MFA Curating

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

The course certainly strengthened my knowledge of the international art scene and current curatorial discourses. 

Why did you choose this programme?

MFA Curating was my only choice for a Masters programme. Firstly, I wanted to be in London since it is one of the central cities for contemporary art and from there it was easy to travel around Europe to have a real experience of the European contemporary art scene. Secondly, it was because of the school’s reputation for contemporary art and curating. I was in need of finding own curatorial standpoint and deepening my research skills after a few years working as a curator in Korea.

What was your overall experience of the course?

It was even better than my expectations. The biggest privilege for me was being amongst the intellectual fellow students and tutors. I learned a lot from them while having classroom discussions as well as outside class. The course was very intense with lots of reading and writing. The choices of subjects and reading materials were excellent in enhancing my knowledge of the field, and the focus on writing helped me to organize a critical way of thinking. But the real changes and integration of all this knowledge came from discussions where I learned from others’ different perspectives and listened to their field experiences.

What have you done since graduating?

Since then, I came back to South Korea and became a curator and founding member of Barakat Contemporary in Seoul. Korea has a well-developed critical contemporary art scene with many good artists, art institutions and governmental supports. However, Barakat Contemporary responded to what it perceived as the weakness in the stable art market, collectors and patron culture to support artistic practice in the long term. We therefore built a gallery that aimed to foster this culture and to connect the international and domestic art market with critical and institutional relations. We put a lot of effort into research and curating for the underlying gallery strategies as well as for each exhibition.

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

It helped me broaden my perspective on the contemporary art field. The course certainly strengthened my knowledge of the international art scene and current curatorial discourses. During the first year, the course was intense with seminars and discussions. In the second year, it focused more on personal research. If the first year is like learning how to cook and what ingredients to choose, the second year is the stage when the actual cooking starts. In the second year, I went deeper into my fundamental research on art, history, different historical perspectives and perceptions between different cultures. It was an interesting period that in turn led to many further questions. 



What advice would you offer current Goldsmiths MFA Curating students?

Try to keep making trials and errors. In some ways I was a bit lost when I was studying with so much information to digest. The actual integration of knowledge that I gained at Goldsmiths really started after I graduated. Especially if you are someone who comes from to the UK from a distant region, and are a non-native English speaker, the course can be very intense. But if you make it through to the end you will be qualified to some extent as a curator. So believe in yourself, and keep trying working at your own speed.


For me, curating is a very appealing subject to study as well as a career to have. You have your own standpoint and you can connect all the dots around you; artworks, artists, people, institutions, social/cultural/historical issues etc. Curatorial subjects can be varied in temporal and spatial spectrums. You can explore and research any kind of subjects for your practice. There is always so much to learn.

I chose the program having admired the variety of work undertaken by recent graduates in the field, the culture at Goldsmiths College that encourages interdisciplinary thinking, as well as the profiles of the course tutors.

Why did you choose this programme?

I chose the program having admired the variety of work undertaken by recent graduates in the field, the culture at Goldsmiths College that encourages interdisciplinary thinking, as well as the profiles of the course tutors.

What was your overall experience of the course?

Positive: I especially enjoyed the multi-perspectival, adventurous and interdisciplinary nature of the course, which encouraged drawing upon sources in all types of fields to think through questions of curating. I met incredible friends and future colleagues from around the world.

What have you done since graduating?

Immediately after graduating, I was lucky to have been awarded two opportunities: the Young Curator’s Residency at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and the inaugural Zabludowicz Collection Curatorial Open. Between 2011 and 2015, I was the Exhibitions & Displays Curator at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. Since 2016, I have worked as a Curator in the Visual Arts Department at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where I have had the opportunity to curate interdisciplinary projects across the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the Walker’s galleries and theater, as well as contribute to building the permanent collection.

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

The course dovetailed the practical issues of exhibition-making with the larger theoretical/critical approaches and concerns. I think my work has been influenced by the way in which the course approaches art and visual culture – with curiosity and adventurousness, and an embrace of all kinds of references and sources.

What advice would you offer current Goldsmiths MFA Curating students?

Make the most of what the course and your colleagues offer, meet as many artists and see as much art as possible in London, travel frequently if you can. Apply for opportunities as well as make your own!