OPEN CALL: ACCELERATOR
Mentorship and production programme for emerging artists
ACCELERATOR. Mentorship and production programme for emerging artists starts from the premise of the importance that a strategic approach of the career path can have for emerging artists and also from understanding this approach as a means used by both artists and their partner institutions to educate an audience as wide as possible, not just the specialized one. On the Romanian contemporary visual arts scene, one can still observe an acute lack of communication between the artist and the public generated by the absence of a common language between the two. The project aims to initiate a context in which the artists and the public can enter into dialogue. The programme answers the scarce source of information available to emerging artists about the professional contemporary art environment as an ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, the artist is not only a creator, but mainly the core of collaborations with other professionals active in the field and when communicating with the public. Handing these processes by the artists requires complementary knowledge to creation knowledge.
Between May 2022 and September 2023, the selected emerging artists will:
- Attend six intensive laboratories, organized both physically and online, led by six Romanian and international mentors on the following topics: The System of Contemporary Art – the artist, part of an ecosystem; The Art Market and the Financing Options – the artist as cultural entrepreneur; Curating – artist-curator relation of collaboration; Artist publications – the artist as a publisher; PR, Communication in Art and Writing in the Context of Artistic Practice – the artist in relation to the general audience; Art in the Public Space.
- Participate in one-to-one mentorship sessions with the six mentors.
- Participate in producing the online project “MEET THE ARTISTS”, a project about their professional activity available on the projects website: https://accelerator-mentorat.ro/.
- Produce works of art whose core subject will be “community”, works of art they will present in a group exhibition organized at Gaep gallery.
- Select and research a community and they will produce individual and/or collaborative public works of art that will reflect the results of their research, works of art they will exhibit in public spaces from Bucharest and three other cities.
- Participate in producing the social media projects IN THE STUDIO” and “WHAT ARE YOUR COMMUNITIES?” about their activity within the programme, introduced on the programme social media pages.
ACCELERATOR selects 10 emerging artists and helps them in establishing relations with Romanian and foreign art professionals for a period of 18 months. Throughout the programme, the artists will be permanently coordinated and supported by a team of professionals: the mentorship programme coordinator, Andreea Drăghicescu, the technical coordinator, Albert Kaan Tilkioglu, and an international curator, who closely knows both the international and the local art scene, Tevž Logar, whose main goal will be to ensure, together with the mentors, a professional development framework through a strategic thinking and a coherent approach and to provide artists with the necessary tools to develop their skills in presenting, organizing and communicating their work.
ACCELERATOR is designed to give artists insights and pragmatic solutions to advance their careers efficiently. Participants will gain knowledge on areas such as the internal functioning of the system of contemporary art, in general, an of an organization active in the field of contemporary art, in particular, production budgets, pricing of artworks, writing about their practice and connecting with different audiences, creating and producing an artist publication, producing public art works. They will also receive support in producing works of art and organizing a group exhibition, on one hand, and in producing and presenting works of art for the public space, on the other.
A total of 10 emerging artists will be selected to participate. Each artist will receive a gross fee of 11,320 Lei. For each of the three stages of the project – mentorship, production of works of art and group exhibition, and production of public art works and their display in four different cities in Romania – the artists will receive part of this fee.
The programme accepts applications from artists who are:
- Emerging* artists
- 21+, no art degree requirement
- Exhibited in at least one group/personal exhibition organized in an independent art space
- Have continuous experience of maximum 10 years in the visual arts field
- Romanian citizens
- Advanced level of English language: all documents required by the organizer to be included in the application will be written in English, selection interviews organized during the second phase of selection will be conducted in English; the activities of the whole mentorship programme, in all its three stages, will take place mainly in English
- Available to attend the laboratories that will take place in Bucharest (9–15 May 2022 & 6–12 June 2022) and to continue the mentorship online (23 May–5 June 2022, 13-19 June 2022, 27 June–31 July 2022)
- Available to attend the meetings organized by the curator of the group exhibition for discussing and preparing the production of new works of art (August – November 2022) and for organizing the group exhibition presented and opened at Gaep gallery (December 2022 – January 2023)
- Are interested in the research of a specific community and tin producing works of art for the public space (January – April 2023)
- Available to be involved in an extended mentorship programme for 18 months (May 2022 – September 2023), through physical and online participation in all the activities carried out within the programme, depending on how each stage will be designed by the organizer
- Experience in public art projects/public space interventions will represent a plus during the evaluation process, but not an eligibility criterion
* We consider emerging artists to be those who have less than 10 years of professional experience. We opted for the term “emerging” instead of “young” because the project also welcomes applications from those who have made a career change or have recently decided to prioritize their art above everything else, at any age.
Applications should include:
- CV in English
- Letter of intent, in English, reflecting the complexity of ACCELERATOR programme and the intentions the emerging artists have in accordance with the structure of the project and the type of activities proposed throughout the programme (max. 400 words). For further details about the programme, please access: https://accelerator-mentorat.ro/.
- Artist portfolio of max. 10 works (file size: max. 20Mb; for video works, please include links and passwords, if needed), in English
Sent To: accelerator@eastwardsprospectus.com.
Deadline: 27 March 2022, 11:59 P.M.
Subject Line: Open call for emerging artists (Apel deschis pentru artiști emergenți)
We will confirm by email the receipt of the application.
If you have any questions about the application process, please
email andreea.draghicescu@eastwardsprospectus.com.
Application: Closes 27 March 2022, 11:59 P.M.
Selection of participants: 28 March–17 April 2022
Interviews for final selection: 11 April–15 April 2022
Notification of acceptance: 19 April 2022
Laboratories and meetings (physical/in Bucharest): 9–15 May 2022 & 6–12 June 2022
Laboratories and meetings (online): 23 May–5 June 2022, 13–19 June 2022 & 27 June–17 July 2022
Individual work: 16–22 May 2022 & 20–26 June 2022
One-to-one mentorship sessions (online): 18–31 July 2022
Production of works of art for group exhibition: August–November 2022
Opening of group exhibition: January 2023
Research of specific communities and production of public space art works: January – April 2023
Application Reviews
During the first stage of selection, the jury will review all applications and select a shortlist of artists to be invited for an interview organized during the second stage of selection. We regret we are unable to provide feedback to applicants who do not progress to the interview round.
Interviews
During the second stage of selection, the member of the jury will organize short interviews (max. 30 minutes) with all the artists on the shortlist; the interviews will be conducted over video call. Following these interviews, the jury will select the final list of 10 emerging artists who will participate in the ACCELERATOR programme.