World of Art

The project World of Art develops models of training and collaboration in contemporary arts. It is a partnership focused on vocational training of Curatorial Studies, Art Critical Studies, Museum Studies, and Art Journalism. The partnership intends to examine the best practices of vocational training strategies, methods and curriculum, developed by the partners.
The partnership, based on long-term educational experiences of all partners, is developing a vocational program for curators, critics and art journalists of contemporary arts. The vocational program consists of different activities (writing skills, production of exhibitions, critical readings, workshops, lectures, and study excursions) and ends with acquiring the certificate, which helps the learners to start operating in the art world. The learners will gain a specific, mostly practical knowledge for operating as curators, critics and art journalists of contemporary arts.
Furthermore the partnership will search for alternative models of art education, it will develop a joint curriculum and vocational reader and it will enhance cooperation and networking between cultural institutions in four countries (Austria, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia) that share similar experiences regarding their status within the international art market and the state of art education. It will build the space for long-term collaboration on both institutional levels (partners’ organizations and their staff) and individual levels (learners, lecturers and tutors).
A relevant issue and a starting point for our partnership is the state of vocational training as a parallel to formal art education in former socialist and transition countries (Slovenia, Croatia, and Poland). The formal education in history of art includes neither contemporary production nor the art theory of 20th and 21st Century. This makes young experts turn mainly towards past periods due to their lack of knowledge and skills for decoding contemporary tendencies in art. At the same time the young experts do not have a possibility to obtain a specific, mostly practical knowledge for operating as curators, critics and art journalists of contemporary arts. This lack of formal educational curatorial programs at the university level created a void, an empty space that is mostly fulfilled with the reaffirmation of the traditional art, while contemporary art scene has been suffering from lack of competent young professionals.
The partnership, based on long-term educational experiences of all partners, is overlapping a void by developing a specific vocational program for curators, critics and art journalists of contemporary arts. The vocational program consists of different activities (writing skills, production of exhibitions, critical reading, workshops, study excursions…) and ends with acquiring the certificate, which helps the learners to start operating in the art world. Learners have a unique possibility to acquire specific knowledge on these linked professions that cannot be obtained in any other educational programs, as curriculum is based on specific interweaving of theory and practice. Learners have a chance to try out most of the data learned during the study process, which gives them necessary vocational skills and capacities. Important segments of the programs are case study simulations of a regular working process of a curator, critic or writer, conducted in a protected educational environment with assistance of tutor on all levels; practical and theoretical. Such modus operandi is actually equipping future professionals with skills and techniques necessary for independent operation in the art system.
Additional value of the partnership is a collaboration of three institutions coming from the newly established democracies (Slovenia, Poland, Croatia) and one from a country with already long time established art and educational system (Austria). Sharing each experiences through long-term collaboration based on content can only stimulate all partners to create stimulating educational model on European level.
The comparison between the situation of curatorial and critical writing studies of contemporary arts in all partners’ countries (Poland, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria) will help us to overcome the local and national barriers and thus create a fruitful platform for an international curatorial and critical writing curriculum.
The development of alternative models of contemporary art vocational training focused on Curatorial Studies, Art Critical Studies, Museum Studies, Art Journalism would offer an alternative to the methods and ways inherited from the socialist times on the one hand (in Poland, Croatia and Slovenia) and “Western” established academia (Austria) on the other. Nevertheless we believe that the supposition that there is a homogeneous West with rigid art institutions countering the heterogeneity and the “undecidedness” of the East is a misconception.
Through the educational and cultural exchange, rigorous research and dialogue we would like to learn from others and to preserve some of the positive elements that both “Western” and “Eastern” more established (art) educational institutions have achieved.
The partnership will introduce experimentation and innovation in art vocational training and education on European level by building a bridge among public and private art and educational institutions and by negotiating our roles within the dominant institutional art sphere extending from local, regional and European dimension.
All involved partners expect to have a strong impact on decoding contemporary tendencies in art – both locally and internationally – through the implementation of alternative models of vocational training and education. Through open, reflective and critical communication the partnership will give an opportunity to exchange experience and knowledge between European partners, who are, however, in the zone of Europe’s geopolitical and cultural interests. It will promote cross-cultural dialogue, diversity and understanding of cultural differences, which in turn, will enhance the local art production and discursive contexts as well as establish non-hierarchical communication with the international art scene.