Once again this year, all visual artists in Bremen are invited to apply for the Visiting Curators funding program! Five renowned curators will visit the City in November 2026 to meet with artists in their studios (or in a space at the Künstler:innenhaus Bremen). The aim is to connect Bremen-based artists with internationally active curators and to provide them with professional feedback on their artistic work through one-on-one consultations.
 
The visits will take place between November 12 and 13, approximately between 9 am and 6 pm Please keep this timeframe free. The curators’ selection will be announced in early September. The detailed schedule will be released in mid-October.
 
The guest curators are
Eva Birkenstock from Kestnergesellschaft Hannover
Aleksandra Grzonkowska from NOMUS – New Art Museums in Danzig, Poland
Nadia Ismail from Kunsthalle Giessen
Chloë Reith from The Common Guild in Glasgow, UK
Victoria Tarak from Kunstverein Bielefeld

Who can apply?
Applications are open to all professional artists based or with a studio in Bremen who have completed their studies at an art academy or who can prove that they are working professionally as an artist. There is no age limit.
 
How to apply?
• fully completed application form (download here ↗)
• Short biography with exhibition activities in German and English (1 page each)
• Portfolio (max. 10 pages and 10 MB) with German and English work details
(for time-based media, please include links to online documentation and images)

 
Please send your documents digitally as PDFs by e-mail to: assistenz@kh-bremen.de ↗
 
How to be selected?
Please name a first and second choice for the curator you would like to meet on the application form.
Each guest curator selects 6 to 8 artists for a studio visit.
 
Please note: The meetings with Chloë Reith und Alexandra Grzonkowska will take place in English.
 
Deadline for applications: 09.08.2026, midnight!
Unfortunately, applications submitted later cannot be considered.
Please send any queries by e-mail to: assistenz@kh-bremen.de ↗
 
Visiting Curators is a joint project of the Bremen Artists’ Association BBK, the Bremen Artists’ Association, GEDOK, the KH Künstler:innenhaus Bremen and Städtische Galerie Bremen. The format will take place for the ninth time in 2026 and is organized by KH Künstler:innenhaus Bremen. GAK, the Städtische Galerie Bremen, Syker Vorwerk, and KH Bremen have nominated the curators for this year.

• Eva Birkenstock

  studied art history, ethnology, and spanish studies in Cologne, Berlin, and Havana. After holding positions at the Kunstverein Hamburg, the Halle für Kunst Lüneburg, and the Kunsthaus Bregenz, she directed the Goethe-Institut’s exhibition space Ludlow 38 in New York in 2014. From 2015 onwards, she also curated several editions of the performance program at LISTE Art Fair Basel. She served as director of the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf from 2016 to 2021, followed by a tenure as director of the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen. Since 2025, she has led the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover. Her curatorial practice is characterized by collaborative, research-based projects situated at the intersections of art, society, and culture. Her work places particular emphasis on performance, transdisciplinary formats, and the inclusion of non-Western perspectives and postcolonial issues. (Nominated by Janneke de Vries, Director, Weserburg Museum für morderne Kunst)

• Aleksandra Grzonkowska

  is Head of Branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk and president of the NGO Chmura Visual Culture Foundation. She studied art history and cultural management, has curated international exhibitions, and has published numerous catalogues. These include, among others: The Art of Transformation: Gdańsk Threads, Rising: Learning from the Past Today for Tomorrow, and Augustus F. Sherman: Atlas of the Immigrant. She is also a co-editor at Alternativa Editions and a member of ICOM. Her work focuses on collective artistic practices and the role of art within social, economic, and climatic contexts. Another key area of her work is the art of the political transformation era, with a specific focus on the alternative art scene of the 1980s and 1990s in the Tricity. As part of her work, she established an oral history archive and developed a project dedicated to public space – specifically its soundscape. (Nominated by Ingmar Lähnemann, Director and Curator, Städtische Galerie Bremen)

• Dr. Nadia Ismail

  is a German-Syrian art historian, Director of the Kunsthalle Giessen, a specialist curator for art acquisitions at LBBW, and State of Hesse’s commissioner for public art (Kunst am Bau) projects. She teaches curatorial practice at various universities and serves on juries for awards and residencies, including the K21 Global Art Award at the Kunstsammlung NRW and the Villa Aurora residency for visual arts in Los Angeles. She has published numerous texts on contemporary art as well as monographic catalogues. Most recently, she curated the exhibition Elima-NoBody at the Museum d’Art Contemporain et Multimedia (Echangeur) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. She earned her doctorate from the University of Cologne with a thesis on the photographic series of American artist Anna Gaskell. Her work focuses on contemporary art and its mediation – addressing political and social issues such as artistic freedom – and programmatically engages with current global events. A particular emphasis of Ismail’s work is on interdisciplinary networking and collaboration. (Nominated by Nicole Giese-Kroner, Artistic Director, Syker Vorwerk)

• Chloë Reith

  is a curator and writer, currently serving as Interim Director of The Common Guild in Glasgow where she has been Curator since 2019. Previously, she was curator at Inverleith House at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh from 2013 – 2017. Her background also includes working as part of the project team and studios at S1 Artspace in Sheffield, chairing the board of Rhubaba Gallery & Studios in Edinburgh, and working in the commercial sector. She has realised numerous exhibitions and new commissions with international artists, including Joanna Piotrowska, Peng Zuqiang, and Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, as well as theme-based group projects. Her curatorial practice engages with speculative narratives, focusing on current conditions in the urban social sphere, questions of civic space and the built environment, and historical research that informs the present. (Nominated by Marie Oucherif, Artists Director and Curator, KH Künstler:innenhaus Bremen)

• Victoria Tarak

  is the Director of the Kunstverein Bielefeld, as well as an author and lecturer. She has realized projects for institutions including the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Tanzhaus NRW, and the International Lantz’scher Skulpturenpark in Düsseldorf. In 2023, she co-edited a special issue on collective practice for Kunstforum International magazine in collaboration with The Collective Eye. From 2021 to 2025, she held teaching positions at Heinrich-Heine-University and the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf. Her curatorial practice addresses questions of performativity, narration, and situatedness through the lens of intersectional experience. Her research-based approach focuses on the interplay between pedagogical modes of thought, artistic practice, and critical fabulation, as well as the connection between curatorial work and spaces of learning and education. (Nominated by Annette Hans, Director, GAK – Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst)

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