Curatorial practice as it emerged during the twentieth century is no doubt being extensively recast. The tremendous change in the status of the object, of culture, of the various disciplines, or information and education, implies an inevitable transformation of the curator’s role and competences. A renewed interest for curatorial practice has emerged within the field of architecture in the recent past.

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While the schools of architecture have started to integrate this interest in their curriculum, architecture museums have hired a new generation of curators. If schools consider curatorial practice as an extension of historical and theoretical research into the archive, museums in return are now pressed to question their initial mission with the emergence of curators of architecture trained outside of art history and museum studies programs.

As a consequence, curatorial activities tend to extend beyond the traditional realms of collections and exhibitions. These concerns have also permeated through the research opportunities at the CCA Study Centre where an increasing number of scholars in residence are pursuing curatorial projects.

With a view of establishing a series of curatorial internships, fellowships and residencies, the CCA wishes to evaluate its potential role in an expanding curatorial field with members of curatorial programs, architectural schools and museums, editorial teams, and museum institutions. The colloquium, made possible thanks to the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is organized around the three main panel discussions on pedagogical orientations, curatorial programs and practices, and institutional perspectives.

Thursday 11 November 2010, 2–5:30pm

Welcome by Mirko Zardini, CCA Director

Pedagogical orientations:
Eva Díaz, Pratt Institute, New York
Mark Jarzombek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Felicity Scott, Columbia University, New York
Philip Ursprung, Universität Zürich, Zurich

Friday 12 November 2010

9am–12:30pm
Curatorial programs and practices 1:
Jean-Louis Cohen, New York University, New York
Kurt W. Forster, Yale University, New Haven
Sylvia Lavin, University of California, Los Angeles
Anthony Vidler, The Cooper Union, New York

2–5:30pm
Curatorial programs and practices 2:
François Chaslin, France Culture Radio, Paris
Cynthia Davidson, Anyone Corporation, New York
Fabrizio Gallanti, Abitare, Milan
Pieter Martin, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

Saturday 13 November 2010, 9:30am–1pm

Institutional perspectives:
Barry Bergdoll, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Ole Bouman, Nederlands Architectuurinstituut, Rotterdam
Pippo Ciorra, Museo Nazionale delle arti del XXI Secolo, Rome
Mirko Zardini, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal