This article aims to reflect on the role of graduate programs in opening new spaces for critical and historiographical practice. In the context of contemporary debates, the overcoming of some traditional reflection borders postulates the linkage of contemporary art and culture (contemporary understood here as a certain reflective quality of the artistic and cultural phenomenon), as well as a direct tie between critical discourse and institutional action. The analysis focuses on the case of the Masters Program in Art and Contemporary Culture, Uerj, seeking to highlight the dilemmas, challenges and limits embodied in the program’s process of formulation.