THE CURATORIAL INCUBATOR, V. 20: LOST HISTORIES, FOUND FUTURES
If the brief but crowded history of video technology teaches us anything, it’s that for every future that’s realized, a dozen more never come to pass. The history of video art is similarly full of roads not taken: technical experiments ventured once and not pursued again, social movements that imagined alternatives now forgotten or suppressed, documents of physical and social spaces now missing from contemporary life. What happens, in retrospect, appears inevitable, but didn’t seem so at the time. On the other hand, what really has come to pass has often been unforeseen.
From Vtape’s vast and varied collection, we want to look to the past to help imagine what a different future might look like. For Volume 20 of the Curatorial Incubator, we invite prospective curators to engage with either/both the past and future of video art, to search for alternatives that may have been neglected or forgotten, to draw new lineages, and to scan the horizons of contemporary work for viable futures.
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Participants in The Curatorial Incubator will develop their media-arts curating skills through a program of workshops conducted by arts professionals; undertake research using the rich, specialized resources provided by Vtape; engage in intensive viewing of video works from Vtape’s catalogue; and write an essay to accompany their final program, with editorial assistance from experienced writers. The resulting programs will be presented by Vtape in the fall of 2026.
If your proposal is selected, you will receive fees for the curating and writing, and will work within a realistic budget to cover screening fees for your program.
The workshop and research phase will begin in May and should be complete by early August. The writing and editing phase will begin in August and be complete by mid-October. Presentation will take place in November-December.
Deadline for proposals: April 20th, 2026
Proposals must include:
- An up-to-date CV; applicants should have limited or no professional curatorial experience (i.e., outside of an educational context).
- A statement of intention (no more than one page). This should demonstrate your interest in media art and why you would like to participate in the Curatorial Incubator. The statement of intention should focus on your research area rather than providing a list of works to be screened (though if you wish to include specific titles as examples of the sort of work you are interested in, that’s okay). The point of the program is to provide time, resources, and support for you to explore what’s available and discover works you don’t already know about.
- One or more examples of critical writing you have done (published or unpublished; works written in an academic context are fine).
- Examples of any curatorial or organizational work you have done.
Participants will not be held to their original proposals, as ideas are expected to shift during the research and viewing processes. However, it is important that you communicate a clear idea of your starting point to the jury, so that they can understand what kind of work you will be looking for.
Direct applications by email or by post to:
Curatorial Incubator Application
401 Richmond St. West, suite 452
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
admin@vtape.org
If submitting by email, please put “Curatorial Incubator Application” in the subject line of your message.
Image credit (home page): The Fourth Corner of the World, by Randy & Berenicci (1992)