ZKM Executive Program
Media Art Institutions & Practices
A five-day executive program at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. ZKM offers an international, certified program for professionals and senior staff from museums and cultural institutions who seek to build or deepen their expertise in the institutional practice of media art.
What makes this program special
Media art is no longer a niche. Video installations, sound art, kinetic and film-based works, software-based pieces, AI-generated and blockchain-based art – these are now integral to international collections, often in institutions that do not specialize in these forms.
At the same time, these works confront institutions with challenges that differ fundamentally from working with traditional media: in acquisition and collection building, conservation and restoration, exhibition technology, education, and organizational infrastructure. New questions arise with every technological development and grow more pressing over time: How do you collect art whose carrier media become obsolete? How do you preserve works based on algorithms, real-time data, or generative processes? How do you plan exhibitions with unpredictable technical components? And how can all of this be achieved under the real-world constraints of limited budgets, scarce staffing, and growing ecological demands?
The practical knowledge required to address these challenges is rarely covered systematically in existing degree programs or professional development offerings. It typically accumulates over years of institutional practice.
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe – one of the world's leading institutions for media art – is now making this knowledge accessible for the first time in a structured professional development format: practice-oriented, condensed into a single week, and delivered by ZKM's own specialists alongside international guest speakers.
- Location: ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (on site)
- Dates: 4–8 October 2026
- Program language: English
- Tuition fee: €4,900 (including all on-site costs, excluding accommodation)
- Number of participants: Up to 10 participants
- Certificate: Participants receive the ZKM Executive Certificate in Media Art Institutions & Practices, issued by ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
5 Topics in 5 Days
The program combines concise expert introductions with on-site observation, workshop visits, facilitated discussions, case studies, and collaborative working sessions. You will work in a small group of no more than 10 participants directly with ZKM specialists and invited international guest speakers.
Day 1 – Institutional Foundations & Frameworks
How are media art institutions organized? What resources, structures, and competencies does an institution need to collect and present media art – and how does this differ from working with traditional media? The day combines an overview of key developments in media art with a realistic assessment of organizational, financial, and staffing requirements. Keynote by Alistair Hudson, Artistic and Scientific Director of ZKM.
Day 2 – Collections, Archives & New Art Forms
Acquiring, building, and maintaining media art collections and archives: from video art and kinetic works to software-based pieces, AI-generated and blockchain-based art. What does it mean to collect works whose technological basis is changing, or whose mode of existence resists a traditional concept of the artwork? What are emerging directions in art-historical research and the digital humanities? Keynote and conversation with guest speaker.
Day 3 – Conservation & Restoration
The practice of conserving and restoring technology-based works – with access to ZKM's laboratories, including the Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems and the Digital Restoration Lab. Topics include long-term preservation planning and open-access strategies. Artist talk.
Day 4 – Curating, Exhibiting & Education
Curatorial practice and exhibition technology for media art: from concept development and technical planning to collaboration between curatorial, technical, and conservation teams. Linked with education and outreach strategies that treat media art not as an appendix but as an integral part of curatorial concepts – spatially, digitally, and with regard to new audiences and accessibility.
Day 5 – Perspectives: AI, Artistic Research & Institutional Futures
How do AI-based artistic practices change the way we collect, curate, research, and organize institutional work? What role does artistic research play at and with institutions? And how must museums evolve organizationally to keep pace with the dynamics of technological and artistic development? Closing discussion, synthesis of the week, and certificate presentation.
The program is designed for
The ZKM Executive Program is designed for professionals and senior staff from museums and cultural institutions who want to integrate media art into their institutional practice or advance their existing work in this field:
- curators
- collection managers
- exhibition managers
- museum directors
- program leaders
Professional experience in the museum or exhibition sector is required. Prior expertise in media art is not. The program is tailored to the composition and professional backgrounds of each cohort.
Learning where the knowledge is created. The program does not take place in a seminar room but in ZKM's workshops, laboratories, storage facilities, and exhibition spaces. You work alongside the conservators, technicians, and curators who use this infrastructure every day.
All key areas of practice in one place. From collection building to conservation, exhibition technology, education, artistic research, and institutional governance – the program covers the full chain of institutional work with media art in a single compact week.
International perspectives. In addition to ZKM's specialists, international guest speakers bring perspectives from other institutions and professional contexts. Further guest speakers will be announced shortly.
Peer exchange. You spend five days with professionals and senior staff from international institutions who face similar questions. The case studies work with real challenges from participants' own institutions.
Currency. The program addresses not only the "classic" media art genres but explicitly engages with the institutional implications of current technological developments – particularly AI-based artistic practices, generative art, and their consequences for collecting, law, and conservation.
Alumni network. Graduates become part of a growing international alumni network with an annual gathering.
Program Directors
The Institution
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe was founded in 1989 as one of the first institutions dedicated to enabling artists to experiment with new technologies while opening up, for a broad public – through collection building, exhibitions, events, and publications – a sustained engagement with the impact of technology on art and society. With 15,000 m² of exhibition space, a collection of over 15,500 objects, and more than 250 archives, ZKM is today one of the most significant institutions for media art worldwide. In the conservation and restoration of media art, ZKM holds a distinctive international position.