Curatorial Intensive

APRE Curatorial Intensive 2025

Dates: 17th- 22nd November, 2025

Front Matter is APRE Art House’s annual curatorial intensive. It is conceived as a focused, six-day long program that affirms the curator as a central authorial voice within contemporary art discourse.

Borrowed from the language of publishing, front matter refers to the framing elements that precede a text: the title, preface, table of contents. It is through these devices that the reader is positioned, and similarly, it is through the curator that the artwork is framed, contextualized, and made legible.

Designed for a cohort of no more than twelve emerging curators, the program is situated within the spatial and discursive fabric of APRE Art House in Mumbai.

Over the course of six days, Front Matter offers a curriculum that combines rigorous mentorship with live-streamed dialogues from international voices, exhibition-making exercises, critical readings, and guided studio visits, all while remaining cost-accessible to participants.

This initiative is not commercially motivated; APRE Art House does not seek to generate profit through the program. As part of our ongoing commitment to accessibility and academic integrity, we have allocated several seats as full or partial scholarships to support participation from a wider and more diverse curatorial community.

Front Matter signals APRE’s ongoing commitment to cultivating curatorial practices and infrastructure within the region by foregrounding curators not as supporters, but as protagonists in the creation of meaning.

Lecturers: Akansha Rastogi, Natasha Ginwala, Shaleen Wadhwana, Shaunak Mahbubani, Ritika Biswas, Raqs Media Collective, Paul Abraham & Komal Chitnis (Sarmaya Arts Foundation), Shruti Parthasarathy (Avtar Foundation For The Arts), Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Noor Ahmed, Radhika Hettiarachchi, Veronique Chagnon- Burke, Lina Vincent, Atif Sheikh & Aisha Zia Khan (Twelve Gates Arts), Manan Shah, Shruti Ramalingaiah, Sacha Craddock, Varun Gupta (Chennai Photo Biennale) and Peter Fankhauser (Amplify Arts), amongst others.

Institutional Speaker Support Partners

  • Sarmaya Arts Foundation (Mumbai, India)

  • Amplify Arts (Omaha, USA)

  • Twelve Gates Arts (Philadelphia, USA)

  • Public Arts Trust of India (Jodhpur/ Jaipur)

  • Chennai Photo Biennale

  • Avtar Foundation For The Arts

Modules

The Curator as Author

Frameworks & Criticality

Ethics, Voice & Representation

Exhibition-Making Lab

Futures, Infrastructure & Publics

Open Curatorial Presentations & Program Closure

Image Credits: 1. Absent Mother by Pragati Dalvi Jain

2. Artwork by Pragati Dalvi Jain

Scholarship Note

APRE Art House is committed to advancing access, equity, and excellence in curatorial education. To ensure that financial constraints do not hinder participation, Front Matter: The APRE Curatorial Intensive offers a limited number of need-based scholarships to selected participants.

These scholarships are designed to fully subsidize the program fee, and are awarded to applicants who demonstrate both strong curatorial promise and financial need. While the selection process remains merit-based, we are mindful of structural inequalities that may limit access to professional development in the arts.

If you wish to be considered for a scholarship, please indicate this clearly in your Statement of Intent and include a brief note (approx. 150 words) outlining your financial circumstances.

We particularly encourage applications from independent practitioners, underrepresented communities, and those working outside of institutional frameworks.

Our Commitment to Inclusivity

At APRE Art House, inclusivity is a practice of care and responsibility. We strive to create a space that welcomes participants of all genders, sexualities, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultural identities, and resists structural barriers to participation.

We offer scholarships, access support, and flexible modes of engagement. Rooted in sensitivity and consent, the programme is designed to be safe and respectful for all participants.

Inclusivity, for us, is an ongoing process of listening, learning, and adapting to create a more generous and equitable arts ecology.

Accessibility Note

At APRE Art House, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful environment for all participants. While the program is conducted in English, we welcome participants to let us know in advance if they require language support.

Please note that the gallery is accessible only via a staircase. If you have particular access needs or would like to explore alternative forms of engagement, kindly reach out to us at info@aprearthouse.com. We will make every effort to accommodate individual requirements and to ensure that your experience with Corpus is both meaningful and supportive.

About The Institutions


Avtar Foundation for The Arts: The Avtar Foundation for the Arts, founded by Jaiveer Johal, is committed to promoting contemporary and modern visual art in Chennai.

With a clear vision of ‘From Madras, For Madras,’ the Avtar Foundation for the Arts wants to distil the best of South Asian art and expose the people of Chennai to the broader world of contemporary and modern visual art in a curated and accessible way.