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You are here: Home / Emerging Curator Program

Emerging Curator Program

  • Joy A. Anderson and Robin Garcia, Of Seed, Soil, and Stars (2023)
  • Cat Jones, Reclaiming Performance: Reverence of Self (2022)
  • Kevin Moultrie-Daye and Alex Jones, PARABLE 003 (2021)
  • Documentation of the Exhibition, SOUND OFF: Silence + Resistance
    Abigail Raphael Collins, SOUND OFF: Silence + Resistance (2020)
  • Narei Choi and Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia, Take my Money / Take My Body (2019)
  • Carrie Chen, A Fossil, A Ruin, A Memory (2024)
  • Emily Butts, Names Printed in Black (2018)
  • Virginia Broersma, Nick Brown, and Kio Griffith, The Ecstasy of Mary Shelley (2017)
  • Idurre Alonso and Selene Preciado, Customizing Language (2016)

 

The Emerging Curator call for proposals is now closed. 

The Emerging Curator Program is designed to discover curatorial talent in Los Angeles and provides opportunities for emerging curators to partner with LACE. For the program’s eleventh installment, one project will be selected for presentation in 2026. 

This year, the program is accepting curatorial proposals centered on moving image works that can be presented as a single program, or programming series, rather than an exhibition. Emerging curators are encouraged to propose projects that can be presented in a gallery space or theater over no more than four days/evenings. Exact format and scheduling to be coordinated in collaboration with the LACE team.

Note: this call is specifically for curators and not artists submitting proposals of their own work. Curators should not be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program.

Submissions are expected to be open in nature because of the generous planning time allotted. The LACE team will work with the selected Emerging Curator/Curatorial Team in developing the project as it evolves over the planning year, and will collaborate on programming to ensure the work reaches its intended audiences. The project must be designed with a $6,000 budget in mind, including curatorial and artist fees. LACE will provide space, project consultation, presentation assistance, and marketing and promotion.

Guidelines for Curatorial Proposals

Applications may be submitted by an individual or curatorial team and must be based in the Los Angeles region. 

  • Online applications only; no in-person submissions are accepted.
  • Applicants are limited to one submission; there is no submission fee.
  • Submissions must be consistent with LACE’s tradition of supporting experimental projects.
  • Visuals are optional but encouraged; include PDFs or web links. Video samples should be no longer than 5 mins in length total, with a maximum of 2 video samples per proposal. 
  • Proposal descriptions are limited to a maximum of 300 words
  • The panel may request the submission of additional materials at a later date.
  • Curators with artistic practices should not submit their own work.

Applications for the 2026 Emerging Curator Program will open via Submittable on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. The deadline to submit project proposals is Sunday, April 27, 2025. For any questions or concerns about the application process or about the Emerging Curator Program, contact us at submissions@welcometolace.org

Review Panelists for 2026 Submissions

 

Jheanelle Brown is a film curator/programmer, educator, and arts administrator. Brown is a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts in the Program of Film and Video and curator of Film at REDCAT. Her curatorial practice creates frameworks to explore the boundlessness of Black life in experimental and non-fiction film and video. She is interested in the space between fugitivity and futurity and elevating an ethic of care, with a special interest in the sonic in film, political film and media, and Caribbean film/video. Her recent programs and exhibitions include KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Media Arts of Ben Caldwell, at Art + Practice, in collaboration with the California African American Museum and LA Filmforum Getty PST:Art film series Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film.

 

 

Carrie Chen (she/her) is an artist, curator, and educator based in Los Angeles. Her work spans CGI animation, real-time interactivity, game engine simulation, and installation, exploring themes of hybridity, representation, time, and memory. Spending time between the US and China, Carrie’s practice draws on non-Western ontologies while also deconstructing and reconfiguring her relationship to intercultural narratives. Chen is the recipient of the 2024 STRP Award for Creative Technology and served as a jury member for the A+D Architecture + Design Museum’s 2024 Design Awards. She has exhibited internationally at Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (Sweden), STRP Festival (Netherlands), SKF/Konstnärshuset (Sweden), Denver Digerati Media Festival (USA), New Wight Gallery (USA) and Epoch Gallery (Digital). She has participated in large-scale public art installations at Long Beach Airport (USA), CIRCA DTLA (USA) and West Hollywood Moving Image Media Arts (USA), and has been invited to speak internationally.

Her expanded practice involves curation, design commissions and teaching. As the 2024 Emerging Curator at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), she curated the video screening series “A Fossil, A Ruin, A Memory” hosted at the Philosophical Research Society. She currently teaches Advanced Visual Design at USC Media Arts + Practice, and 3D Arts at Parsons School of Design. Chen holds a BS in Applied Psychology and Art History from NYU, and an MFA in Design Media Art from UCLA.

 

Heber Rodriguez is a Los Angeles-based curator, arts administrator, and cultural producer dedicated to building community through cultural events, exhibitions, and performances. His curatorial practice is deeply shaped by his personal journey as an undocumented individual growing up in Northeast Los Angeles, where he found sanctuary and identity in the arts. He collaborates with artists and creatives to develop programs that position the arts as tools for liberation, amplify underrepresented voices and stories, and inspire action toward a more equitable and just society. Rodriguez holds an MA in Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere from the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design. He currently serves as a Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division where he contributes directly to the dynamic arts and culture of the Antelope Valley, the community where he’s lived since 2022. Previously, Rodriguez has held roles at Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA; City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; and LAXART, Los Angeles, among others.

 

Past Emerging Curators

Nahui Garcia, This Home, Forever (2025)
Carrie Chen, A Fossil, A Ruin, A Memory (2024)
Joy A. Anderson and Robin Garcia, Of Seed, Soil, and Stars (2023)
Cat Jones, Reclaiming Performance: Reverence of Self (2022)
Kevin Moultrie-Daye and Alex Jones, PARABLE 003 (2021)
Abigail Raphael Collins, SOUND OFF: Silence + Resistance (2020)
Narei Choi and Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia, Take my Money / Take My Body (2019)
Emily Butts, Names Printed in Black (2018)
Virginia Broersma, Nick Brown, and Kio Griffith, The Ecstasy of Mary Shelley (2017)
Idurre Alonso and Selene Preciado, Customizing Language (2016)

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News

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing LACE’s Next Emerging Curators

Announcing the 2025 Lightning Fund and Jacki Apple Awards

“Beatriz da Costa: (un)disciplinary tactics” named Best Art by The New York Times

More News

LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions)

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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