Online-Based and Onsite Learning Programs
Venice BIENNALE Hybrid
Residency
Every year, Venice becomes a focal point of the contemporary art and architecture events. The Venice Biennale is the oldest and largest international exhibition with a six-month event that transforms the city and shapes contemporary art and architecture discourse for years to come.
This open call residency is organized by We Are the Artists Institute. As a collective platform, we designed the program to give emerging artists, curators, and creative thinkers alternative access to that event. We work on investigating the Biennale’s histories, engaging its current artistic practices, and grounding everything in direct encounter with the city and its exhibitions.
01.
VENICE BIENNALE 2026
Edition
Curated by Koyo Kouoh, the 61st Venice Biennale is titled In Minor Keys. The theme centers on the subtle, the intimate, and the collective artistic practices that work through nuance, interiority, and shared histories rather than dominant narratives. Both a musical and political metaphor, In Minor Keys asks whose knowledge counts, whose archives are activated, and what contemporary art looks like when care and vulnerability are its organizing terms.
02.
Digital Residencies
This is a live six-session program delivered online. The curriculum moves in two parts: first, establishing the historical and theoretical foundations of the Biennale, then examining the artistic practices, mediums, and works of the current edition. Each session brings participants into dialogue with the material artwork, with the theme, and with each other’s research. By the end, every participant completes the program with a research portfolio based on the current exhibition practice and directly useful for their next professional step.
03.
On-Site Mentorship
This is a two-day guided program through the principal exhibitions of the Arsenale and the Giardini. Each day begins with a short contextual introduction before moving into the exhibitions themselves. We move and spend extended time with selected artworks. Beyond the main venues, participants also take in the national pavilions and independent exhibitions scattered across the city, building a comprehensive picture of the Biennale as a whole. Participants will leave with a broader sense of the current landscape of contemporary art in the Venice Biennale and also the Venetian art landscape.
04.
REsearch-based learning
This residency encourages the “artist as researcher” and the Venice Biennale as a live case study. The focus is analyzing artistic practices, institutional structures, and curatorial strategies through an interdisciplinary approach. Every participant perhaps leaves with transferable methodology for their independent research and professional practice.
Residency Modules
The Foundation of the Venice Biennale
Institutional History and Curatorial Vision.
Poetic of the Undercurrent
Investigating and exploring the 2026 Venice Art Biennale theme: “In Minor Keys.”
Collective Care as Methodology
The Materiality of Artistic Practice and Medium
Sensory Research Practices
Research Responding to Global Challenges and Issues.
Mentor
