CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

7th Annual Curatorial Workshop:
“Curating in Challenging Times”

Presented by NCAC’s Arts & Culture Advocacy Program with Creative Time
December 4, 2025, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
New York, NY (in-person only–limited capacity!)

This is a challenging time for curators and leaders of cultural institutions across the U.S.

Amid government initiatives to defund and scrutinize specific kinds of cultural expression and historical analysis, curators and directors of cultural institutions must also balance concerns from risk-averse colleagues and institutional leadership.

Curators–even those who work in private institutions that do not rely on government funding–are caught between conflicting needs of continuing their mission-driven work, protecting those who take part in it, and ensuring institutional viability during political and financial instability. Under these compounding pressures, some institutions and curators feel they must self-censor, while others are intent on finding another way forward.

NCAC’s 7th Curatorial Workshop is a day-long workshop that brings together curators and leaders of cultural institutions to discuss strategies for curating exhibitions and cultural programs. Through speaker presentations and group discussions led by Claudia Zapata (Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin), Noam Segal (Guggenheim Museum), and Denise Ryner (ICA Philadelphia) and others, participants will examine case-studies in which curators have had to navigate targeted pressures, the workshop invites cultural leaders to discuss and identify strategies for maintaining creative and scholarly autonomy.

To join, apply via this form no later than November 2, 2025.

Application process

The workshop is open to curators and artistic directors- both independent and those working within institutions.

In the application, each participant must submit:

  • A brief statement of interest;
  • A case study proposal example that relates to the workshop’s themes. (Three case studies from applicants will be examined in the workshop.)
  • The applicant’s relevant experience.

Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by end of day November 7, 2025. Upon acceptance, confirmed participants must remit a non-refundable workshop fee of $85.

For further information, please contact
Elizabeth Larison: [email protected]

NCAC’s Art and Culture Advocacy Program is the only national project dedicated to working directly with individual artists, authors, playwrights, curators, and other creatives involved in censorship disputes. Launched in 2000, ACAP protects artists’ participation in democratic dialogue by defending public access to their work and supporting artists’ ability to freely express views that might be unpopular or controversial. ACAP resolves controversies through education and advocacy, avoiding the need for legal action.

Creative Time is a public arts organization that works with artists to contribute to the dialogues, debates, and dreams of our times. Since 1974, Creative Time has commissioned and presented over 350 ambitious public art projects in partnership with thousands of artists and organizations throughout New York City, across the country, around the world—and even in outer space. Its work is guided by three core values: art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces are places for creative and free expression.

Denise Ryner (she/her) is Andrea B. Laporte Curator at ICA Philadelphia. Prior to joining ICA, Denise was part of the curatorial team for Ceremony: Burial of an Undead World at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany. She also served as the Director/Curator of Or Gallery, Vancouver between 2017 and 2022, following in the footsteps of previous director artist and Penn faculty member Ken Lum, where she presented a robust exhibition program alongside international symposia Bodies Borders Fields, examining histories of Black artistic production and Unmoored, Adrift, Ashore which invited artists and scholars to speculate on sea-level rise as an opportunity to destabilize colonial-era infrastructures. Denise completed her MA in Art History at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and her BA at the University of Toronto after switching from a profession in freelance Advertising and Graphic Design, which she studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Noam Segal is the LG Electronics Associate Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where she leads the museum’s initiatives in technology-based art and chairs the jury of the LG Guggenheim Award. Her curatorial work focuses on the intersections of art, technology, and society, with projects realized at the Gwangju and Berlin Biennales, Palais de Tokyo, Performa, and other leading institutions. Prior to joining the Guggenheim, Segal directed curatorial research at the School of Visual Arts’ MA program, where she founded Algorithmic State, a platform examining digital art within political and cultural contexts. She has also held visiting faculty and scholar positions at NYU, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Bezalel Academy. Drawing on experience across U.S. and international institutions, Segal brings a focus on supporting artistic expression while navigating the institutional and civic responsibilities of cultural organizations today.

Claudia E. Zapata (they/them) earned their Ph.D. in art history at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture program. They received their BA and MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art from the Classic period (250-900 CE). Zapata was the curator of exhibitions and programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. From 2018-2022, Claudia was the curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working on the award-winning exhibition, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now. Their essays have been part of the Smithsonian exhibition catalogues: ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now and The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture. In 2023, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, selected Zapata as the inaugural Associate Curator of Latino Art.