24″x18″x.75; laser engraved and cut plywood, walnut veneer, and white oak veneer; 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
Kolaj Institute Hires Managing Director: Introducing Seth Ter Haar
Kolaj Institute is pleased to announce that Seth Ter Haar will be joining the staff as the organization’s Managing Director. “This is a major step forward for the organization. A full-time Managing Director will support and guide the organization as we continue to develop and pursue grant funding for projects. The position will allow us to better prepare Kolaj Institute’s Archive, Book, and Art Collections so they are more accessible to the public. The Managing Director will oversee day-to-day operations of Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans and provide critical support to our publishing program,” said Director Ric Kasini Kadour. “Most importantly, the Managing Director will help us ensure the long-term sustainability of Kolaj Institute so that the story of the 21st Century International Collage Movement can be told in the future decades from now.”
Seth Ter Haar is an artist, woodworker, curator, and self-proclaimed “fisher of men,” whose work explores the intersection of spirituality and contemporary gay culture. The 2024–2026 Fellow of Docomomo Wisconsin, Ter Haar studied modern art and architecture with particular attention to the queer femme–founded Layton School of Art and twentieth-century religious spaces across Wisconsin. His programming and research examined the ideologies behind making the sacred through postwar material experimentation and technical innovation, earning him the first-ever Student Documentation Award at Docomomo US’s Modernism in America Awards (2025).
In his artistic practice, Ter Haar extends these inquiries by employing emerging technologies, including laser cutting and CNC machining, to reinterpret historical woodworking traditions through religious iconography, translating familiar faith-based imagery into queer frameworks of spiritual enlightenment. His work has been recognized through awards and fellowships, including the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (2023), participation in the gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix grant program (2023), finalist status for Milwaukee’s Nohl Fellowship (2025) and an Open Fund Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ (2025).
Ter Haar’s exploration of spirituality within queer culture also informs his curatorial work, which spans exhibition-making, event organizing, and collaborative programming. This community-driven practice is grounded in care for artists and the health of queer communities across the United States. He has served as Gallery Director at the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network, preparator at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Jewish Museum Milwaukee and Tori Folliard Gallery and curated exhibitions for multiple organizations, including his alma mater the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Kolaj Institute team. In 2023, I attended an artist lab with the Kolaj Institute in New Orleans, and that short residency truly changed my life. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of watching the organization grow, and I’m excited to work with collage artists all over the world and bring the nonprofit experience I’ve gained over my career to support its mission and to help platform collage in all the expansive ways we understand it today.
As an artist and curator committed to the enlightenment and transformative potential of art, I see collage as one of the most vital contemporary art forms for making sense of the world around us. Emerging through the use of printed matter, found imagery, and mass media, collage has become a powerful way to question how narratives are constructed, circulated, and internalized. For me, the collagist and the curator are both engaged in the work of reshaping those narratives, using familiar materials to imagine new possibilities, pursue deeper understanding, and, at their best, help change the world.”
Ter Haar will begin his work in April 2026. “This important step in Kolaj Institute’s development is made possible because of the generous support of those who responded to our Be the Glue Campaign. Thank you to everyone who responded,” said Kadour. “If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a donation to the campaign today.”
ABOUT KOLAJ INSTITUTE
The mission of Kolaj Institute is to support artists, curators, and writers who seek to study, document, & disseminate ideas that deepen our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. Kolaj Institute is an independent 501(c)3 Non-profit organization registered in the State of Louisiana, USA. We operate a number of initiatives meant to bring together community, investigate critical issues, and raise the standing of collage in the art world. Our philosophy is that if we bring artists together, explore ideas and concepts, share knowledge, we can stretch and develop as artists. When we bring that knowledge and skill into our communities, we raise the standing of collage and contribute to the civic discourse. Our activities include Archive, Library, Directories; Publishing; Exhibitions; Residencies, Workshops, and Labs for professional artists; Events; and workshops for the community.