Masterclass with Nato Thompson
An Independent Study Program in Artistic Practice and Inquiry
This five-month Independent Study Program is a masterclass with curator and writer Nato Thompson, created for artists who want to think seriously about their work and its place in the world. Meeting every two weeks, the group becomes a space to reflect, exchange, and push artistic practice forward through conversation about what it means to make art amid the realities of contemporary life: money, time, care, exhaustion, and belief. This is a space for both reflection and growth. It looks at artistic development not as career management but as the long work of building clarity, conviction, and imagination inside your practice.
How It Works
Opening Session: Setting the Ground
Participants introduce their practices and what they hope to explore. Together we identify shared questions that will shape the next six months.
Alternating Rhythm
Thematic Conversations: Nato leads discussions on topics such as art and attention, care and exhaustion, the politics of visibility, and what success might mean beyond career.
Studio Dialogues: Artists share work or ideas for feedback and discussion. The focus is on clarity, experimentation, and context, not polish.
Mentorship Touchpoints
Optional one-on-one meetings with Nato midway and in the final month for individualized dialogue about your work and direction.
Shared Archive
Each session generates a set of readings, references, and reflections that become a collective resource built by the group.
Closing Reflection
The final session is a conversation about what changed in your work, your process, or how you understand art’s role in your life.
Core Questions
What conditions make your practice possible?
How does art create meaning when everything feels unstable?
How do we stay imaginative within structures of exhaustion and distraction?
What do artists owe to the world, and what do we owe to ourselves?
How can we live artistically while still navigating the realities of work and recognition?
Who It’s For
Working artists trying to make sense of their practice while getting through life.
Artists who want to think deeply about their work in dialogue with others.
Artists who want to reconnect artistic practice with daily life.
Artists who seek language and focus amid uncertainty.
Artists who want to be part of a thoughtful, international cohort exploring similar questions.
Why $350/Month Is Worth It
This is an accessible yet intensive way to work directly with Nato Thompson over six months, combining community, conversation, and mentorship.
It is a space to think clearly, feel less alone, and locate your practice within a wider cultural, social, and emotional field. The investment is not for prestige. It is for depth, clarity, and momentum in the long work of making a life of art.
Enrollment deadline: February 1, 2026
February 2 - June 16 2026
Mondays 1-3pm ET
20
Students Max
$350 per month
USD
Nato Thompson is an author, curator, and what he describes as “cultural infrastructure builder”. He has worked as Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary, and Creative Time as Artistic Director and Curator at MASS MoCA.
Thompson organized major Creative Time projects including The Creative Time Summit (2009–2015), Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy (2016), Kara Walker’s A Subtlety (2014), Living as Form (2011), Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures (2012), Paul Ramírez Jonas’s Key to the City (2010), Jeremy Deller’s It is What it is (2009, with New Museum curators Laura Hoptman and Amy Mackie), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008), and Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007), among others.
He has written two books of cultural criticism, Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century (2015) and Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life (2017). He founded the Alternative Art School in 2020.
Since January 2007, Nato Thompson has organized major projects for Creative Time including the annual Creative Time Summit, Living as Form (2011), Paul Ramirez Jonas’s Key to the City (2010), Jeremy Deller’s It is What it is with New Museum curators Laura Hoptman and Amy Mackie (2009), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008), Paul Chan’s acclaimed Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007) and Mike Nelson’s A Psychic Vacuum with curator Peter Eleey. Previously, he worked as Curator at MASS MoCA where he completed numerous large-scale exhibitions including The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere (2004) with a catalogue distributed by MIT Press. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including BookForum, Frieze, Art Journal, Art Forum, Parkett, Cabinetand The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The College Art Association awarded him for distinguished writing in Art Journal in 2004. He curated the exhibition for Independent Curators International titled Experimental Geography with a book available by Melville House Publishing. His book Seeing Power: Socially Engaged Art in the Age of Cultural Production was published by Melville House in January 2012.
Kara Walker, A Subtlety, 2014, with Nato Thompson and Creative Time.
Drifting in Daylight, 2015, Collaboration with Central Park Conservancy.
Chto Delat, A Monument to the Century of Revolutions, 2017 Creative Time Summit, Toronto, Curated by Nato Thompson.
Living As Form, 2011, With Creative Time.
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