The Search for the Next Big C

Last March 4 - 6,  the Japan Foundation, Manila together with the UP Vargas Museum gathered together young curators for the 3^rd Curatorial Development Program Workshop.    The call for participants brought in 44 curatorial proposals from the Philippines and other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Zurich.  The applicants were all asked to submit an essay on the question “What does it mean to be a curator today?” 

Out of the 44 application, 15 curators were chosen to participant.  The curators were a mixture of artist/curator, cultural worker/curator, teacher/curator and independent and institutional curators.

The Participants

The 3 day workshop was divided into talks from resource persons who discussed topics such as “New Media in Southeast Asia”, “Practices of Art Installation Experts in Japan” and presentation of exhibition concepts based on the theme “History of Negotiations”.  The participants were given 30 minutes to present their exhibition concept, artists and budget.  The presentations were very interesting especially when it was combined with titles like “Bananas, Glico, Pandesal” or “The Lizard says you’re a Liar” or “Turtles”. 

Dr. Patrick Flores of the UP Vargas Museum

The four chosen curators will be participating in a two-week study tour of Japan in August 2014 and will each organize an exhibition at the UP Vargas Museum in December 2014. 

The search for the next big curators was a success.  Unlike the past curatorial workshop wherein the mentors did most of the critiquing, this year’s workshops gave the participants the chance to critique and learn from each other’s proposals.

The Resource Speakers, Participants of the 2014 Curatorial Workshop
with the staff from the Japan Foundation.