Some of the members of the panel for QMA’s Curate award.
DOHA: Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) and Fondazione Prada yesterday launched Curate, a first of its kind global competition to find new curating talent.
Curate opens up and challenges people’s ideas of what an exhibition can be. It will provide one winner with the opportunity to curate their own exhibition, the exhibition of their dreams.
A world-renowned jury will judge ideas based on creativity and social significance, rewarding those with a contemporary and culturally relevant point of view. They will be looking for an exemplary exhibition that is both far-sighted and critical to the future.
Participation in the competition is not limited to aspiring or established curators, but is open to anyone with a great concept for creative expression, with the emphasis on encouraging young people to compete, whether as individuals or as collaborative groups. Twenty finalists will be selected by the jury, and will be showcased on the Curate website, giving an opportunity to the public to vote on their favourite project. The winner will be announced in Spring 2014.
The jury is composed of HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson, QMA; Miuccia Prada, President, Fondazione Prada; Rem Koolhaas, architect, urban theorist; Nadine Labaki, Lebanese filmmaker and actress; Nawal El Moutawakel, the first woman from a Muslim majority country to win an Olympic gold medal; and Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director, Serpentine Gallery, London.
Proposals can be uploaded to the Curate website www.curateaward.org for consideration by the Jury from today.
The format of the proposal should be a self-made video no longer than two minutes in length, with a one page accompanying text explaining the idea.
The jury issued a statement yesterday saying: “The notion of ‘curating’ no longer belongs just to the museum. With the development of digital and social media, it has now become possible for anyone to participate in the selection, editing and communication of ideas. We hope that people, whatever their age or background, will make the most of the opportunity offered by Curate to think about the future potential of exhibition making, where there are no imposed boundaries to media, scale, content and formats, and ideas, whether from the fields of science or the arts, can come from anywhere.”
The Peninsula
