OPEN CALL: Exhibitions Proposals

EFA Project Space 2024-2025 Exhibitions Open Call is now accepting applications!
The selected candidates will be awarded an honorarium, production budget, materials budget, programming and logistical support to organize a six-week-long exhibition at EFA Project Space.

For the 2024-2025 Open Call theme, EFA Project Space is interested in exploring the notion of “Folklore” in its various forms and aspects. We are looking for exhibitions, community engagements, and public programming that celebrate personal narratives, memories, traditions, and ceremonies. We are interested in stories and experiences that vitalize roots and origins, in works and actions that are not filtered through a globalised lens, and that touch on raw materiality.

Mission Context

EFA Project Space is a collaborative, cross-disciplinary arts venue founded on the belief that art is directly connected to the individuals who produce it and the communities that arise because of it. By providing an arena for exploring these connections, we empower artists, curators, and other participants to forge new partnerships and encourage the expansion of ideas. It is a home for emerging, mid-career, as well as established curators and artists. We focus our attention on community engagement and public programming

We strongly encourage applications that consider the following items:

• Joint collaborations with arts organizations and collectives whose missions intersect with our own, or that create space for conversation across disciplines and communities.

• Process based exercises, encouraging experimentation and collaboration.

• Dynamic, interactive projects that challenge the standard exhibition format while reaching a wide range of audiences and NY based communities.

Guidelines

• Applicants may submit a letter of inquiry proposing a community based exhibition.

• The exhibition will be presented over a 6-week period in March-April of 2024 at EFA Project Space, and upcoming dates in 2025.

• The proposed exhibition may include up to ten artists/participants. 

• Exhibitions should be aligned with Project Space’s mission and present an appropriate use of the space, taking into consideration its location within NYC, and the potential of including relevant communities.

• Community organizers, activists, curators, artists, and other professionals are encouraged to apply. 

• Please note: Applicants may submit a proposal for an exhibition or a project, or for both. However only one may be accepted.

Timeline

• Inquiries are due by September 29, 2023.

• Submissions will be reviewed by our Advisory Committee, staff, and invited guest jurors.

• Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal. From those, interviews and follow up discussions will lead the selection of an exhibition to be presented.

• Acceptance notifications will be announced in December 2023.

• Selected exhibitions will be presented over a 6-week period in March-April of 2024 at EFA Project Space, and upcoming dates in 2025.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must be age 21 years and older.

• Must have legal authorization to work in the USA.

• Must be committed to being in NYC during the exhibition dates and be an active participant in the organizing of the exhibition and public programming.

• Demonstrated experience with or in conversation with the proposed community involved.

• Public programming is required as part of the exhibition proposal and planning, with at least three programs per exhibition which may include opening and closing events.

• The exhibition must be a new proposal by the curator/facilitator in which it has not been presented prior.

• Applicants may apply individually, in pairs, or as collectives, etc.

• We are accepting PhD candidates, and post-academic programs candidates.

• Solo or two-person artist exhibitions will not be supported, nor will curated exhibitions where a curator is also presenting their own visual arts work.

Program Offerings

• EFA Project Space offers the use of a 2200 sq. ft. gallery space in the heart of NYC.

• EFA Project Space staffing during project hours.

• Exhibition budget is up to $12,000.00 and includes:

  • Curator/facilitator honorarium ($2000)

  • Artists/participants honorariums

  • Art handler and installation fee

  • Public programming and collaborative events

  • Exhibition documentation

  • Catalog production

  • Accessibility support

• Promotion through EFA Project Space’s social media, website, and newsletter.

• EFA Project Space follows W.A.G.E. certification standards and is committed to paying honoraria to all artists and participants. In general, exhibition budgets cannot provide for travel, international shipping, or elaborate construction/fabrication costs.

To learn more and apply visit EFA Project Space Website. Application deadline: 29 September 2023.