I visited with the Interational Studio & Curatorial Program last night at Washington Project for the Arts and I learned quite a bit about curatorial practices both in the States and abroad.  Of most interest was curatorial programs available through Frieze as well as some of the more interesting collections being assembled in the ISCP’s modest spaces (one of an altered American flat that reads “Where is the change”).  The ISCP is an interesting program in that in operates on residencies.  You can learn how to apply by clicking here.    Here are some pics from last evening’s lecture followed by more ISCP information about the organization itself.

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(Copied from www.iscp-nyc.org/f_about.html)

about iscp

a visual arts residency unlike any other
Like many visual arts residency programs in New York, the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) is a microcosm of the city’s cultural diversity: multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-faceted. Unlike others, however, ISCP makes a concerted effort to connect its artists and curators to the local art community, while connecting the local art community with contemporary art practice from all over the world.


While New York may well be the world’s epicenter of contemporary art practice and market, the glut of resources and opportunities, which attract the art immigrant, are precisely the factors, which can be alienating and frustrating.

ISCP is a residency tailored to suit the practical needs of the visiting artist/curator by providing space in which to produce as well as addressing the magnitude of the world’s art capital. The program prides itself on providing an infrastructure, which accelerates integration and interaction with the host culture and in the course of its development, has become a catalyst for introduction, presentation, connection, exposure and dissemination.

The dynamic of ISCP is a programming hybrid conceived to facilitate genuine exchange, specifically its Guest Critic Series and semi-annual Open Weekend Exhibitions. The Guest Critic Series enables one-on-one studio visits for dialogue and critical feedback with distinguished professionals from the New York and international art worlds. The Open Weekend Exhibitions attract not only professionals, but a wider audience of art enthusiasts. In addition, a continual flow of international art traffic passes through the program, making impromptu studio visits and meeting with the artists and curators.

As a direct consequence of connections forged at ISCP, many of the over 500+ artists and curators who have participated in the program since its founding, are now represented by New York galleries and have been included in numerous group exhibitions and projects throughout the United States and abroad. 

The raison d’être for an artist is to make art. The raison d’être for a curator is to communicate art. The paradigm fostered by ISCP enables these two inter-dependent professions to cohabit, cross-fertilize and interact, while both groups at the same time, inject our host culture with the vitality of the visual language they import to the United States.