MA Curatorial Practice information session

About the MA Curatorial Practice Program 
Applications are now open for the master of arts degree in Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts in the heart of New York City, close to hundreds of art galleries, world-renowned museums, and thousands of artists’ studios. Our two-year degree is oriented around practical professional training, with our small case-study seminars led by a faculty of leading curators and experts who teach you what they do professionally.  

Along with our case-study seminars covering specific curatorial areas, the program includes workshops to refine your skills in writing about art and exhibitions, and professional practice workshops in exhibition design, lighting design, grant writing, and more. Over the course of each year, the program holds the Curatorial Roundtable and Artist Roundtable on a weekly basis, with public sessions followed by meetings just for our students to listen and converse with international practitioners about their curatorial experiences and provide an opportunity to build a global network of professional connections. Special programs, such as our ongoing series of talks, “The Algorithmic State,” take place throughout the academic year, along with guest seminars, typically given by members of our faculty at large and visiting experts. As well, in our elegant exhibition space and elsewhere in New York, you will have the opportunity to make three subsidized exhibitions, from conceptualization through design and installation, and in the process you will write press releases, wall texts, prepare loan forms and condition reports—in other words, you will receive in-depth training in every aspect of professional curatorial work in order to be employed in the field. 

With this intense, hands-on training, courses in history, philosophy, and theory provide background for a deep understanding of historical and contemporary ideas that shape curatorial work as well as ways to approach the most pressing subjects of our times. During the summer between the two years of the program, you will have the chance to participate in fieldwork, visiting a major biennial abroad with your classmates and attending critiques with the exhibition’s curators and visiting curators, followed by an internship at a leading art institution where you will work with a mentor, experiencing curatorial practice from the inside—once again, more practical training and the opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture while learning through doing curatorial work. Our students go on to jobs at museums and institutions in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America, sometimes with the curators who mentored them during their internship. Our program has always been dedicated to social justice and activism, and every course addresses curatorial work toward these ends. Find out more about the program here. 

Financial aid 
We provide our students with the place and time to expand their thinking and skills as curators, and we offer merit-based partial support scholarships. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are central to our program and to all of the School of Visual Arts.

Information session and visits 
On January 8 at 7pm ET, Steven Henry Madoff, Chair of MA Curatorial Practice, will hold an online Information Session to tell you everything about the program and answer questions. Anyone attending receives an 80 USD waiver for their application fee. Please register here. Applications are due January 15, 2024. For anyone unable to attend our Information Session, feel free to reach out to make an appointment for consultation via phone or Zoom, or come visit in person. Please contact us at macp [​at​] sva.edu. Or apply now for fall 2024.

*Image above: “Not too hot, Not too cold” workshop on the subject of collectivity and friendship, led by graduating student Sophia Park, 2023, at MA Curatorial Practice.