INTERNSHIP VACANCY
Curatorial intern for With Pleasure Festival 2027 and Pleasure Lab series
Hello, my name is Eva Neklyaeva, I am a performing arts programmer in Viernulvier, and I am looking for a curatorial intern to work together on With Pleasure Festival and Pleasure Lab series.
About With Pleasure
With Pleasure is the first international festival to treat pleasure as a field of artistic and cultural inquiry. The next edition will take place in Viernulvier from 6 to 8 of May, 2027 with an immersive program of performances, workshops, playspaces, installations, screenings and parties.
The festival brings together worlds that rarely meet: artists who work with desire and sexuality, and communities that built expertise in this field largely outside institutions: sex workers, kinksters and porn makers, along with some of the most exciting new academic research. The 2027 program includes performances by Dries Verhoeven, Marianne Chargois and Sophie Guisset, a new commission by Vex Ashley (Four Chambered Hearts) for Club Wintercircus, a VR experience by Tung-Yen Chou, guided playspaces, a rope room, an erotic audio room and a pleasure crafts market.
Pleasure Lab is a series of workshops on the topic of pleasure, leading up to the festival.
The internship tasks may include (will be partly defined on the go):
- Research: identifying partners, searching for exhibitors for the Pleasure Crafts market, assisting in researching for different parts of the program.
- Communication: audience outreach, helping with creation of social media content, reaching out to possible partners
- Production: supporting production team, assisting in production of the workshops series, helping with on-site hospitality
- During the festival: being part of the core team on site, making yourself useful on the spot and making sure artists, audiences and crew feel looked after
- Curation: helping to contextualise the works, assisting with curating parts of the program,
Profile and experience:
- You're 18+ and a student in arts or cultural management, communication, gender or sexuality studies, psychology, social work, arts, or a related field.
- You are capable of picking up your phone and calling people you don't know; a lot of this internship will be about reaching out to people whom you never met to talk about an art festival that takes on a subject of sexuality, and you should feel very comfortable doing this.
- You have your own agency and interest in working with themes of art and sexuality, and you approach them with curiosity, respect and care.
- You enjoy both researching and organising. Being a good host is something you strive for.
You speak English fluently. Dutch is a strong plus. - You're available for an internship of minimum duration of 3 months (this can be spread over a longer period as part-time), including the full festival period, build-up and strike-down days around 6–8 May 2027
What we offer
- A hands-on internship with real responsibility at a first-of-its-kind international festival
- Working alongside the artistic team
- Experience working with internationally recognised artists and a strong network in the arts and cultural sector
- An official internship agreement with your school
- Lunch during internship
- Access to Viernulvier program during internship
- This is a non-paid internship that has to be done for study credits
Practical
- Period:negotiable; minimum 3 months, can start asap and can be part-time. Obligatory full availability during the festival week 2-10 May 2027. Flexibility to sometimes work on weekends.
- Location: Viernulvier, partly remote possible
- Application deadline: 5 November
Apply
Send your CV and a short motivation to eva.neklyaeva@viernulvier.gent with the subject "With Pleasure internship". In your motivation, tell us why this festival speaks to you and what you'd like to learn. Your message can be informal. Questions? Contact Eva.