Curatorial Ethics Network (CEN)

CALL FOR ARTISTS Have your work featured in the upcoming CEN Journal Issue 1. Collective Action + Advocacy! To submit your work for consideration please email [email protected] #artists #contemporaryartwork #artistopencall

It’s official!! CEN Journal Issue 1. Collective Action + Advocacy Call for papers / articles! Abstract / pitch deadline: 15 June 2026 *Shorter submissions can be pitched via email. #curatorialethics #curatorialethicsnetwork #contemporaryart #writing #opencall [email protected]

Announcing the theme of the first issue, as decided by CEN members… Issue 1. Collective Action + Advocacy! Please donate here to support its development: https://bit.ly/4lqyTwp Call for papers to follow in due course. Watch this space!

Donate here: https://bit.ly/4lqyTwp Thank you for your support! ❤️

Introducing CEN member… MILENA SOPOROWSKA Artist, art historian, curator, researcher and founder of Windowlicker gallery Milena Soporowska is an artist, art historian, curator and researcher, member of Hydroza collective | @kolektywhydroza In her artistic and curatorial practice, she focuses on the relationships between esotericism, everyday life and pop culture. She seeks contemporary manifestations of concepts at the intersection of magic, science and pseudoscience both in art and in vernacular culture. Drawing on critical heritage studies and Ariella Azoulay’s concept of potential history, she explores alternative approaches to constructing narratives about marginalised histories and issues - especially considering women. Since 2023 she runs experimental exhibition space Windowlicker | @vvindovv.licker in pavillion in New Różycki Bazaar | @nowybazarrozyckiego in Warsaw, Poland. It is situated in the neighbourhood of the so-called “Różyc”, one of the oldest marketplaces in the city, founded in the 1880s. The pavilion serves as something between a gallery and an esoteric market stall, referencing the tradition of bazaar fortune tellers. Its curatorial programme explores topics derived from esoteric symbolism, legends and fairy tales as means of processing difficult and brutal historical and personal events. As a creator and gallerist herself, she is interested in the development of independent exhibition spaces and their relation to institutional cultural landscape. In 2025, as a result of the Out-of-doors residency programme organized by The Wrocław Institute of Culture, she published “Eternal Ephemera” - a series of interviews with founders of artist-runspaces. She is planning to expand this project in the future, collecting experiences from around the world. Since 2020, as a journalist and host, she is associated with Radio Kapitał | @radio_kapital first community radio in Poland - where she experiments with synesthetic audioguide curatorial tours, seeking new ways of experiencing exhibitions. [Continued in the comments]. @milsopo

Introducing CEN Member… LEO HAJDUCKI Curator and artist Leo Hajducki (she/they) is a curator and artist working across interdisciplinary and multisensory practices spanning exhibition-making, sound, writing, and research. With a background in politics and philosophy, their work is grounded in questions of materiality, ecological thought, and place, often through collaborative and research-led curatorial methodologies. Their current project, Do Rocks Remember Lava?, is an evolving curatorial publication and sonic programme exploring geological memory, extractivism, and deep time. Across both their curatorial and artistic practice, they are interested in how sensory experience and critical inquiry can open up alternative ways of understanding environmental and cultural histories. @ell.ee.oh

Introducing CEN Member… ALENA ROGOZHKINA Curator, artist, researcher, creative producer and founder of Abandoned Artists CIC Alena Rogozhkina is a Ukrainian-born multidisciplinary visual artist, researcher, curator and creative producer based in Scotland. Drawing on lived experience of poverty and migration, she creates fragile visual worlds that hold stories of rupture, resilience and becoming. Working across installation, photography, printmaking and sculptural drawing, her practice explores memory, fragility and emotional transformation. Alongside her studio practice, Alena curates and produces socially engaged projects developed in close collaboration with displaced and marginalised communities. Her curatorial approach prioritises listening, care and ethical responsibility towards artists and their lived experiences. She is particularly interested in exploring alternatives to traditional curatorial models by developing community informed, artists cantered and ethically grounded ways of working. Alena is the founder of Abandoned Artists CIC, a talent agency supporting refugee and displaced artists in Scotland by creating pathways for their work to be recognised within the wider cultural landscape. She holds an MSc in Behavioural Science from the University of Stirling and trained at the Leith School of Art in Contemporary Art Practice, Printmaking and Drawing. Over the past four years she has exhibited across Scotland in public galleries and alternative contemporary spaces. Her work has received recognition for artistic excellence, socially engaged practice and outstanding curatorial projects. @alenarogozhkina.art @abandoned_artists

TOMORROW!!!! 6.30-7.30pm GMT Curatorial Ethics Network (CEN) Talk Series 2026: “Conversation as Curation” with Eleanor Taylor and Elle Haswell - EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival) Curators. @eleanor____taylor @eleanorhaswell @edartfest Online event via Google Meet Tickets via Eventbrite: http://bit.ly/4s07MdW or 🔗 link in bio Free or donation (All ticket revenue will be divided equally between EAF and the Curatorial Ethics Network (CEN). About the event: CEN founder Dr Gabrielle Barkess-Kerr @gfbarkesskerr will be talking to Edinburgh art festival (EAF) curators Eleanor Taylor and Elle Haswell about their work, discovering what motivates them as curators, the projects they have created, and discussing the types of ethical considerations their work requires. The event will include a Q&A.

Join us for an Insta Live w/ CEN Executive Advisor Francesca Barkess-Kerr @fedenbk on Sunday 29th March 2026 - 8am GMT; 4pm HKT. Francesca will be discussing all things curatorial, contemporary art and ethics during Hong Kong Art Month 2026, live from HK. Please message your questions below, dm or email us via [email protected] and we will respond during the Insta Live! #arthongkong #artbaselhongkong #hongkongartmonth #hongkongcontemporaryart #hongkongart

Latest News: 1. CEN Member Siobhan McLaughlin latest curatorial project, exhibition Drive!, opens on 27th March at 3pm at the Richard Demarco Gallery at Papple Steading in East Lothian. Siobhan McLaughlin has also recently been awarded the Hugo Burge Foundation x Royal Scottish Academy Visual Art Residency. @siobhanmclaughlinstudio @richarddemarcoarchive @royal_scottish_academy @hugoburgefoundation 2. CEN member Lu Cunningham announces that The Writers’ Room has moved to a new space, and to celebrate this they will begin the Spring with an event ‘AIR CONDITIONING’ on Saturday 4th April with writer and artist Jessica Higgins! @lurosecunningham @wpp_writersroom 3. CEN member Philippe Riss-Schmidt, Founder and Editor-In-Chief, announces that Refresh, Issue #1 is now available worldwide. @curatorial_office @magazine_refresh.art 4. CEN member Ned McConnell, Head of Visual Arts at De La Ware Pavilion, announces the opening of two new exhibitions. (1) Jenine Marsh: new wishes. Ground floor gallery. (2) Sayan Chanda: How Many Fires, How Many Suns, How Many Dawns? Open: 14 February – 31 May 2026. First floor gallery. 14 February – 31 May 2026. @ned_mcconnell @delawarr 5. CEN member Suso Barciela appointed director of magazine Piece with Artist. @forms.follow.function @piecewithartist For further information please go to the CEN website. /news

Please donate to the creation of the CEN Journal Issue 1! Let’s make independent and ethical forms of arts publishing happen! Any donation is very much appreciated! If you contribute £10 or more, you will get access to all the journal articles for free upon publication! Donate here: https://bit.ly/4lqyTwp

Help to fund the new Curatorial Ethics Network (CEN) Journal! https://bit.ly/4lqyTwp #projectstory This will be a publication that is independent and responsive! Operating as a hybrid format between both academia and industry, the journal will bring the visual arts sector and ethics-focused content. Anyone who contributes to the crowdfund will receive free access to the publication upon its release! [The journal will otherwise be accessed via a fee - either per article or as a full publication.] Donations contributed will help to cover the costs of writer fees, ISBN numbers, and article reviewers; all of which will make this journal a reality. We would really appreciate your support in making this journal and helping to create an independent ethical arts publishing platform that prioritises writers and audiences. Discussions about curation, contemporary art, and the international art world, need to be put into the frame of ethics, now more than ever! CEN is a free-to-access organisation which has been created and built on a voluntary basis and supported through independent means. To begin to move the organisation on, we need to look at various methods of funding that will ensure a diverse and exciting range of materials and events, that will have longevity and impact. Please donate today! With warmest regards, The CEN team #contemporaryart #artspublication #bestpractice #ethicalpublishing About CEN The Curatorial Ethics Network is a global initiative focused on accountability and inclusivity within the art ecosystem. Our mission is to operate as a community focused on contemporary art curation, contemporary art and the visual arts sector, navigating the ethical complexities of contemporary art and curatorial practices by engaging in dialogue, research, and collaborative frameworks.