MA Curatorial Practice

Practical training and more
The MA Curatorial Practice (MACP) program—a two-year master’s degree in every aspect of professional training toward becoming a professional art curator—is based at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in the heart of New York City, where you will have the unparalleled opportunity to study amid some of the most extraordinary museums in the world, close to hundreds of contemporary art galleries, with thousands of artists and endless cultural events all around you. Museums, alternative cultural spaces, huge numbers of art and historical archives, and some of the largest libraries on the planet are beyond what any individual institution can house. You are here in one of the world’s greatest centers of cultural activity and learning.

We call the program Curatorial Practice because that is our absolute focus. Hands-on training in the skills and techniques to do curatorial work is at the center of what you’ll learn. Other programs imitate our language, but our program is unique in providing multiple opportunities to make fully subsidized exhibitions, not just one for graduation. And you make your exhibitions not just in perfect white museum spaces, but in the real world of exhibition venues, so that you learn to make shows wherever you need to.

You will have workshops focused on writing, exhibition installation, exhibition design, lighting design, conservation, presentation-making, and grant-writing. The exhibitions you make train you in conceptualizing exhibitions, thinking through the ways in which you conceptually and spatially address your audiences, working with artists in producing exhibitions and other curatorial projects, preparing wall texts, gallery labels, press releases, condition reports, loan forms, designing your shows, lighting them, and installing and deinstalling them.

MA Curatorial Practice provides scholarships to all students based on need.

Your faculty
Your faculty at MACP is unrivaled anywhere in the world because we have the distinct advantage of being based in New York City, and so, as you can see on our website, truly renowned curators teach you specific practical skills to curate across different forms of artistic production, while also giving you very thorough readings in both history and theory, so that you are fully knowledgeable to do the work as a professional curator. You will meet with more than forty international museum directors, curators, and artists to learn from their practical experiences, while this also gives you the opportunity to meet in small groups with them and build your professional network toward your future.

Publishing
Along with this practical training, history, and theory, our international open-access online journal, The Curatorial, provides you with the chance to write for a professional publication to offer yet another credential when applying for curatorial jobs.

Fieldwork and internship
As part of your training, during the summer between your first and second years, we place you in an internship at a significant institution to be embedded in a curatorial department and learn from the inside what is entailed in the profession. You go to the internship after a subsidized trip to a major biennial, such as the Venice Biennale, the Berlin Biennial, Documenta, and others, where you experience the exhibition and meet with leading curators. You will also meet with other curatorial students from around the world for special sessions that broaden your knowledge and provide even more new international connections.

About MA Curatorial Practice and the School of Visual Arts
MACP is part of the School of Visual Arts, one of the leading art schools in New York City. Being part of an art school, we consider curating another form of creative expression, another form of making, and all of our courses are keenly focused on using the deep knowledge we give you practically and academically toward the goal of being a creative maker of curatorial projects in any kind of venue and anywhere in the world. With more than thirty undergraduate and graduate programs, and students from across the globe, you will have ample opportunities to work with international artists here at school and in the city, and have this practical, skill-based learning, this time for reading and thinking, this experience in the immensely deep New York art world, and in other parts of the world during your internship, to become prepared to get a job as a professional curator or in other cultural positions that you wish to pursue.

Join us for our next info session online on October 16 by registering here, with later sessions on November 20, December 11, and January 10 (Registration link will be available at a later date here.).

Visit our website, and when you are ready, apply for admission here.