Call for curators in the project NOVAci 2025

Deadline: 30/03/2025

For the fifth year in the row, what, how & for whom/WHW and POGON – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth are implementing educational and exhibition project NOVAci under the mentorship of Ana Kovačić and Lea Vene. The aim of the project is to enable art historians, artists and other interested in curatorial practices to gain first practical experience in the field of contemporary art.

Through the public call there will be selected candidates who will realize an exhibition, and in that process gain practical experience of curating an exhibition mentored by the curators who have already been active in the local art scene for a long time. The call is intended for all those who are interested in curating, regardless of their professional background, but a slight priority will still be given to art historians.

Having in mind the absence of this kind of programs in the formal educational system, this platform represents a catalyst for the support and development of local curatorial practices focused on concrete and hands-on experience of putting up an exhibition project. The project aims to raise awareness of the need for new forms of support for emerging curators who need infrastructural and organizational support and mentoring while producing their first curatorial programs. An important element of the project is mentorship of the selected curator focused especially on preparing the exhibition, direct work with artists on developing new work, planning and realizing the exhibition, budgeting, producing art works, additional fundraising, writing promotional texts, conceptualizing and implementing the opening event and the supporting program, and final reporting.

In the previous installments of the program NOVAci, the selected candidates were Tena Starčević who curated the exhibition  Rad, (ne)red i (samo)disciplina in Gallery Nova in 2021, Antonela Solenički who curated the exhibition Na vrhu jezika in 2022, Teuta Gatolin with the exhibition Obrnute vještine in 2023 and the Rose collective with the exhibition (Pre/formacije) in 2024.  

The call is open for future curators with no significant curatorial experience. The latest call for young curators offers an opportunity of work with three young artists, namely Lara Kulenović, Nominis and Lucija Ostrogović.

Lara Kulenović in her artistic practice directly relays her personal experiences and is focused on the issue of remembering. She attempts to install the feeling of identification and understanding with the audience.

Lara Kulenović, The Grass Was Greener Before, 2024, photo: Šimun Bućan

Nominis is a multimedia artist who uses 3D animation, drag and light for examining identity and virtuality while experimenting on the nexus of technology, queerness and materiality.

Lucija Ostrogović combines visual arts and anthropology to examine their possible overlaps and contact points. She questions perceptions and relations between space and community by combining mapping and subtle spatial interventions. 

Three curators will be selected in this call. Each of them will work with one of the three artists toward a public presentation of their works and an exhibition in POGON in November 2025. The budget includes fees for curators and artists, material costs of the production, fees for all other associates, security staff and other costs related to the production of the exhibition. 

The application should include:

• Information on the curator: name and surname, address, telephone and email
• CV

• Letter of motivation 

The deadline for submission is March 30, 2025.

Submissions are made through this form, and the questions related to the call can be sent to the email: ana.kovacic.whw@gmail.com. 

Submissions made after the deadline and with incomplete documentation will not be considered. The names of the selected participants as well as the names of the jury will be published on the web pages of WHW and Pogon and their social media profiles at the latest one month after the deadline of the call. 

Mentors’ biographies:

Ana Kovačić has graduated Art history and World literature. She is a producer, curator and an educator in the program of WHW Akademija. Before WHW, she had worked as the manager and curator of GMK for ten years (www.g-mk.hr) where she had curated numerous exhibitions as well as organized and implemented many educational programs. She writes curatorial and critical texts, curates exhibitions and participates in educational programs in Croatia and abroad. She lives and works in Zagreb.

Lea Vene has graduated Art history, Cultural anthropology and Theory of fashion. She has had her post MA in Critical Images at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden. She has worked as a curator in Fotogalerija Kic, Gallery Miroslav Kraljević and as a member of the organizational team of ETNOFILm festival. She is a member of the curatorial team of Gallery Močvara, festival of photography Organ Vida and she works as a researcher in the Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing – CIMO. She teaches at the Academy of Drama Arts in Zagreb.

The project is supported by: 

Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia

City Office for Culture and Civil Society

Kultura Nova Foundation