ABOUT
THE
PROGRAM
Why we do what we do?
How often does a practitioner walk into an institution and have a direct, unmediated conversation with its curators, directors, or founders? Rarely. That gap is structural, not accidental.
Art Intensive Berlin was built to address it. Not by bypassing institutions, but by creating the conditions for genuine exchange between artworkers and the people who shape Berlin's cultural ecosystem(s). Structured. Intentional. And on equal terms.
This is not a seminar. Participants don't observe; they have real conversations with curators, directors, or founders of each institution they visit.
Participants develop personal projects under individual mentorship. They present their work publicly. They leave with a network, a project, and a practice that has been genuinely tested.
If you want to work in Berlin, collaborate with its institutions, or simply understand how one of the world's most vital art cities functions from the inside, this programme was designed for you.
Facilitated by Mahzabin Haque, founder of All About Curating, every edition is kept small by design. Every participant receives personal attention. Every experience is shaped around individual practice.
Why Art Intensive Berlin?
What makes this
program unique?
Structured Access
AIB is designed to open doors that are otherwise difficult to enter. Direct conversations with curators, directors, and institutional representatives who rarely have structured time for visiting practitioners. All encounters are carefully curated with the people and structures that shape Berlin's art ecosystem.
A Horizontal Learning Environment
Each cohort brings together practitioners from different disciplines, career stages, and geographies. The programme is structured so that participants learn as much from one another as from the institutions they visit through weekly reflection sessions, peer exchange, and a shared public presentation at the close of the programme.
Research in Action
Participants do not only visit and observe. Throughout the four weeks, each participant develops a personal project under weekly one-on-one mentorship, culminating in a public presentation to Berlin's art community. The city becomes a site of active research, not passive exposure.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
INSTITUTIONAL VISITS
Introduction to
Berlin's Art Ecosystem
Participants meet directly with the curators, founders, directors, and representatives of the art institutions (e.g., museums, galleries, project-spaces, residency spaces, for-profit, non-profit, and several kinds of art spaces) across Berlin. Every institutional visit covers institutional histories, collaboration methodologies, funding systems, and curatorial trajectory, followed by open dialogue where participants share their own contexts and practices.
INDIVIDUAL MENTORSHIP
Work with your mentor to develop your project
Each participant will work with the mentor in a series of individual sessions throughout the programme. Mentorship within AIB is understood as a space for sustained critical engagement with a participant's specific practice, research trajectory, or professional positioning, not generalised career guidance. Sessions are structured around materials the participant brings: drafts, proposals, conceptual frameworks, unresolved questions. The aim is to develop rigour and clarity in how participants articulate and situate their work.
GUEST LECTURE SERIES
Learn & Network with
Int. Artworkers
A recurring series of talks by practitioners working across curatorial practice, arts writing, institutional development, and adjacent fields. Lectures are framed around specific problems, positions, or bodies of work rather than career retrospectives, and the intention is to open debate rather than model a linear professional trajectory. Speakers are selected for the rigour and distinctiveness of their approaches, and sessions include dedicated time for critical exchange between speakers and participants.
WORKSHOP
Navigating the Grants & Funding
Ecosystem in Berlin
Led by Marcela Villanueva, founder of Karne Kunst, this session provides a direct, demystified framework for identifying, approaching, and applying to funding bodies relevant to independent curatorial and arts practice. The session draws on Villanueva's experience navigating European and international funding landscapes and addresses the structural realities of grant dependency, project-based income, and institutional partnership as financial strategy. Participants leave with working knowledge of current funding pathways and a foundation for developing their own funding practice.
REFLECTION HOUR
Collective Space for
Critical Self-Positioning
Held at a consistent point each week, reflection hours provide structured collective space for participants to process their experiences across the programme's parallel tracks. Sessions are facilitated rather than instructed, the aim is not to deliver content but to develop the habit of critical self-positioning: identifying what has shifted, what remains unresolved, and what each participant is building toward. Reflection hours also serve a community function, establishing shared reference points and sustaining the conditions for honest peer exchange.
Free Visit to Public Museums
Yearly Museum Pass
All AIB participants receive a yearly museum pass for the duration of their engagement with the programme and beyond. This is understood as a practical commitment to access: to the collections, exhibitions, and discursive programming of Berlin's major 19 cultural institutions. Participants are encouraged to use the pass as a resource for research, for developing their own critical eye, and for grounding their curatorial thinking in sustained encounter with works and spaces rather than secondary material alone.
Street Art Tour
Public Space as Site of
Contestation and Memory
A guided critical encounter with Berlin's public visual culture, examining street art and urban intervention not as spectacle but as a site of contested ownership, memory, gentrification, and political speech. The tour moves through specific neighbourhoods with attention to how public space is claimed, negotiated, and erased, and to the relationship between informal visual practice and institutional recognition. Facilitated discussion accompanies the route, situating what participants observe within broader questions of cultural geography and access.
PUBLIC SYMPOSIUM
Present your work to Berlin
The programme closes with a public-facing symposium at which participants present work developed during the intensive. The symposium is structured as a professional event, not an internal showcase, and is open to invited guests from Berlin's arts community. Participants are supported in developing their presentations in the weeks prior, with attention to how they frame their research or practice for an external audience. The symposium functions simultaneously as a site of accountability, a moment of collective critical reflection, and a point of entry into broader professional networks.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE FOUR WEEKS?
FOUR WEEKS IN BERLIN
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Please check the full program schedule on desktop
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LET'S HEAR FROM OUR ALUMNI
PROGRAM REVIEW
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Anita Mun Yee Lam
Art Curator, Director at We are ALAN (Hong Kong)
The experience here has been eye-opening. Meeting so many museums and speaking with curators and artists, I learned so much from them. Seeing different curatorial approaches truly empowered me to pursue what I believe in and what I am passionate about.
Ana Balcazar Bartra
Independent Artist (Peru, Germany)
I haven't seen a program that takes you all over the city to discover together with other curators and artists and to talk with the real people who's working in the places. And I think this is really distinct from other stuff that I have seen before, and I can say after a month that it was really worth it.
Yuki Ibata
Gallery Liason at Tokyo Gendai Art Fair (Japan)
It is a very safe space. We truly listen to each other, and it is easy to exchange ideas. I could share my ideas, but I can also receive input from others. The mentorship sessions were very helpful. Mahzabin shared so many resources. I wanted to understand the broader picture - not only from curators, but also from artists, foundations, museums, and galleries - it was very helpful to gain multiple perspectives.
Yohsuke Ishizuka
Art Curator & Former Gallerist (Japan, Germany)
During this program, while speaking directly with the people who run art spaces, I came to realize that an art space is not only a physical place. It is shaped by the people behind it - their ideas, plans, decisions, and visions for where the space goes next. To really understand an art space, we need to talk to the people who create and sustain it. This difference became very clear to me.
Isabella Nicastro
Artist, Curator at Partial Gallery (Canada))
The mentorship session was definitely extremely helpful for me. I came in with one idea about what I needed to do for my project and really sort of change course. it really helped me to clear about what I needed to do and what steps to take moving forward. The program just generally provide the structure that I needed to be able to bring the project to life.
Mercy Imiegha
Art Curator, Nomadic Art Gallery (Nigeria)
I learned a lot from the colleagues, who came from different stages of their curatorial and artistic careers. It was inspiring to exchange ideas and learn from those with long-standing practices. Visiting different institutions, meeting the people behind them, and understanding what it means to run these spaces. It inspired me to see that there is so much beyond the traditional gallery and museum model.
Thomas Menconi
Art Curator & Researcher (Italy)
I have the opportunity of knowing incredible people. The program allows you to know a lot about what's happening in the art field and in particular to know what's happening behind the curtains, which is the most incredible thing for a curator, a researcher, and also an artist.
Deniz Yurtbay
Visual Artist
The community we have in the residency because all of our backgrounds are different than each other. It really helped me to think about different subjects with different point of views.
What Participant's Are Responsible For
PARTICIPATION FEE
Participants are responsible for paying the participation fee of 1250 Euros.
ACCOMMODATION FEE
Participants arrange their own accommodation in Berlin. Upon enrolment, AAC provides practical guidelines, platforms, and tips to support your search.
FLIGHT TICKET
Flights or other transport to and from Berlin are the participant's own responsibility.
HEALTH & TRAVEL INSURANCE
Participants must arrange their own coverage for the duration of the programme.
LOCAL TRANSPORT
Participants are responsible for the monthly local transportation fee of 63 Euros (per month).
FOOD & OTHERS
All day-to-day expenses in Berlin are the participant's own responsibility.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST?
ARCHIVE
INSTITUTIONAL VISITS
GUEST LECTURE
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WORKSHOP
REFLECTION HOURS
ALUMNI
CONTINUING PRACTICES
Frequently asked questions
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