LONDON.- The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and Delfina Foundation announced an open call for early-career curators to participate in the Curatorial School of the inaugural Bukhara Biennial. The BBBB Curatorial School will take place in Bukhara and will bring together six curators, three selected from Uzbekistan and three based in Asia, to experiment with new approaches to commissioning and exhibition-making. The programme culminates in a major exhibition in an international venue in Spring 2026, co-curated by the participants.

Commissioned by Gayane Umerova and led by Bukhara Biennial Artistic Director Diana Campbell, the BBBB Curatorial School is not a conventional academic environment; it is a collaborative and peer-driven platform designed to foster shared learning, critical reflection, and long-term professional relationships. Participants will gain unique access to the workings of a major biennial while exploring how exhibitions can respond meaningfully to their cultural and historical contexts, with an international faculty of visiting curators.

This is an invitation to rethink curatorial practice as a generative, collaborative, and responsive process:

• How can artists and their ideas be supported at their earliest stages?

• How do we translate across cultures in a responsible and sustainable way?

• How do we build curatorial frameworks that are shaped by site, context, and collective imagination?

The BBBB Curatorial School is produced in partnership with Delfina Foundation.

Programme overview

The BBBB Curatorial School is structured around four intensive in-person chapters in Uzbekistan, with online and collaborative development sessions continuing into 2026.

Chapter 1: September 16–25, 2025
Introduction to the Biennial
Tour the BB Biennial and its heritage sites; networking with artists and visiting curators; attend lectures and case studies on generative curating and commissioning.

Chapter 2: October 1–9, 2025
Context & Collaboration
Attend the Central Asia Symposium; presenting early curatorial ideas shaped by BBBB for the collaborative exhibition; begin to explore common threads and crossovers.

Chapter 3: November 1–8, 2025
Mentorship & Exhibition Development
Presentations by international curatorial faculty to mentor and refine the collaborative exhibition proposal; take part in studio visits in Tashkent; meet with exhibition designers and previous biennial collaborators.

Chapter 4: November 16–22, 2025
Reflection & Review
Join the biennial closing events; attend workshops on curatorial critique, evaluation, and self-reflection with leading critics and practitioners.

The Finale: 2026
The international location and full scope of the co-curated exhibition will be disclosed as the collaborative process unfolds in 2025. It is anticipated that there will be two site visits between January and March 2026, with installation and exhibition in April/May 2026.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be under the age of 30 at the time of application.

• We welcome curators at various stages of their early career, including those finding their curatorial voice to those working with institutions or independently in grassroots/community settings.

• Uzbek applicants may be based in Uzbekistan or abroad.

• Applicants from Asia (including West Asia) must be currently based in Asia.

• Selected curators must be available to attend all in-person sessions on the dates listed above. They must also be available to work on and install this project in Spring 2026.

• All sessions will be conducted in English. If you have access needs, please feel free to note them in your application.