Fostering Professional Development for Curating in Iceland

Kúrator? I don’t know them: Fostering Professional Development for Curating in Iceland

KOK hosts a day of talks and discussions exploring curatorial practice, professional development, relationships between artists, curators and institutions, and the conditions in which exhibitions and cultural programmes are produced.

Continuing KOK’s ongoing conversations about curating in Iceland, the event will consider how curatorial practice operates today, the possibilities it creates for cultural workers, and how we might collectively improve the conditions in which we work.

Through talks, questions and open discussions, we hope to bring together artists, curators and others working in the art field to exchange experiences, challenge established ways of working, and explore what could be done differently.

We are pleased to welcome Anne Szefer Karlsen and Paul O’Neill as guests, joining us for talks and discussions throughout the day.

Anne Szefer Karlsen (they/them) curator and Professor of Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (2015–today). Their work brings together exhibitions, publishing and public discussions, with a particular interest in collaboration and how art institutions work.They was Senior Adviser and Head of Research for Bergen Assembly (2018–2020) and Director of Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen, Norway (2008–2014). They also co-edited Self-Organised, an anthology exploring collective and self-organised cultural practice.

At the Nordic House Anne will present “Exercising networks” where they will go through a few experiences of network building and talk about how showing up can be a rewarding way to change the future.

Paul O’Neill (he/him) is an Irish curator, artist, writer and educator, and Artistic Director of PUBLICS, a curatorial agency and contemporary art space with a dedicated library in Helsinki. He previously directed the graduate programme at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York, and has co-curated more than 80 exhibitions internationally. His books include The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s) and the co-edited anthology Not Going It Alone: Collective Curatorial Curating.

This KOK event is inspired in part by Positioning: A Symposium on Curatorial Learning in the Nordic-Baltic Region & Beyond 2026 and seeks to bring ongoing international conversations about the role of curating into dialogue with the Icelandic context.

Moderated by: KOK (Becky Forsythe, Helena Solveigar Aðalsteinsbur and Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir)

This event will take place in English

Schedule Nov 17:

12:00 – 12:30: Introduction by KOK

12:30 – 13:00: Paul O’Neil

13:00 – 13:30: Paul O’Neil & KOK discussions and workshop

13:30 – 14:00: Coffee break

14:00 – 14:30: Anne Szefer Karlsen

14:30 – 15:00: Anne Szefer Karlsen & KOK discussions and workshop

14:00 – 16:00: Roundtable