SCHOOL FOR CURATORS 2.0
The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art is opening the application procedure for the second edition of School for Curators, which will take place from February to March this year. The application deadline is January 11 (Sunday), and the participants selected by the course mentors will be notified by email on January 19 (Monday).
The School for Curators offers an educational and practice-based program aimed at developing curatorial skills, critical thinking, and professional preparation in the field of visual arts. Within the context of the Bulgarian contemporary scene—where curatorial practice often remains fragmented and intuitive—the initiative seeks to establish a sustainable framework for learning, practice, and public presentation.
Photographer: Boryana Pandova.
Following a successful first edition in 2024, which brought together 24 participants and led to the realization of exhibition projects and lasting professional relationships, the new edition builds on the format by transitioning to in-person learning, strengthening its practical focus, and fostering regional connectivity. The program will include between 18 and 21 participants, who will go through four stages: preparation; theory and group work; practice and exhibitions; archiving and evaluation.
Photographer: Ivelin Penchev.
The emphasis will be placed on key aspects of curatorial practice—from conceptualization and critical frameworks to technical skills such as installation, lighting, working with audiovisual equipment, and exhibition graphics. The program will include visits to galleries and museums in Gabrovo, Kazanlak, and Veliko Tarnovo, introducing participants to different types of spaces—independent, public, and commercial. Each group will receive a production budget to realize a segment of an exhibition concept, accompanied by a curatorial text and a real installation within the space of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center.
The project also focuses on teamwork, with participants taking on various roles and responsibilities required for producing an exhibition—communication with artists and institutions, exhibition design, transport planning, installation and deinstallation, public programs and events, work scheduling, budget planning and management, fundraising, communication, and marketing.
In the practical module, participants will work with art historians and curators Vesela Nozharova, Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva, and Margarita Dorovska. The theoretical module will have two components: lectures on contemporary philosophy led by Vasil Vidinski, and a course introducing participants to key texts from the history and theory of curatorial practice, led by Stanimir Stoyanov and various guest lecturers.
Vesela Nozharova is an art historian and curator, and the author of the book Introduction to Bulgarian Contemporary Art 1982–2015. She was the curator of the Bulgarian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and co-curator of the Bulgarian Pavilion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale. She is also a co-founder of the curatorial collective Art – Affairs and Documents.
She has curated numerous exhibitions in Bulgaria, including the multidisciplinary projects Smoke. A History of Tobacco (Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture, 2019) and Money Talks (2011, with Georgi Gospodinov). Her work is strongly focused on the relationship between contemporary art and history, explored through projects such as History In Between (2020–2021) at the Regional History Museum – Sofia and the festival The Past That Hasn’t Passed (2022–2023).
Nozharova is the author—individually or as part of a team—of a wide range of exhibition formats, including Art Start. Young Artists to Watch (since 2016, with Stefka Tsaneva and others), Sculpture Now (2018–2019), Sofia Art Project (2022–2023), the Octopus Gallery at Lago Sofia with the collective Art – Affairs and Documents, the international curatorial residency CLICK, among others. Her most recent major project is the exhibition A Particle of a River, produced for the National Autumn Exhibitions in Plovdiv (2025).
Since 2015, she has been the curator of Credo Bonum Gallery. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia.
Svetlana Kuyumdzhieva is an art historian, critic, and curator, holding a PhD in Art Studies. Between 2003 and 2013, she worked as a gallerist at Credo Bonum Gallery (founded in 2003 as SIBANK Gallery) and realized a number of independent projects, including the exhibitions Daring and Beauty, The Temptation of Chalga, and the Contemporary Art Week in Plovdiv.
She has taken part in numerous professional specializations and residencies in Germany, Austria, the United States, and South Korea, including programs such as CEC ArtsLink, KulturKontakt, and the intensive curatorial course of the Gwangju Biennale. From 2015 to 2021, she served as Artistic Director of the Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019 project.
In 2022, she curated the first municipal artist residency program in Plovdiv, ContextAiR. She is a member of the International Association of Independent Curators (ICI). Between 2023 and 2025, she realized several major curatorial projects, including Documents. Painting After Photography in Bulgaria in the 1960s and 1970s (Sofia City Art Gallery, together with Daniela Radeva), Needles in a Haystack (National Gallery, within a project by the Bulgarian Fund for Women), Acqua alta. A History of Bulgarian National Participations in the Venice Biennale 1910–2024 (Plovdiv City Art Gallery, together with Plamen Petrov and Georgi Sharov), and The Monumental Ones. Five Plovdiv Artists and Their Trace in the City (Plovdiv City Art Gallery; design by punkt – Krasimir Stavrev and Nikol Decheva).
Since 2024, she has been a visiting lecturer at New Bulgarian University.
Margarita Dorovska is a curator and Director of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art. Between 2016 and 2023, she served as Director of the Museum of Humor and Satire. In 2014, she was a consultant to the team behind Varna’s candidacy for European Capital of Culture, working on the overall concept and artistic program.
Between 2005 and 2009, she was Head of Research and Development and a curator at the Interspace Media Art Center, and from 2006 to 2011 she was the founding director of Cult.bg Foundation. The foundation manages the independent online media platform for art and culture Cult.bg, provides open-source services for professionals in the field, and administered the Fund for the Support of Debut Projects (2006–2007).
Alongside her institutional work, Margarita Dorovska hosts the podcast Govori Artistat. Her interests focus on art in public space and on the critical and creative use of technologies within artistic practices. She holds a Master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art and a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
Vasil Vidinski is a lecturer in Early Modern Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophy at the Department of History of Philosophy at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. His academic interests focus on the philosophy of culture and the philosophy of art, as well as on the complex and multilayered interactions between science and culture.
Since 1998, he has been actively involved in literary life under the pseudonym VBV, with numerous publications, initiatives, awards, and editorial work. In 2007, he defended his PhD dissertation titled Interaction between Philosophy and Physics in René Descartes and Isaac Newton (the Problem of Relativity), and in 2017 he completed his habilitation with the study Coincidences. A Historical Typology. Since 2017, he has headed the Master’s program History and Contemporaneity of Philosophy, and as of 2025, he is the Head of the Department of History of Philosophy.
Stanimir Stoyanov is a curator and researcher in the field of contemporary art. In 2024, he was awarded a creative residency at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) under the mentorship of Dr. James Beacham. He was among the lecturers in the first edition of School for Curators, organized by the Museum of Humor and Satire and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art.
He has worked with a range of galleries and institutions in Bulgaria and abroad, including Gagosian, Tate Modern, Sarieva / Gallery, Charta Gallery, and Someth1ng, and has participated in projects realized in Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Estonia, and the Netherlands. He holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art Theory and Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Between 2019 and 2021, he was an editor for the cultural segment Kultura.BG on Bulgarian National Television. He is a co-founder of the artistic project Hyper.LLC, through which he collaborates with international artists on topics related to new ecologies, speculative realism, and object-oriented philosophy.
Among his recent projects and participations are the exhibitions The Eternal Return by Kaliya Kalacheva (Doza Gallery), ENTITIES by FuererNielsen and Ivelina Ivanova (Arosita Gallery), OOOBJECTS by Onur Kaymak (Toplocentrala – Regional Centre for Contemporary Arts), Uncertain Spaces by Gergana Tabakova and Radoil Serafimov (Doza Gallery), as well as his public lecture on institutional critique within the framework of ART START 2025.
Application form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSderr3psoKyfT-VJiEgy1g15hRI1KYgtzxDVDeW36ByvZcU6Q/viewform?usp=header
School for Curators 2.0 is a project of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center for Contemporary Art and Plakat Kombinat Ltd., funded under procedure BG-RRP-11.021, Grant Scheme “A New Generation of Local Cultural Policies for Large Municipalities,” Investment “Development of the Cultural and Creative Sectors,” Component “Social Inclusion,” as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.