The CAS in Curating at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) is a discursive platform focusing on key areas of contemporary exhibition making. It has a strong practical orientation. Taught modules, group activities, seminars, and lectures delivered by a team of acclaimed international guest lecturers serve to build essential knowledge and skills in the field of curating. Coursework also involves research and the development of individual and group projects from start to finish.
Our CAS in Curating focuses less on the notion of the exhibition planner as a “genius” or self-sufficient individual author – a highly controversial issue since the 1990s – than on cooperative, interdisciplinary working methods, used, for example, in film productions or by non-governmental organizations. Here, at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), exhibition-making and curating mean the creation of innovative structures for the presentation of cultural artefacts through interdisciplinary collaboration. Here, art, digital media, design, and architecture intermesh in new ways. The working methods adopted by curators, artists, architects, designers, art educators, museum educationalists, and writers have become increasingly unified, bringing about new forms of communication, lounges, archives, reading rooms, and new virtual forums – along with new means of access and forms of interpretation.
At the same time, we are witnessing a shift in the organization of work processes throughout society. Individual spheres of action are merging on new meta-levels, resulting in increasingly dynamic networks and know-how transfer. Our CAS in Curating responds to these manifold changes in the production of cultural meaning. The course creates a model situation in which students can gain first-hand, practical experience of curating and practise critical reflection. Modular structure ensures that our programme is constantly up-to-date and innovative.