Socrates Sculpture Park Annual Fellowship Open Call

The Socrates Annual Fellowship is an opportunity for early career artists to realize new public artworks at Socrates Sculpture Park, a public park in Long Island City, Queens. The Fellowship is a highly competitive program that reflects the Park’s commitment to artistic experimentation and nurturing artistic careers. This important training ground for early career artists allows Artist Fellows to gain experience creating large-scale public art projects. Socrates encourages artists to create proposals that consider the use of materials and scale of projects in relationship with the Park’s five-acre landscape. Artists including Leilah Babirye (2018), Sable Elyse Smith (2016), David Brooks (2009), Hank Willis Thomas (2006), Orly Genger (2004), and Sanford Biggers (2001) have participated in the Fellowship program since it was formalized in 2000.

Fellowship recipients receive an $8,000 production grant to support their project, a $2,000 honorarium, and three-months of seven-days-a-week access to the resources and fabrication facilities of the Park’s outdoor artist studio, as well as the technical and administrative support needed to design and install an artwork within the Park. Fellows are responsible for the fabrication, transportation, and installation of their own artworks. The Fellowship culminates in The Socrates Annual, an exhibition that showcases Fellows’ completed works, from September 2024 – March 2025.

In 2024, Socrates will pilot an expanded Fellowship, welcoming two separate cohorts to activate the Park throughout the seasons. Cohort 1 (March – June 2024) solicits artworks that take advantage of the peak spring growing season, focusing on the ecology of the Park and introduce “living” installations in the form of site-specific ecological interventions that will flourish as part of the landscape. Cohort 2 (June – September 2024) is an opportunity for early career artists to fabricate and realize large-scale public artworks within the Park’s five-acre waterfront site. The Socrates Annual 2024 will open in September 2024, showcasing work from both Cohorts 1 and 2.

All applicants are encouraged to respond to the prompt “Invasive Species,” considering the legacies of species migration alongside the sociopolitical themes and myths of invasion related to people, animals, and plants. Artists should select whether their projects are best suited for Cohort 1 or Cohort 2, based on the specific project proposal considerations and use of materials. Artists can only submit one application per year, and should choose between Cohort 1 and Cohort 2.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: November 29, 2023 by 11:59 PM

FELLOWSHIP NOTIFICATION: January 2024

FELLOWSHIP: Announcement of Cohorts 1 & 2: February 2024
Cohort 1: March – June 2024;
Cohort 2: June – September 2024

EXHIBITION:
Cohort 1: March 2024 – March 2025;
Cohort 2: September 2024 – March 2025
Opening Celebration for Cohorts 1 & 2; September 2024

Apply using the link below!

Application Deadline:2023-11-29
View More on socratessculpturepark.org

Related Articles