Four Latin American Voices Around the Montevideo Curatorial Intensive

Independent Curators International (ICI) held the Montevideo Curatorial Intensive in March 2026, in partnership with the ESTE ARTE fair and the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Republic (Udelar). This was the first time the program took place in Uruguay, bringing together twelve emerging curators from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and the United States for eight days of seminars, debates, and mentorship. Led by independent curator Marina Reyes Franco, the intensive included visits to local cultural spaces such as CasaMario, SUBTE, and the Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, as well as a trip to Punta del Este to tour galleries and artist studios. The program featured presentations by international faculty including Ionit Behar, Victoria Noorthoorn, Maya Juracán, and Keyna Eleison, and concluded with a public symposium at the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (MNAV).

This intensive matters because it strengthens emerging curatorial practices in Latin America by fostering cross-border collaboration and building cultural infrastructure outside traditional institutional frameworks. By centering the program in Uruguay and conducting it entirely in Spanish, ICI highlights the importance of regional voices and locally grounded methodologies. The event also reinforces the role of curators as community builders and memory-makers, connecting personal narratives with collective action. The resulting network of participants is poised to generate future collaborative projects across the Americas, amplifying underrepresented perspectives in the global art world.