De Appel Curatorial Programme 2026/27
Ten-month international curatorial training program in Amsterdam focusing on collective practice, institutional experimentation, and socially engaged curating.
De Appel's Curatorial Programme 2026/27 is a prestigious ten-month training initiative designed for emerging curators and cultural practitioners. Established in 1994 as one of the world's earliest curatorial training programmes, it distinguishes itself through small group sizes and deep emphasis on collective praxis rather than theoretical study alone.
The programme brings together 5-6 international participants who work and travel collectively throughout the ten-month period (October 19, 2026 – July 2027). Participants engage in shared reading, writing, discussion, and reflection while meeting with artists, cultural practitioners, and organizations to build lasting professional relationships.
The 2026/27 edition centers on interconnected themes approached as lived social and political conditions: land, co-ownership and housing, governance, and art economy and class. The programme is organized around three thematic modules: Governing Otherwise (collective governance and alternative organizational forms), Transvestment (alternative art economies and class sustainability), and Assembling Land (land and housing as sites of political struggle).
Participants learn through peer learning, institutional visits across the Netherlands and internationally, and collaboratively develop a curatorial project that culminates in an exhibition at de Appel in summer 2027. The programme positions curating as practice exceeding exhibition-making, engaging with institution-building, collective governance, economic sustainability, and structural change.
The opportunity is open to curators, producers, cultural practitioners, artists, collectives, and researchers interested in collective practice and socially engaged curating. Applicants must be prepared to work collaboratively and critically within a group setting.