The Monument Lab Seeks Fellows - Apply Now Through December 8

The Monument Lab, an independent public art and history studio based in Philadelphia, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut and the Federal Agency for Civic Education, invites applications for a 2020 cohort of Monument Lab Transnational Fellows. The fellowship program is part of the joint project Shaping the Past.

Shaping the Past engages changing forms of collective remembrance and reckoning in public spaces within and across national borders. The multidisciplinary project fosters transnational exchange among curators, artists, activists, historians, and civic participants to discuss and imagine the next generation of monuments.

A partnership between the Goethe-Institut, the Monument Lab, and the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Shaping the Past connects memory workers across multiple cities in North America and Germany who have piloted new approaches to building and remediating monuments in their own local contexts. Shaping the Past expands the Monument Lab Fellows program and includes a major public conference built into the Monument Lab's annual Town Hall in Summer 2020, a multi-site exhibition across multiple Goethe-Institutes in North America in Fall 2020, and a publication.

The Monument Lab invites applications for a 2020 cohort of Monument Lab Transnational Fellows. This fellowship recognizes individuals whose ongoing projects address long term inequities in monuments and engage new creative approaches to public art, history, and memory.

The Monument Lab Fellowship program was initially founded to support US-based practitioners. This year, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut and the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, we are expanding this program through Transnational Fellowships for individuals or collectives primarily based in or across countries in North America, including Central America and the Caribbean. We encourage applications from individuals and collectives whose monument projects critically engage or collaboratively work within, along, or across national borders. This includes projects that reflect anti-racist, de-colonial, feminist, queer, and other social justice knowledge systems. In the spirit of further transatlantic exchange with our key partners, one additional fellowship will be offered to a practitioner primarily based in Germany.

Fellows will engage in activities that are meant to build capacity for their own ongoing monument and memory projects, workshop ideas, and form alliances across the cohort and multiple cities. The fellows will virtually meet several times during the fellowship, contribute a dispatch to the Monument Lab website/podcast, and participate in an in-person Orientation in March 2020 Washington, DC and Town Hall symposium in Philadelphia in Summer 2020. Fellows will receive additional funds for documentation as a part of a publication and exhibition initiative, Shaping the Past, to foster transnational exchange among curators, artists, activists, historians, and civic participants to discuss and imagine the next generation of monuments.

WHO CAN APPLY?

There are two general categories of Monument Lab Fellows: civic practitioners and high school students.

Applications are welcome from civic practitioners including: artists, activists, scholars, journalists, filmmakers, architects, designers, planners, archivists, historic preservationists, archeologists, data scientists, and others working across the country in their own local contexts interested in engaging the national movement to critically update and impact the monumental landscape. We welcome fellowship applications from individuals or collectives located within and across North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Germany. Emerging, independent, and underrepresented practitioners are especially encouraged to apply.

Applications are also welcome from high school students around the United States with existing projects that use art, activism, history, journalism, and other tools to approach monuments in their communities.

Applicants who apply this year and who are not chosen are eligible to apply again in future years.

Any questions about eligibility are welcome and can be addressed to monumentlab@gmail.com.

APPLICATION MATERIALS & INSTRUCTIONS

Interested candidates must submit the following materials through the application portal below. We value multilingual projects and have the capacity to accept written application materials in English, Spanish, French, and German. Please note that the fellowship proceedings and public programs will be conducted in English.

· Curriculum Vitae or Resume*

· Two References

· 300 Word Statement of Interest

· 300 Word Description of Your Current Project

· Four Samples of Your Work. (Samples can include images, videos, animations, personal website, project website, published writing sample, article or blog, and press coverage.)

· Social Media Handles

*Before applying, you will need to upload materials to your preferred file sharing platform and generate a shared public link for each item. Learn how to do this on Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

· Applications will be reviewed by a jury of Monument Lab and external curators, artists, and collaborators.

· Civic Practitioner Fellows will receive a $2,500 award.

· High School Student Fellows will receive a $1,000 award.

· Travel stipends will be issued in addition to award payments to cover the costs of to attend the Spring 2020 orientation in Washington D.C. and to participate in the Summer 2020 Town Hall symposium in Philadelphia. Fellows will receive additional funds for documentation as a part of a publication and exhibition initiative, Shaping the Past.

TIMELINE

Fellowship Applications are due by Sunday, December 8, 2019 by 11:59 pm EST.

Fellows will be announced in early 2020.

Apply here!