2008 AOV Call Closed

Application to the 2008 Art(ists) On the Verge program are now closed.

View selected artists here. Subscribe to the Northern Lights Newsletter at the bottom of this page to be informed of future opportunities.

The 2008 Call for Submissions – for informational purposes only:

Call for Proposals

The Jerome Foundation and Northern Lights, a new Twin Cities-based arts agency, with fiscal sponsor Forecast Public Art, announce Art(ists) on the Verge (AOV), a new two-track fellowship and mentoring program for Minnesota-based, emerging artists working experimentally at the intersection and technology, with a focus on practices that are social, collaborative and/or participatory.

Deadline for Applications: Monday, September 8, 2008

Informational Meetings

Informational sessions about the Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship and Mentorship programs will be held July 21 at 6:00 pm at Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, and August 15 at 12:00 pm at the Jerome Foundation, 400 Sibley Street, Suite 125, St. Paul.

Purpose of Art(ists) on the Verge

The Jerome Foundation supports several world-leading organizations such as Rhizome and Turbulence, who foster new media art practice and are important champions of such work. In addition, technological considerations increasingly expand all artistic practices, including literary, visual, and performing arts, the moving image, architecture and design. While there are many students and practitioners of so-called new media art in the Twin Cities and Minnesota, there is a paucity of opportunities and support to critically develop and present such work. The ultimate goal of the AOV Fellowship and Mentorship programs is to create sustainable habitat for the local ecology of experimental art practice with the following key elements: critical support and evaluation, monetary and technical resources, audience development, and institutional recognition.

Twin Tracks: Fellowships and Mentorships

A total of six commissions will be awarded. Three of the six commissions are outright fellowships for the production of new work and a joint exhibition in the spring/summer of 2009 at a site to be determined. The other three commissions are part of a 9-month, experimental Art(ists) On the Verge for the development, production and exhibition of new work. The Mentorship program begins in September 2008 followed by an intensive 3-day “Boot-Up” Camp, October 10-12, co-presented with MCAD. Over the ensuing 9 months, artists will have bi-weekly individual and group mentoring sessions and critical workshops by visiting curators and artists on multiple occasions followed by a joint exhibition in the spring/summer of 2009 at a venue to be determined.

See below for specific details of both AOV Fellowships and the AOV Mentorship Program.

What Exactly is Art on the Verge?

You tell us. Whether your art is converging, diverging, emerging or in between, we are looking for challenging and exciting work that is experimental in nature, enabled by technology, social in its aims.

Potential projects include but are not limited to the following forms and/or platforms: (Click here for links to examples)

  • broadcast
  • citizen science
  • demo scene
  • DIY practices
  • edgy products
  • gaming
  • hypertext
  • immersive environments
  • interactive art
  • interactive television
  • internet art
  • locative media
  • machinima
  • mapping
  • mashups
  • mixed media
  • mixed realities
  • mobile devices
  • moblogging
  • performative intervention
  • podcasting
  • responsive architecture
  • translocal
  • urban screens
  • virtual worlds
  • web 2.0

Both the AOV Fellowship and Mentor programs are particularly interested in experimental art practices that are social, collaborative and/or participatory. Part of the goal of the AOV programs is to encourage experimentation, and especially for the Mentor program, it is not expected that artists will have all the technical skills necessary to complete their proposal.

Who Is an Artist on the Verge?

Applicants must be Minnesota residents and considered emerging artists. An emerging artist shows significant potential, yet is under-recognized by peers, curators, producers, critics and administrators. Evidence of some professional achievement is expected, but not an extensive record of accomplishment. Full-time students are not eligible, with one exception. If an artist enrolls in an undergraduate or graduate degree program or takes classes while maintaining a current and active professional practice of creating and presenting work to the public, she/he is eligible. Artists may be supported as individuals or as equal collaborators.

This is not a program in which technology is used to expand or document work in other disciplines nor is it a program that subsidizes the creation of informational websites.

Please email AOV@northern.lights.mn if you have questions about eligibility.

Application to AOV Fellowship and Mentorship Programs

Artist proposals are sought through an open call. The Northern Lights Director and a jury of experienced curators will review proposals. Three artists will be selected for each program. Selections will be announced September 23, 2008.

AOV Fellowship Program Overview

Three artists will be selected by a jury of local and national curators to receive commissions of $6,000 each.

Fellows will be invited but not required to attend the “Boot-Up” Camp (see below). Curatorial review of projects during development and production will be available but not required, except to ensure that appropriate progress is being made toward exhibition.

The commissioned works will be exhibited in the summer of 2009 in a joint exhibition at a venue to be determined

Northern Lights, with the exhibition venue, will be responsible for all costs related to hosting, archiving, marketing, promotion, and documentation of the project and exhibition.

AOV Mentorship Program Overview

Three artists will be selected by a jury of local and national curators to receive commissions of $4,000 each. In addition, there will be up to $2,000 available for technical assistance for each project.

Once the selection is made, Northern Lights will meet with each Mentorship artist to determine what kinds of assistance may be most useful. This will affect some aspects of the Boot-Up Camp as well as the invited speakers to the monthly mentoring meetings.

Artists in the Mentorship Program will be required to attend the Boot-Up Camp in October 10-12, 2008 (see description below). They will be required to attend at least monthly mentoring meetings, where there will often be a guest speaker, who will present his or her own work and discuss each of the Fellows’ work. Sometimes the mentoring meeting will be an excursion to an exhibition, performance or other event. Fellows will also be able to schedule at least one individual session each month with the Northern Lights Director.

Artists in the Mentorship Program will have access to up to $2,000 in funds for technical support. In addition, artists in the Mentorship Program will have free access to the facilities at MCAD and the opportunity to participate in a graduate seminar with nationally acclaimed artist and MCAD professor Piotr Szyhalski.

Prior to exhibition, there will be facilitated critique sessions for each artist, with local and visiting professors and curators.

Northern Lights, with the exhibition venue, will be responsible for all costs related to hosting, archiving, marketing, promotion, and documentation of the project and exhibition.

Boot Up Camp

The Boot-Up Camp is intended to introduce the Mentorship Program artists and Fellowship Program artists to a variety of practices and to provide expert feedback about their work-to-date and future plans in a supportive, intensive workshop setting.

Boot-Up Camp will take place October 10-12, 2008 at MCAD and will bring prominent speakers to talk about their practice in relation to art and technology, social practice, Web 2.0 and other topics, which will be fine-tuned based on the artists who are accepted into the program.

Selection Criteria for the AOV Fellowship and Mentorship Programs

All applicants must be Minnesota residents and considered emerging artists. An emerging artist shows significant potential, yet is under-recognized by peers, curators, producers, critics and administrators. Evidence of some professional achievement is expected, but not an extensive record of accomplishment. Full-time students are not eligible, with one exception. If an artist enrolls in an undergraduate or graduate degree program or takes classes while maintaining a current and active professional practice of creating and presenting work to the public, she/he is eligible. Artists may be supported as individuals or as equal collaborators. Applicants should:

  • Exhibit talent and interest in work produced at the intersection of art, media, technology, and social practice, particularly in ways that are social, collaborative and/or participatory. The quality of past work as demonstrated through work samples will be considered.
  • Demonstrate a commitment as reflected in the Project Proposal and/ or Artist Statement in experimenting with the boundaries of one’s art practice.
  • Demonstrate the ability to artistically accomplish in a timely manner an artwork for public presentation
  • Present a compelling Project Proposal (a less critical selection criterion for Mentorship Program)

Additional Selection Criteria for Mentorship Program Only

Applicants for the Mentorship program should also:

  • Articulate interest in participating in a creative and critical process with peers
  • Articulate interested in working with a mentor
  • Identify potential areas for technical support
  • Commit to participating in the Boot-Up Camp October 10-12, 2008 as well as a 9-month mentorship program, and be willing to prioritize the program in order to meet as a group with other participants on a regular basis

Application Checklist for AOV Fellowship and Mentorship Programs

(Please include all of the following. Text files should be sent as PDF files.)

  • Artist Statement
  • Project Proposal
  • Work samples descriptions and URLs
  • Résumé
  • Statement of Interest in Mentorship Program (Mentorship Program only)
  • Budget and Timeline (optional but recommended for Fellows only)
  • References (optional but recommended for Mentorship Program only)

Artist Statement

Your Artist Statement (2 pages max) should articulate your interest in experimental practice, your approach to the use of technology in your work, and your interest in work that is social, collaborative and/or participatory.

Project Proposal

Your Project description (2 pages max) should discuss your project’s core concept, how you will realize your project, and your project’s feasibility. If you plan to work with assistants, consultants, or collaborators, their roles and (if possible) names should be included. For the Mentorship Program, the Project Proposal is considered a starting point, and we recognize that it may change radically over the course of the Mentorship program.

You are encouraged, but not required, to include a production timeline and a project budget, which should include your own fee (as additional pages). If you have other funding sources for your project, please indicate this in your budget.

Work Samples

All work samples should be accessible via the Web. If this is a problem, please contact Northern Lights Director at AOV@northern.lights.mn to discuss options. You may include up to 10 minutes of work samples. Note: More is not necessarily better. You should include only work samples relevant to your proposal. If your proposal has nothing to do with photography, don’t include images from your photography portfolio. Please provide contextualizing information (title, date, medium, perhaps a brief description) to help the jury understand what they are looking at. The work sample can take any form, as long as it is accessible via the web.

Résumé

The artist résumé must include name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. If this is a collaboration or group, include résumés of all involved parties, noting the role of each person’s involvement in this work (no more than 2 pages per person.) Note: In the case of collaborations, the artist honorarium will have to be split amongst the collaborators.

Additional Application Materials for the AOV Mentorship Program

In a Statement of Interest in the Mentorship Program (separate from the Artist Statement), please answer the following questions:

  • Why are you applying to this program? Discuss how the focus on creative process will benefit you versus a more straightforward production opportunity. Are you able to commit to being available in person for this 9- month mentorship program? (Limit 2 pages)
  • Describe your past experience working with other artists and technical support people. (Limit 1/2 page)
  • Discuss your expectations for this project and how it builds on your past work. Explain your process for creating new work. What skills are you working on? What are your goals? What questions are you asking in your work? (Limit 1/2 page)
  • Discuss how you feel about working in a group environment to develop production and critical response skills. Have you worked in this kind of environment previously? What was your experience? What do you like about this and what drives you nuts?(Limit 1/2 page)
  • List the technical needs of the piece—as best as you can envision at this point. (Limit 1/2 page)

For the Mentorship Program, References are optional but strongly recommended. Up to three letters of reference, preferably including an individual who has presented your work, an individual who has worked with you in a technical support role, and an individual who has worked with you in a creative partnership. Ask your references to write about their experience with your process. Actual letters must be provided—do not submit just names and addresses of references.