I was generally sastisfied with the programme, mentors I had were mostly friendly and avaliable, and so were the guest lecturers and other participants in the programme. I do wish there were more opportunities to focus on practical work with art materials and on starting/developing new research pre-production, also on getting feedback on works we were doing. Approach to theoretical side of things was more oriented to benefit people doing curatorial/art-history practices, and sometimes this approach could get a bit too dry for me, but the topics weren't uninteresting. I also wish there was more opportunities to network with other people in the programme and get to know them and their practices better, but the programme was fully online when I participated so this might be the reason why. We had a stipend of 600eur per month during my participation, and the programme lasted for 3 months.
WHW Akademija (WHW Academy)
Zagreb, Croatia
About
WHW Akademija, founded in 2018 by the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom/WHW in Zagreb, Croatia, is an innovative, tuition-free interdisciplinary program for emerging artists. It embodies the acronym of its founding collective, signifying the focus on economic organization's key questions: What, How, & for Whom. The program, accepting 8–12 fellows annually for a seven-month period, is centered on new forms of self-determination, critical reflection, and artistic encounters. The curriculum includes intensives, experimental exercises, workshops, and seminars, alongside public exhibitions, performances, and discursive programs. A partnership with the Kontakt Collection, Vienna, enriches the program, focusing on experimental art from Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe since the late 1950s. The program’s design emphasizes “learning by doing,” fostering a dialogic educational process and collective co-learning and co-production of critical content. Structured to blend exhibitions, performances, and collective actions, the program alternates between two-week intensives and ongoing workshops and seminars, inviting curators, artists, and theorists to engage in various co-learning formats. This unique approach allows participants to test ideas, make discoveries, and engage in trial and error, encouraging a blend of theoretical and practical learning without traditional academic constraints.