(Photo: Curating Lab participants 2022)
Curating Lab at Ultima Festival 2024
OPEN CALL:
SET MUSIC FREE!
CURATING LAB AT ULTIMA FESTIVAL
Are you interested in today’s music? Want to know how to make a music festival?
Ultima Festival is looking for participants in Curating Lab – a programme for people aged between 20–35 in which you can learn how to create experiences and events featuring experimental music and sound art. Curating Lab provides a solid introduction to the curating process, from idea- and concept development to communication and realization. It is also a hands-on culture lab in which participants collectively create an event for Ultima Festival 2024.
The goal of Curating Lab is to bring new voices and diversity of artistic styles into the curation of projects within the field of experimental music. Participants will encompass a range of artforms, genres, perspectives and experiences.
Curating Lab consists of 10 meeting sessions that take place between February and October 2024. During these sessions we’ll discuss the ‘sound of the present’ and address questions about social responsibility, gatekeeping, whose voices should be heard, and who we are presenting music for. Alongside inspirational meetings with experienced curators, guidance from Ultima’s own team and visits to art institutions in Oslo, participants will collaborate to solve the practical challenges of curating their own festival event, which will take place in Holmlia, in partnership with Holmlia Kulturhavn.
In Holmlia, Curating Lab participants – together with local residents and enthusiasts, organisations such as OsloMet, Deichman Holmlia and others – will explore all aspects of the curatorial process, in theory and practice, and learn how to make the most of the local environment’s resources and creative potential.
As a Curating Lab participant, you will receive:
- Free participation and reference
- New contacts and expanded network in the contemporary music and sound art world
- Exciting art experiences and tickets for Ultima Festival events
- Take part in the festival’s guest programme for Norwegian and international industry figures
We are seeking people who are:
- Aged between 20 and 35
- Based in the Oslo area
- Experienced in the arts (eg as cultural promoter, curator, artist, musician, composer or songwriter)
- Ultima reflects social diversity, both in our audiences and the people onstage and behind the scenes. We encourage applications from people of all types of disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion and ethnic origin
Practical information:
- The first session will be 16–18 February 2024 at Holmlia Kulturhavn
- Sessions will usually happen on weekday afternoons and evenings, plus a few weekends, in Oslo, spring 2024
- Applicants must commit to attending all sessions
- A full schedule of dates and times of the sessions will be made available after the participants have been chosen and offered places on the scheme at the end of January 2024
Send applications to program@ultima.no with ‘Curating Lab – Ultima 2024’ in the subject line.
Applications should include:
- Personal statement (c. 250 words)
- CV and references
- Information about any weekends or regular weekdays you are unavailable
Deadline for applications: 20 January 2024
Contact
Contact us by emailing project leader Torunn Forland Bjella torunn@ultima.no or call +47 452 67 112 if you have any questions or would like more information.
Curating Lab is part of the Sounds Now network, supported by the EU Creative Europe scheme. In 2024, Ultima hosts Curating Lab together with Holmlia Kulturhavn in collaboration with Deichman Holmlia and OsloMet Holmlia.
(Photo: Curating Lab participants 2022)
