COLLABORATIVE CURATORIAL FELLOWSHIP
VAE is excited to present another round of our Collaborative Curatorial Fellowship! This is your chance to be PAID to do your own artistic research and curation, in order to make your boldest idea into a reality. The selected Fellow (or collaborative team) will be awarded a $5,000 stipend to spend six months building their own creative project with the full support of VAE’s staff, board, resources, and network! In addition to their stipend, the Fellow will have a $5,000 budget to produce their project, pay artists and steering committee members, and create programming.
This program aims to equitably pay creative individuals for their time and artistry while exposing them to VAE’s way of creating programming, WITH the community, rather than simply FOR the community. The ultimate goal is to create a diverse community of past Fellows who become leaders in the arts community and continue to advocate for equitable pay structures and community collaboration throughout their successful careers!
2024 CYCLE
APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2024 CYCLE ARE CLOSED!
Notification: Friday, May 17
Fellowship Timeline: June - December, 2024
PAST CCF PROJECTS
THE DETAILS
LOCATION: Raleigh, NC + Remote
STIPEND: $5,000 total, paid out in bi-weekly payments throughout the duration of the fellowship.
PROJECT BUDGET: $5,000
DURATION: 6 months
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Next round will be announced in 2024.
ABOUT VAE
VAE Raleigh is a nonprofit community cultural arts organization located in Raleigh, North Carolina. VAE was founded by a small group of dedicated artists in 1980. Though our name has changed and the organization has grown, VAE stays true to its core goal of developing a vibrant, equitable, and well-resourced creative community. Each year, VAE produces exhibitions and educational opportunities, public events, and provides more than $200,000 in funding for artists.
THE TEAM
Fellows will work alongside and be supported by VAE’s staff. VAE’s staff work as an adaptable ensemble team structure where each team member takes the lead on the programs and projects they are most excited about and directly responsible for. This team extends to include the members of VAE’s Board of Directors whose varied expertise creates a broad network to support your fellowship goals.
PROPOSALS
The Collaborative Curatorial Fellowship invites artists, arts administrators, community organizers, and anyone who has a great idea to participate in an opportunity to learn thoughtful and holistic approaches to curating an exhibition and creating programming. The Collaborative Curatorial Fellow, with guidance from VAE’s staff, will fine-tune the exhibition proposal they apply with, build a steering committee*, create and execute programming, and communicate with exhibiting artists over a six-month period. VAE will accept individual applications as well as applications from collaborative partnerships that do not exceed 4 people**.
VAE encourages anyone who feels like they have a good idea to apply as this opportunity is not exclusive to working artists. Fellows may exhibit their own work in the exhibition but VAE will not accept proposals for solo exhibitions.
While we aim to remain socially conscious and aim to engage with our community in that manner, we do not seek to trigger or aggravate or engage in recent traumatic or violent experiences. We view our role as an arts organization to uplift our community by focusing on joy and resilience.
VAE believes stories are best when they are told by the people who have lived them. We encourage applicants to propose projects that impact communities with which they identify. VAE does not exhibit or financially support work that co-opts the story of a community without representation from that community acting in a decision-making role.
We’re looking for exhibition proposals with inventive and striking themes that center socially-engaged art. To help us understand your vision, we recommend you include photos, videos, and/or drawings that visually support your idea in your application. We highly suggest you familiarize yourself with our strategic plan and core values to better understand our organizational goals.
At their core, the ideal Fellow (or collaborative team) is well-versed with independent work, possesses excellent time management skills, is highly collaborative, is familiar with Google Suite, and can give and receive constructive criticism. Fellows are expected to engage the community on multiple levels!
The Collaborative Curatorial Fellowship is a six-month program with the majority of the tasks being completed remotely. Some of the remote tasks include exhibition development like research, forming a comprehensive budget (examples given below), building lender and artist relations, drafting supporting text, building online content, and writing copy for press and promotional materials. In-person tasks can include (but are not necessarily limited to) programming, planning meetings, and installation***. The ideal fellow will propose a project they are excited to spend at least 10 hours per week working on curating. Fellows get to create their own flexible work schedule but should plan to attend weekly cross-departmental meetings as well as VAE’s staff meetings on a biweekly basis.
*A steering committee is a diverse group of individuals, ideally navigating varying career paths, who have a personal interest and commitment to the theme of the exhibition.
**In the case of collaborative partnerships, at least 50% of the members must be in-state residents of North Carolina. Someone on the collaborative team would have to have a valid SSN to receive payment.
***Cost of travel is included in the prospective budget.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Our ideal Fellow would be a self-motivated and creative individual with deep connections to the community they plan to collaborate with. The ideal applicant will have strong communication, facilitation, and organizational skills. We want our Fellow to have strong moral convictions and challenge others when necessary. Our team is excited to work with someone who has a strong understanding of the racial, disability, and queer justice central to VAE’s artistic work, is comfortable working with a diverse network of artists, and is highly collaborative when planning artistic programming.
Interested candidate's should refer to the scoring rubric and budget templates below.
This fellowship is exclusive to North Carolina residents*.
*In the case of collaborative partnerships, at least 50% of the members must be in-state residents of North Carolina. Someone on the collaborative team would have to have a valid SSN to receive payment.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
Our goal is to create a diverse community of past Fellows. We want to encourage anyone in the community to apply for this opportunity, including people at the intersections of multiple identities and lived experiences. We recognize the harm of and are working to ratify the lack of diversity in our local arts community and nonprofit sectors. Creative individuals who are people of color, immigrants, refugees, people with disabilities, people with low-income, and people who hold other marginalized identities are encouraged to apply. VAE commits to providing accommodations and adaptations to our working practices and environments in order to hire the best Fellows for this program. VAE Raleigh seeks to foster a fully inclusive work culture and expects all employees and Fellows to further that as part of their commitment to our shared work.
SCORING RUBRIC
In order to encourage proposals from a variety of applicants, VAE has decided to make the review process more transparent by sharing the following scoring rubric. Proposals can score a total of 15 possible points. Only 30% of proposals scored a 10 or higher in 2022. Last year’s chosen proposal scored 13 total points.
BUDGET TEMPLATE
While budgets are not required, including one helps us to understand your approach to resource management. Only 35% of proposals submitted last year included a prospective budget. Last year’s chosen proposal included a budget.
SAMPLE BUDGET
GALLERY FLOOR PLAN
We do not expect you to include the proposed utilization of this floor plan into your application. The visual was requested during the Town Hall and we figured it could get your creative juices flowing.
