The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has partnered with Artsy to create an Emerging Curator Competition for graduate and undergraduate students world-wide.  Our objectives are to increase access to art and archival resources digitally; to create a program to benefit aspiring curators and their institutions; and to foster new scholarship. In keeping with that vision, the competition encourages a new generation of curators to use digital tools to bring new views and ideas to global audiences.  

The jury for the Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition is comprised of five renowned artists, curators, and scholars—John Elderfield, Branden Joseph, Shirin Neshat, Christopher Rauschenberg, and Sarah Roberts—who will evaluate exhibition proposals that are related to the work of Robert Rauschenberg either presented on its own or juxtaposed with the work of other artists and artworks. Participants will submit exhibition proposals on Artsy.net, choosing from images selected by the Rauschenberg Foundation and from the 40,000 images provided by Artsy’s 230 museum and institutional partners, including the British Museum, Fondation Beyeler, J. Paul Getty Trust, Guggenheim Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and others. In-depth research and archival materials will be accessible via the new Rauschenberg Foundation website and the SFMOMA Rauschenberg Research Project.  

In the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg, the jury seeks proposals that make unexpected connections and ponder new lines of questioning. In a career that spanned more than fifty years, Rauschenberg continually pushed the boundaries by using a multidisciplinary approach and defying expectation. His commitment to innovation and his fearless approach to art are characteristics that the jury will evaluate in the online exhibition proposals.

The judges will select three finalists whose proposals will be featured on both the Artsy.net and the Rauschenberg Foundation website and the winner will be selected by the general public through online voting. The winner will be awarded: 1) a letter of award signed by the panel of judges; 2) the winning curatorial proposal will be designed as an online exhibition on Artsy.net; and 3) a curatorial fellowship and honorarium enabling the winner to select works from the Rauschenberg Foundation Shuffle artwork lending library to curate an exhibition at the winner’s academic institution.

Central to the mission of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is fostering the legacy of the artist’s work and his long-term commitment to art education by providing broad public access to art. The foundation strives to encourage students and aspiring curators to actively engage with the work of Rauschenberg, his collaborators, and the artists who have been inspired by him. With the Robert Rauschenberg Emerging Curator Competition, the foundation seeks to nurture Rauschenberg scholarship and to expand the study of art through current digital means. When the new Rauschenberg Foundation website launches in late summer, students, aspiring curators, and the general public will have unprecedented access and information on Rauschenberg’s artwork and archives.

Artsy (Artsy.net) is a free online resource for learning about and collecting art, and it will host the competition as part of its ongoing mission to increase education and public access to art from around the world.