MA Curation graduation projects: ELSEWHERE(S)

ELSEWHERE(S) is the overall project title for a series of exhibitions and site-specific installations, curated by students on the MA Curation course at University of Exeter, investigating different definitions of ‘home’ and cultural identity in the context of global consumerism, and what we accept or reject in marking these boundaries. The borderlines between a sense of belonging and unbelonging are often drawn along the dichotomies of ‘domestic or foreign’, ‘safe or dangerous’, ‘desirable or abject’. ELSEWHERE(S) explores what it takes to feel ‘at home’ in a place such as Exeter, including the personal experience of being an outsider within a dominant cultural context, through exhibitions and site-specific interventions in the city’s busy shopping centre.

Participating artists: Calico, Duo Duo, Gyokee, Jeremy Hutchison, Jennifer Jones, Pei-Ying Lin, Liu Shuting, Wenyao Mao, Ren Yinlai, Urmi Roy, David Spero, Stephanie Syjuco, Wang Jianhua, Xie Chengfei, Zhang Weichuan, Zhou Chenlong

Curators: MHB, Ella Bradbury, Tong Dai, Helena David, Kelan Dong, Sara Fajardo, Sophia Foster, Yiwen Fu, Meng Hao, Irena Heppard, Xiaoqi Liu, Hua Pang, Zitong Shan, Xiaotong Tang, Yifan Wu, Yang Xu, Hualing Zhai, Kailing Zhang, Zhuoran Zhang, Jiarong Zhou, Yifei Zhu, Xuebing Zhu 

MA Curation: Contemporary Art and Cultural Management is a one-year post-graduate taught course at University of Exeter, combining academic rigour and critical debate with professional training and practical experience. The programme is transnational in focus, encouraging an understanding of the social, cultural and economic issues that surround the contemporary art world. We think critically about the relationship between the local and international in different regions of the world, the art market and non-profit spaces, and the decolonisation of exhibition programmes and art fairs. As well as exploring the theoretical approaches associated with curation, there is a professional practice strand focusing on production skills and cultural management. Modules include 'Arts of the Contemporary World', 'Institutions and Agencies', 'Art Writing' and 'Curating Society', amongst others.

MA Curation students attend regular field trips to biennials, exhibitions and art institutions as well as undertaking a six-week professional placement, tailored to their curatorial interests. Host institutions for the internships have included Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; Galerie Hoangbeli, Paris; Frieze Art Fair, the Government Art Collection, Saatchi Gallery and the Whitechapel Gallery in London; along with regional museums and galleries in the South West of England. Students are also eligible to apply for the annual British Council Fellowships at the Venice Biennale.

In the final term, students have the option to either organise a curatorial project or write a research dissertation. In our inaugural year, the focus for the 2021 practice-based projects chosen by the MA students was Antibodies: Art During the Pandemic, whilst in 2022 the theme was Now’s the Time: Art Year Zero, in 2023, Bare Life: Art Despite Everything, and in 2024, Foreign Bodies. The MA Curation project archive can be found at uofecuration.art.

The course is led by Programme Director, Professor Tom Trevor and co-taught by Dr Helena Bonett, as well as drawing on expertise from the University’s Art History and Visual Culture team. Lectures and seminars are framed around conversations with internationally recognised curators, artists, researchers and writers. Recent guest speakers have included Brian Dillon, Ben Eastham, Maria Fusco, Ashish Ghadiali, Melissa Gronlund, Anthony Huberman, Amal Khalaf, Omar Kholeif, Jesse Gerard Mpango, Zarina Muhammad, Yvette Mutumba, Lola Olufemi, Sally O’Reilly, Shwetal Patel, Jelena Sofronijevic, Billy Tang, Raluca Voinea and Keiko Yamamato, amongst others.

The University of Exeter is a Russell Group university, in the top 150 of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings 2022. We combine world-class teaching with world-class research, with over 22,000 students and 4,600 staff from 180 different countries.

How to apply
For more information on the programme, available scholarships and how to apply online, please visit the course page on our website or enquire online. Keep up to date with all programme activities by following us on Instagram.