2nd Curatorial forum

The North-West branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (NCCA in Saint Petersburg) with the support of the Fund to Supporting Innovation and Youth Initiatives in St. Petersburg is pleased to announce the dates of the 2nd Curatorial Forum. From November 16 to 30 the 2nd Curatorial Forum will be held in Saint Petersburg.

The Forum brings together leading institutional and independent curators, gallerists and art managers. This international event will feature discussions and presentations on current curatorial practices as well as the first Art Weekend in Russia. During the Art Weekend galleries, art spaces and workshops of artists will open up to a wider audience for an “open day.”

In 2020, the Forum turns to educational practices in museums and other cultural institutions, such as museum pedagogy and art mediation as well as general issues related to the production of knowledge in the sphere of modern culture. Visiting the exhibition is no longer limited to traditional tours and lectures, from passive “consumer” the viewer becomes a participant in cultural production. The program of the Forum consists of several projects divided for three different audiences: professional community, students of art schools and institutions and a broader urban audience . We welcome participants who are not immersed in the sphere of contemporary art.

Program:

Symposium* Educational U-turn. Who else is Producing Knowledges in Culture?
November 2020
Curators: Yana Klichuk, Alina Belishkina & Joana Monbaron

Education has become not only a permanent subject of artistic expressions, but also a separate area of curatorial activity. The “educational turn” in curating criticized the commodification of education from the perspective of contemporary art. It challenged  the place of educational practices in museums and other cultural institutions. The Symposium revisits the issues raised by the “educational turn” in order to respond to the today’s challenges and address the relationship between educational and curatorial practices in their inseparable and often unequal relations. We ask about the purpose of education in museums, galleries, and other exhibition spaces today and what opportunities do we have for equitable and inclusive work  in this field of knowledge production? Finally, who are “we”—curators, teachers, public?

Art Weekend in St. Petersburg
November 21–22, 2020

The Art Weekend will be held in November as an “open day” for St. Petersburg galleries and art spaces. More than 30 venues will take part in the event. Each venue prepares special lectures, discussions, performances, exhibitions and excursions.

Art Weekend explores the current state of the local art scene, which plays an important role for the professional community. The event attracted 7.5 thousand people in 2019. 

Special projects are:
-take-away exhibition Zine as Exhibition: Postcovid
-online project Studio Studies including 20 video interviews with St. Petersburg emerging artists in their workshops
-an internship program for university students of Saint Petersburg
-contemporary art interventions into three universities of Saint Petersburg