June 4, 2026

A Tale of A Tub X Amarte: Curator-in-Residence

October 1, 2026–January 31, 2027

In October, our second residency will commence in collaboration with Amarte Foundation, this time directed towards Netherlands-based curators. The residency is a new annual aspect of our program aimed at engaging with the residential context we are situated in. Simply put, the goal of the residency is to support practitioners throughout the developmental stages of a project or research—rather than working towards an explicit outcome—and to do so in a way that both inhabits and activates our spaces differently (say, outside regular opening hours or while feeling somewhat at home). With this second open call, we continue with our pilot program by offering the first curatorial residency thanks to the exciting support of Amarte Foundation. Following this, we will offer two residencies a year from 2027 onwards, one for an artist and one for a curator.

Generally speaking, the historical, communal and residential functions of our location in the former bathhouse and washhouse of the Justus van Effencomplex provide a basis for our program. In taking the past social life of the space as a guiding principle, we try to work in an intersectional manner to bring a range of people, places and (urgent) ideas into conversation through art. In this way, international perspectives and contexts are placed in dialogue with local concerns and needs—and vice versa—and the question of what a small-to-medium-sized art institution located on the edge of a city can do (and be!) is always at the front of our minds. The selected resident is not expected to address the location of A Tale of A Tub directly through their work, but practices and researches that align with any of the above approaches will be favoured—whether that be working intersectionally, context-specifically or in a situated way, or with questions of instituting or social and material need at the heart of the practice.

The selected candidate will be in residence for four months from October 1, 2026, until January 31, 2027. The length and part-time reality of the residency is an attempt to work in a longer-term and organisationally embedded way with a curatorial resident, while also acknowledging the capacity of our small team and the working and familial realities of freelance practitioners (who can’t always go away for long periods at a time).

Please note: As mentioned, this is not an outcome-driven residency. It is specifically for building on a particular thread of your practice within a supportive context and without the pressure to perform. Please also note that this residency opportunity is only open to Netherlands-based curators (and artists or writers who curate) and does not include housing.

As part of the residency, you will receive:

• A fee of €4000 (excluding VAT). In line with the fee, please note that there are expected contact hours of 1 day per week, however the selected resident will receive a key and is very welcome to use the studio as much as they wish.
• A production budget of €1000
• A budget of €1500 for inviting external advisors relevant to your project for studio visits, talks or project-specific consultations. Note: this budget is to cover compensation for their time as well as travel and accommodation (if needed)
• Use of the upstairs studio space for the duration of the residency as well as the tools and equipment kept on site.
• Monthly studio visits with the curatorial team of A Tale of A Tub (consisting of Director Isabelle Sully and Education Curator Lisanne Janssen).
• A commissioned text that sits alongside your work, published in the form of our quarterly bulletin.
• A budget of €500 for one public-facing event held throughout the course of the residency or immediately after, and one educational activity. Both will be developed in conversation with our curatorial team.
• A travel budget if based outside Rotterdam.

To apply, please send the following materials to info@a-tub.org by July 10, 11:59PM:

• Your name, contact details and address
• A description detailing your interest in the residency and some initial thoughts on how you might spend your time (no more than 1 A4). Please also include a short description of how the resources provided by the residency will benefit you.
• A practice description (no more than 500 words)
• Documentation of your work (compiling no more than ten images, five pages of excerpted text or ten minutes of video/audio)

Applications will be assessed by a curatorial team consisting of a representative from Amarte, Isabelle Sully (Director of A Tale of A Tub), Lisanne Janssen (Education Curator at A Tale of A Tub), as well as artist and first A Tale of A Tub resident Lili Huston-Herterich, who will act as an external though context-aware voice. Applicants will be notified in the second half of July.