The British Council has announced an open call for the associate curator of the British Pavillion's Sonia Boyce exhibition at the next Venice Biennale. The position offers a fee of £12,500 for 35 days work (the post is not full-time).
The post will be sponsored by the British collector Shane Akeroyd, who has pledged "ten years’ worth of support for the associate curator of the British Pavilion art exhibitions in Venice", according to a statement from the British Council.
Sonia Boyce was selected earlier this year as the UK's representative for the 59th Venice Biennale, which has been postponed to 2022 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
According to the job specification, Boyce has stated that the associate curator “would ideally work in an agile way [...] not having too rigid an idea of something as it unfolds [and] have experience of performance-based work / improvisation".
The chosen candidate, who must have experience of commissioning new work, will help oversee “all curatorial aspects of the [Boyce] exhibition”. The British Council says that the role will require an overall commitment of approximately 35 days, starting in January 2021 and ending in November 2022 when the biennale closes in Venice. This would mean that—ensuring work lasts for exactly 35 days—the position pays £357 per day.
Hong Kong-based Akeroyd is president of the Asia Pacific branch of IHS Markit, a data and analytics provider. He previously served as the managing director at the now defunct Bear Stearns investment bank in New York in the mid 1990s. Akeroyd also sits on the board of Chisenhale Gallery in London and is a patron of both Manchester Art Gallery and South London Gallery.
