Taal
Curated by Seán Elder
May 25–August 11
Inherited Premises is a two-person show by artists Rami George and Tako Taal that seeks to articulate both personal and national narratives, situating itself between moments of civic rupture and socio-familial histories. Making reference to domesticity, language and ideas of nationhood, both artists explore lineages in relation to broader understandings of political traumas including conflict, war and imperialism.

As George moves towards a meditation on the spectre of Civil War within the Lebanese diaspora, Taal looks to linguistic boundaries and folklore in her understandings of matrilineal relations in Gambian culture.


Ways of Learning, a project curated by Lucy Lopez with Seán Elder and Kim McAleese
September 7–December 1
Beginning from three key artworks, Ways of Learning foregrounds those forms of knowledge production which stem from anecdote, collaborative practice, and intergenerational narrative. We will explore shared histories in Labour, Feminist and Philosophical movements, the enduring herbal and culinary practices of distinct communities, and the forms of distribution and publishing which claim space for queer voices.


Notes On…Care
June 2018–March 2019
In collaboration with curator-in-residence, Lucy Lopez, our public programme discursive and social events will focus on care.

Events will unfold both throughout the year and as part of Ways of Learning, examining notions of pedagogy and care, and how Feminist and Queer practices can provide a foundation for these conversations.

For further information please visit our website or contact Kim McAleese, Programme Director, at kim [​at​] grand-union.org.uk.

These projects and associated programs are made possible through funding from Arts Council England, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Beatfreeks, ASTONish, New Art West Midlands, Arts and Science Festival University of Birmingham, SHOUT Festival of Queer Arts and Culture.