2023 Emerging Curator Program Application

APPLY HERE

The Emerging Curator Program is designed to discover curatorial talent in Los Angeles and provides opportunities for emerging curators to partner with LACE. Our team works with the selected Emerging Curator in developing the project as it evolves over the planning year, and collaborates on programming to ensure the work reaches its intended audiences. LACE provides space, project consultation, presentation assistance, budgeting guidance, and marketing and promotion. Since 2016, LACE has presented seven successful exhibitions by emerging curators based in Los Angeles (see links below).

Note: A Gmail account is required for the submission form. If you experience any problems with the submission form, contact info@welcometolace.org

Call for 2023 Curatorial Proposals Timeline

Apri 1, 2022 – Call for proposals opens

June 20, 2022- Submissions close

August 1, 2022- Notifications sent out

Fall, 2023 – Project presented by emerging curator

Guidelines 

• The program is accepting curatorial proposals for an exhibition to be on view from 6-8 weeks at LACE’s renovated 2,200 sq ft. gallery.
• Submissions must be consistent with LACE’s tradition of supporting experimental projects.
• Individual curators or a curatorial team must be based in the Los Angeles region to apply. 
• Proposed artworks should be located in Southern California.
• The project is limited to a $6,000 total budget, which includes a curatorial fee. Proposals must be designed with this budget in mind. 
• Online applications only; no in-person submissions are accepted.
• Applicants are limited to one submission; there is no submission fee.
• Proposals are limited to a maximum one-page description.
• In addition to the description, include 3-7 visuals that represent your curatorial ideas; include images or embed web links in your final application. 
• The panel may request the submission of additional materials at a later date.
• Curators with artistic practices should not submit their own work.

How to apply?

1. Submit your application here
2. Prepare and attach a one-page proposal to the application form
3. Submit visual attachments and/or links through the application form

For any questions write to info@welcometolace.org

Panelists for 2023 Presentation Submissions

Bill Kelley Jr.
Bill Kelley, Jr. is an educator, curator and writer based in Los Angeles. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and a Masters in Art History from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (UNM). His current research focuses on collaborative and collective art practices in the Americas. Bill has written for such journals as Afterall, P.E.A.R., and Log Journal. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino art history at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB). Bill has co-edited an anthology with Grant Kester of collaborative art practices in the Americas entitled: Collective Situations: Readings in Contemporary Latin American Art 1995-2010 (Duke University Press, 2017). He is currently Curator and Lead Researcher of Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas, a research, exhibition and publication platform, currently on tour, examining community-based art practices for Otis College of Art as part of The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. Bill recently edited the bilingual volume Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas, published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and distributed by the University of Chicago Press (2017).

Diana Nawi
Diana Nawi works as an independent curator based in Los Angeles and is co-curating Made in L.A. 2023 with Pablo José Ramírez. She is a guest curator and curatorial advisor for The Contemporary Austin and serves as a curatorial consultant for Orange Barrel Media. Most recently, alongside Naima J. Keith, she was the Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Director of Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, a citywide triennial in New Orleans featuring 51 artists exhibiting across 18 venues. Her projects as an independent curator include Michael Rakowitz: Dispute Between the Tamarisk and the Date Palm at REDCAT, Los Angeles; Mark Bradford: Los Angeles at the Long Museum, Shanghai; and Adler Guerrier: Conditions and Forms for blck Longevity at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles.
Photo by HRDWRKR.

Hana Ward 
Hana Ward is a painter and ceramicist from Los Angeles, California. She earned a B.A. from Brown University in 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include “what was there all along” at Ochi Projects in Los Angeles, and “sing about me” (2019) at Harun Gallery in Los Angeles. Recent group exhibitions include “Mutual Friends” (2020) in Oakland, California, “Giant Robot Post-It Show (2019) and “Animating the Archives” (2017) in Los Angeles. Ward’s work was featured in last year’s Emerging Curators exhibition “PARABLE 003” curated by Alex Jones and Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2021).

Past Emerging Curators

2022- Cat Jones, Reclaiming Performance: Reverence of Self  

2021 – Kevin Moultie-Daye and Alex Jones, PARABLE 003

2020 – Abigail Raphael Collins, SOUND OFF: Silence + Resistance

2019- Narei Choi and Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia, Take my Money / Take My Body

2018- Emily Butts, Names Printed in Black 

2017-Virginia Broersma, Nick Brown and Kio Griffith, The Ecstasy of Mary Shelley

2016-Curated by Idurre Alonso and Selene Preciado, Customizing Language

Image: 2021 LACE Emerging Curators, Kevin Bernard Moultrie-Daye and Alex Jones, in front of Andrew Wilson’s installation as part of Parable 003. Photographed by Juan Silverio.