CALL TO ARTISTS
Queer Women’s Artist Lab: New Orleans
Kolaj Institute and Kasini House’s Art Meets History project are organizing a Queer Women’s Artist Lab: New Orleans, 18-22 November 2024.
Early Deadline to Apply: Thursday, 26 September 2024
Final Deadline to Apply: Thursday, 10 October 2024
Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis until space is filled. Artists are encouraged to apply well before the deadline.
Queer Women’s Artist Lab: New Orleans will take as its premise that 21st century queer women’s identity is the culmination of decades of construction and ask: What does it mean to be a queer woman in the 21st century? How do we understand and celebrate the diversity of our queer women considering gender identity and expression? What does it mean to “come out” in a world that promises acceptance? What does it mean to “come out later in life”? How does our relationship to “the closet” change as we evolve? What does it mean to be queer youth today? How do we evolve, grow, develop, mature in a world where we are misunderstood, fetishized, marginalized, invisible, threatening, and lack role models? How do we care for ourselves, physically and mentally, when we face great health disparities and lack access to healthcare? What about our female friendship, love partnerships, or community? Are apps a place where we can connect, find friendship or love? What does community mean as a queer woman, solo, single, or in a relationship? Most of our bars are gone and yet we continue to create places to gather. How do we build and sustain a community? What is the future of queer women’s space? How do we support young queer women carving new spaces for themselves? How do we ensure an inclusive community? How do we support our trans, non-binary and queer men siblings? What about the families we create? How do we grow old? How do we remember who came before us? How do we pass knowledge to future generations of queer women? What does feminism mean to us? What about activism? Covid-19 was not our first pandemic. How do we unpack the trauma of seeing how much the world can respond when they care about who is affected? How do we stand in solidarity with those who live in societies that criminalize homosexuality? How do we decolonize queer identity and create space that welcomes and celebrates queer women of color? What is our place in a late-stage capitalism that treats us as labor and assets? How do we understand our place in the world? How do we want to be seen? How do we make ourselves understood? How can artists help us make sense of all of this? This is not an exhaustive list.
The goal of the Queer Women’s Artist Lab: New Orleans is to equip artists with tools and strategies for picking up the unfinished work of history and speak to contemporary civic discourse around social, economic, and environmental issues. Through interactive sessions in the Lab and panel discussions, artists will explore their process and practice; present a slideshow of their work; receive supportive, critical, curatorial feedback about their ideas; and discuss contemporary issues.
The lab is open to any artist, regardless of how they identify, who wants to make contemporary artwork that speaks to the experience of Queer Women. We think of “Queer Women” as an amorphous state of being, one that is self-determined and inclusive of a broad range of human experiences. In this sense, we do not seek to define Queer Women rather we seek to question, What does it mean to be a queer woman today?
During the lab, artists will make collage to explore artist practice, process, and meaning making. Artists will explore the queer geography and history of New Orleans and consider how similar geographies and histories from their home communities may inform their proposal. Artists will complete the Lab with a project proposal for a contemporary art project (an exhibition or a book) and a sample work that will be considered for an exhibition that will take place in 2025 or 2026.
The Queer Women’s Artist Lab: New Orleans is part of Kolaj Institute’s larger exploration of 21st Century queer identities which will culminate in an exhibition and book in 2025 and 2026.
WHAT IS AN ARTIST LAB?
Artist Labs are an intensive series of workshops and discussions designed to foster the integration of history and contemporary art into an artist’s practice. Produced in concert with Art Meets History, Labs include specific discussions about the medium of collage including the challenge of creating large work and issues of appropriation, copyright, and fair use and explore how the artist’s choice and understanding of material shapes the narrative of the artwork. After the Lab, artists will leave with a network of peer support; an idea for a project; and the task of turning that idea into a project proposal and a sample work.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
Queer Women’s Artist Lab is in-person and centered on collage artists who want to develop their artist practice to include using history and historic sites to speak to contemporary issues pertinent to queer identity. Artist Labs are professional development programs, intended for self-motivated artists, regardless of the stage in their career, who want to explore a topic or working method and collaborate with others. The focused goal of the Lab is a proposal for artwork that may be included in a book and exhibition.
COST
The cost of the Artist Lab is $750 per artist
Activities such as tours and museum visits are included in the fee. Artists are responsible for their own travel to New Orleans, accommodations, and meals. A limited number of partial grants is available to offset the fees and to ease barriers to participation. Financial Aid is limited and possible through the support of donors to Kolaj Institute.
HOW TO APPLY
Submit your application HERE.
RESIDENCY LOGISTICS
Queer Women’s Artist Lab will have one Virtual Session prior to the start of the Lab, date to be determined.
In-person activities take place at Kolaj Institute, 2374 Saint Claude Avenue, Suite 230, starting at 10AM, Monday, 18 November to 4PM on Friday, 22 November 2024.
Participating artists will have 24-hour access to the space during the Lab.
Kolaj Institute stocks general collage-making materials such as cutting mats, scissors, a variety of glues, substrates, and books and magazines. If an artist wishes to use specific materials they may be shipped in advance to the Kolaj Institute Studio & Gallery.
There will be an additional Virtual Follow-up after the Residency.
ABOUT THE FACULTY
collage on paper
Tiffany Dugan
Tiffany Dugan (she, her) is a New York City-based writer/mixed media artist/art legacy worker with a background in events in arts non-profits and higher education. Exploring the natural world and the numinous, she uses analog collage-making and painting to examine the ever-evolving cycles connected to self- and social- identity. Her work is abstract and rhythmic–feminine with an edge. She received a BA in Literature from Sarah Lawrence College, did graduate work in Linguistics at New York University, and received an MS in Organizational Change Management from The New School. She has studied at the Women’s Studio Workshop, The Center for Book Arts, The Art Students League, and the National Academy. She presented on the intersection of Collage & Poetry at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in New York and New Orleans and is in collections in the US and Europe. Her work has been featured in 82 Review, The Penn Review, Beyond Words, Peatsmoke, and is forthcoming in CALYX. She was a Diderot Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux (2020). She received the Sarah Lawrence College Kathryn Gurfein Fellowship-Creative Non-Fiction (2019) and has finished a memoir on art and legacy. Art, community building, and legacy are her priorities. Learn more at www.tiffanydugan.com and on Instagram @tiffany.dugan.
Ric Kasini Kadour
Ric Kasini Kadour, a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow, is a writer, artist, publisher, and cultural worker. Working with the Vermont Arts Council, Kadour curated four exhibits: “Connection: The Art of Coming Together” (2017) and Vermont Artists to Watch 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2017, he curated “The Art of Winter” at S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington, Vermont. In 2018, Kadour curated “Revolutionary Paths: Critical Issues in Collage” at Antenna Gallery in New Orleans, which bought together collage artists whose work represents the potential for deeper inquiry and further curatorial exploration of the medium; followed in 2019 by “Cultural Deconstructions: Critical Issues in Collage” at LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans, which furthered the conversation; and “Amuse Bouche”, also at LeMieux Galleries in 2023. Since 2018, he has produced Kolaj Fest New Orleans, a multi-day festival & symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society. As Curator of Contemporary Art at Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vermont in 2019 and 2020, he curated three exhibitions, “Rokeby Through the Lens” (May 19-June 16, 2019), “Structures” (August 24-October 27, 2019), and “Mending Fences: New Works by Carol MacDonald” (July 12-October 25, 2020). He also curated “Contemporary American Regionalism: Vermont Perspectives” (August 17-October 20, 2019); “Where the Sun Casts No Shadow: Postcards from the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador” (November 1-30, 2019); and “Many Americas” (August 20-November 27, 2022) in the Wilson Museum & Galleries at the Southern Vermont Arts Center. “The Money $how”, co-curated with Frank Juarez, was presented at the AIR Space Gallery at Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 10-September 12, 2021). For Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland (August 13-20, 2021), he curated “Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream”, which traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art in January-February 2022. At 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kadour co-curated with Alicia Inez Guzmàn two exhibitions: “Many Worlds Are Born” (February 19-May 14, 2022) and “Technologies of the Spirit” (June 11-September 3, 2022). In 2023 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Kadour curated “Where the Sun Casts No Shadow: Postcards from the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador” (January 9-February 16, 2023) and “Mythical Landscape: Secrets of the Vale” (March 17-May 28, 2023). In September 2023, he curated “Word of Mouth: Folklore, Community and Collage” at A’ the Airts in Sanquhar, Scotland. His work as curator at Kolaj Institute Gallery includes: “Grand Opening Exhibition” (March 9-April 14, 2024); “Collage the Planet: Environmentalism in Art” (April 19-May 16, 2024); “Magic in the Modern World” (June 1-August 11, 2024); and “Advanced Wound Healing Techniques: Collage by Robbie Morgan (August 16-October 6, 2024). His first short film, The Covenant of Schwitters’ Army, debuted at Collage on Screen during Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2023. His second, Joy Is Paper, debuted at Collage on Screen during Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024. Kadour is the editor and publisher of Kolaj Magazine. He has written for a number of galleries and his writing has appeared in Hyperallergic, OEI, Vermont Magazine, Seven Days, Seattle Weekly, Art New England (where he was the former Vermont editor) and many others. Kadour maintains an active art practice and his photography, collage, and sculpture have been exhibited in and are part of private collections in Australia, Europe and North America. In January-February 2020, he was artist-in-residence at MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland. He holds a BA in Comparative Religion from the University of Vermont. Kadour splits his time between Montreal and New Orleans. www.rickasinikadour.com