The ten-month long full-time Curatorial Programme (CP) is practice-based and structured along the principle of 'learning by doing' and 'collective curating'. A select group of six participants, based in Amsterdam, partakes in a dense array of lectures, workshops, excursions, and practice-related assignments. In addition, the curriculum of the programme comprises numerous formal and informal encounters with art professionals from the Netherlands and abroad, meetings with artists and curators showing at and working for De Appel, studio visits and institutional visits, exchange with peers from related curatorial programmes, a reading group, personal presentations and attendance of the public programme of De Appel.

The participants go on several field trips abroad, to cities with a vibrant art scene such as Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, and attend important events, such as the Liverpool Biennial, Manifesta, Documenta and the Istanbul Biennial. Longer research trips were undertaken to Athens-Bucharest-Cluj-Budapest (2016), Mexico-City and Guadalajara (2015), Bogota-Cali-Medellin-Sao Paulo (2014), Jakarta-Yogyakarta-Bandung (2013), Paramaribo-Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro (2012), Seoul-Gwangju-Taipei-Shanghai-Beijing (2011), Houston-New Orleans-Miami (2008), New Delhi-Chandigargh-Calcutta-Bangalore-Mumbai (2007).

An important aspect of the programme is a collective curatorial endeavor, realising an exhibition, festival, conference or book project.

In the In the curriculum year 2016-17, there are two novel ways in which the CP is inscribed into and feeds into De Appel’s regular programme and the organisation as a whole:

- The Active Brain / Exhibitions

Three participants work in team as assistant curators on two exhibition projects at De Appel (assigned), either on research affiliated tasks related to the main presentation, side activities or the discourse programme.

- The Historical Brain / Archive

Individual archival research within the Appel Archive, and finding a way to make it visible within a presentation (publication, public event, mini-exhibition)

Moreover, the CP 2016-17 has a renewed thematic focus exploring one major, substantive line of inquiry: De-universalisation. There are eight workshops by leading specialists in the field, each taking 3-5 consecutive days.