MFA Curating

During the second year of the programme, I was lucky enough to be able to start working as Assistant Curator at Tate Modern

Experience with the most renowned art institutions in London

I chose the program because I’ve heard about it from a former graduate whose curatorial work I deeply admired, but at the end I was drawn to Goldsmiths because I was eager to explore further the intellectual implications of exhibition making and how it informs everyday life more broadly. As I already had some curatorial experience when I enrolled, having previously worked at the Philadelphia Museum, I was particularly drawn to the practice-led approach of the programme and the opportunity offered to the students to be engaged with some of the most renowned art institutions in London.

Enriching experiences, graduate prospects, and an inspiring course.

My overall experience of the course was positive and, in the end, incredibly enriching, but challenging sometimes. The course made me rethink deeply the way I had previously approached art history. I found the content of the classes stimulating and on many occasions, I felt pushed to be out of my comfort zone as a curator, which at the end helped me to find my own voice in my curatorial practice.

During my time at Goldsmiths, I found particularly inspiring the interdisciplinary nature of the course. It made me re-evaluate what it means to be a curator, either when working independently or as part of a larger curatorial team. More importantly, it made me realise how crucial it is to conceive innovative, visually coherent projects which are both rigorous but also relevant to a contemporary audience.

Because of the less prescriptive nature of the course, I also had the chance to create my own opportunities and during my second year I started to work as Assistant Curator at Tate Modern. This role not only gave me some financial security but also truly spring-boarded my career in the UK.

Goldsmiths and the Tate Modern

As mentioned, during the second year of the programme, I was lucky enough to be able to start working as Assistant Curator at Tate Modern and even though it was quite of a challenge to balance my course commitments with my responsibilities at work, the experience was highly rewarding. Since 2018, I have been working at Tate Liverpool, where I devise collection displays, temporary exhibitions, and new commissions. It is a wonderful experience as I have had the chance to work with the Tate collection but also with tribalizing artists as Theaster Gates, Lamin Fofana and Candice Breitz.

MFA Curating teaches many different frameworks and outlooks on what curation is

The course played a huge role in shaping the kind of curator I have become. The course made me reconsider what curation is and how important is to frame the exhibition-making withing a larger theoretical framework, which may encompass historical, political, or economic issues.

Advice for MFA Curating students

Find your own voice and meet and reach out to as many curators, peers, professionals, researchers and artists as possible. Forge your own network opportunities and see as many exhibitions as you can. Goldsmiths and London are still an incomparable hub for new and ground-breaking ideas. Apply for the opportunities which resonate with your own curatorial profile and let things grow organically.

As the course is not prescriptive in terms of what curating is and in what format research can be articulated, it allowed me to find my voice.

Why did you choose this programme?

I knew a bit about the programme from a former graduate, I was aware of Goldsmiths’s history and politics. At the time I applied, however, what spoke strongly to me was the fact that the programme was within the art department and curating sat alongside fine art. This close proximity was the deciding factor in my choice.

What was your overall experience of the course?

Goldsmiths was a formative journey. If I put all the pieces together, this journey would take in my imagination the shape of a bildungsroman. The course was part of the larger experience of relocating to a new country, forming new and enduring friendships, discovering the city of London through its thriving cultural scene, but also struggling to pay the tuition and the monthly rent.

What made the course special and valuable to me was its peer orientation. We were there to learn from each other. My peers (and we were all women in that graduating cohort) hailed from different parts of Europe and the Americas: Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. We were seeing exhibitions together, we were discussing texts and writers, we were cooking together, we were sharing thoughts, fears, and ideals trying to make sense of this collective journey. The programme was structured in a way to allow exchanges to take place inside and outside the seminar room. We were encouraged by the teaching staff to shape the discussions, and with this independence came the responsibility to make the exchanges relevant and in-depth.

As part of the course, we had different opportunities to put ideas into practice and work together, such as the collaboration with the Swiss Church in London or the David Roberts Art Foundation. We also took initiative and worked closely with our colleagues from the fine art programme, for instance in a collaboration with the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Imperial College in London or on the hallway of one of Goldsmiths’s cafés. There was no prerequisite from the programme for such exchanges, but for some of us, this happened organically. Getting to know the students in the fine art programme, their concerns and practices made my experience so much richer.

Being in London is part of the course. One piece of advice we received stuck with me: own a good pair of shoes so you can walk and see as much as possible. London has such a layered art scene, from independent spaces, short-lived initiatives, to good galleries, museums, and art schools. Seeing exhibitions, meeting and talking to artists was an essential part of my learning process at Goldsmiths.

I enrolled in the course in 2009. One year later, the plan to raise substantially the tuition fees in the United Kingdom was approved by the government, despite the student protests which some of us joined as well as Goldsmiths faculty. I was fortunate enough to be part of the last three generations before the tuition raise. At Goldsmiths I was allowed to pay my tuition in several instalments, while other universities would request upfront payment. This flexible instalment plan, a lower tuition fee, and a small scholarship made it easier for me to attend the course. I hope that Goldsmiths will strengthen its support through more scholarship opportunities and tuition-fee subsidies for students from a diversity of backgrounds, including low income. This can be a lasting contribution to a more inclusive art world.

What have you done since graduating?

I continued to work with FormContent, a curatorial initiative, established in 2007 by three Goldsmiths graduates: Francesco Pedraglio, Caterina Riva, and Pieternel Vermoortel. FormContent nurtured in me an inclination to think creatively about curatorial and institutional processes and stretch the possibilities of how cultural production can be made public, experienced, discussed or written about. For one year, I worked at the Royal College of Art in London coordinating the visual culture lecture series, a learning experience to create bridges between practitioners and students within an academic environment. In 2013, I relocated to Singapore. As curator for exhibitions and later head of publications, I had the rare opportunity to join the team of a new institution, the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art founded by Ute Meta Bauer. Living and working in Southeast Asia made me much more aware of histories and concerns that have little visibility and resonance in Europe. Last year, I returned to Romania and curated together with Maria Lind the third edition of the Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara.

In what ways do you think the course has influenced or fed into your practice?

As the course is not prescriptive in terms of what curating is and in what format research can be articulated, it allowed me to find my voice. It encouraged me to be self-reflective about the process of curating and to think about all the constitutive elements and forces that give shape to it. The course also encouraged me to make writing part of curatorial thinking. I remembered all the writing exercises we did, from exhibition reviews to analysis of a single artwork, they were so valuable to me. Writing close to artwork and an artistic process became part of my practice.

What advice would you offer current Goldsmiths MFA Curating students?

To take advantage of the conceptual liberty that the course offers and think outside the canon, and to make the most out of being in London.

Image: Mona Vatămanu and Florin Tudor, Le Monde et les Choses in Place.Labour.Capital, edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu, Mousse Publishing and NTU CCA Singapore, 2018. Photograph by Mousse Publishing. 

The organization of the course mimicked the real-life enterprise of a curator—in having to constantly conceive innovative content that is both academically sound, relevant, and, hopefully, visually stimulating and provocative.

Why did you choose this programme?

One word: access. While living in London for two years, I had access to a great city with a thriving cultural landscape—famed public collections, dynamic institutions, and innovative nonprofit and project spaces. I knew I didn’t want to be isolated from the rest of the world, or the art world, during this time, and sought instead a programme that would bring me out from the library and into artists’ studios and galleries, and back again. I also wanted access to the very diverse and internationally-based student body who were attracted to Goldsmith’s program—I met fellow students who, I believe, will be life-long friends—from London, and also from places like Mexico City, Manila, Santa Fe, Arnis, and Kampala.

What was your overall experience of the course?

I was always challenged by the faculty, the guest speakers, the readings and the projects we were assigned. The organization of the course mimicked the real-life enterprise of a curator—in having to constantly conceive innovative content that is both academically sound, relevant, and, hopefully, visually stimulating and provocative. The faculty encouraged us to probe deeply into the socio-political and economic structures underpinning the art, theory, and narratives we were engaging with, and lead by the example with their own writings and programming. I thrived because of the healthy distribution of class time, coursework, and personal time for museum-going and socializing with the many colleagues—curators, artists, and other arts workers, who I’m friends with to this day. The course afforded me enough time that I was also to hold a part-time job at the non-profit art space Studio Voltaire, which was an economic plus that also afforded me additional professional experience.

What have you done since graduating?

For a few months after graduating, I spent my time between New York, Berlin, and Mexico City, pursuing independent projects with my Goldsmiths classmates, while applying for full-time curatorial work. Shortly thereafter, I was hired as a temporary Curatorial Assistant at the New Museum in New York, for the 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, co-curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Alex Gartenfeld. Ultimately, I was hired full-time and have been at the New Museum ever since. One of my proudest achievements to date, however, has been in organizing the New Museum Union, which formed in January 2019 with UAW-Local 2110. I served on the Bargaining Committee throughout the organizing process, and now represent my colleagues as Union Delegate. Advocating for a fair and equitable art world, while also helping to produce the timely and dynamic programming that the New Museum is known for, are two facets of my current practice which are indebted to my education at Goldsmiths, which prioritized political awareness and critical thinking.

In what ways do you think the course has influenced or fed into your practice?

I often debated with my former classmates and friends as to who got the most out of the MFA Curating course: the students who came with already developed practices and pre-conceived exhibition concepts waiting to be more fully developed; or someone like me, who arrived to class with less-well developed research interests and who was on a more open path of intellectual discovery throughout the program. The Goldsmiths course definitely taught me how to think and frame my perspectives, which has impacted both my work at the New Museum and my independent projects.

What advice would you offer current Goldsmiths MFA Curating students?

I would share with them the necessity to work collaboratively, to serve the public, and to continue to fight for respect, pay equity, and fair conditions for ALL art workers—solidarity forever!

Image: Sydney Shen: Onion Master