This two-semester advanced undergraduate seminar will provide students with a unique and intensive opportunity to participate in the curation of cultural programming at Slought Foundation, a non-profit contemporary arts organization affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. The course will combine critical theory and practice by providing students with classroom instruction about the theoretical issues involved in presenting contemporary art and hands-on experience in realizing contemporary exhibitions, symposia, and publications. Weekly readings will address and examine the historic and contemporary avant-gardes, as well as work by leading artists, cultural critics, and curators. Students will also gain exposure to contemporary curatorial practices and methodologies through studio visits with artists and trips to galleries and museum in Philadelphia and New York. At Slought Foundation, students will actively contribute to the realization of a variety of projects including, but not limited to: a campus-wide retrospective of Paris-based installation artist Braco Dimitrijevic; a publication based on the Evasions of Power symposium (March 2006), in collaboration with the Departments of Architecture and Art History at Penn and Goldsmith’s College in London; a series of exhibitions about Slought Foundation that will travel to galleries and museums in cities including Buenos Aires, Paris, and Tel Aviv in 2008; as well as a dynamic selection of ongoing Slought Foundation programs including public conversations and concerts. Course requirements include a short writing exercise each week in response to assigned readings, a final paper for each semester, and participation in the realization of programming at Slought Foundation. Familiarity with contemporary art is not required but is encouraged. In addition to weekly classroom instruction, please note that students will be expected to attend and actively participate in additional course-related activities each week.

Enrollment in this two-semester seminar is limited to 10 students and permission from the instructor is required. To apply, please submit a short essay outlining your experience and interest in this course, including contact information and school affiliation, by March 30, 2007.

Submit to Aaron Levy, c/o History of Art, Jaffe Building, 3405 Woodland Walk. Brief interviews will take place in March 2007, with notification status to follow shortly there after.