Honey Kraiwee, MA Arts and Heritage
Having graduated from the literature field for the Bachelor degree, I felt an urge to search for more practical and academic experience in curatorial field. A curator is a new and confusing profession for most of the people in my country.
The art related professionals is a very small community. After my graduation, I worked at Alliance Francaise in Bangkok. I started as an assistant for the arts and cultural department. After a short while and with luck, I got promoted to be the vice director for that department. Working there let me discover the development of art and cultural organisation in France. France has gone far ahead of Thailand in supporting and promoting their art and culture. My main task was to collaborate with mainly Thai and French artists to organise exhibitions, workshops, performance, etc. as well as developed partnership with local organisations in participations in festivals.
However, I felt that only the practical experience in curatorial practice was not enough for me and it kind of stopped me from going further without a proper knowledge. Since the curatorship course is not available in any university in Thailand, I started searching for this course in Europe. I submitted several applications to many universities and curatorial schools. I was also interested in De Appel curator course since it seems to give a hand-on knowledge through practices. However, with the Asian cultures, my parents, of course, prefer the bigger institution like university.
My dream plan is to open my own art space in Thailand. Apart from my interest in art, I am also a fan of photography, books, design goods and cooking. My dream art space would be the integration of all the things I like. However, before realising that dream, I feel that it is wiser to broaden my perspective in Europe first. So I plan on finding internships, works and residency in the Netherlands as well as other countries in Europe. Since I can speak French fluently, I will try applying in French speaking countries like France, Belgium and Switzerland as well as Scandinavian countries.
Honey Kraiwee
November 2017
Maastricht University was the perfect option, since it does not solely focus on academic side but also takes the practices into account. I was super delighted to have been accepted!