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.

FELLOWSHIP AMOUNT:

• Civic Practitioners:  $2,500 plus stipends for travel and documentation
• High School Students:  $1,000 plus stipends for travel and documentation

ELIGIBILITY:  Professionals OR high-school students based in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Germany (including practitioners working transnationally in these areas) See below for details.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  Sunday, December 8, 2019 by 11:59pm EST.

About the Fellowship

The Monument Lab Fellowship program was initially founded to support U.S.-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 and 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.

Supported Projects

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. 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.

Other Requirements

The fellows will virtually meet several times during the fellowship, contribute to the Monument Lab Bulletin and podcast, and participate in an in-person Orientation in Washington, DC (March 2020) and a Town Hall symposium in Philadelphia (Summer 2020).

Eligibility Details

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 their own local contexts, interested in engaging the transnational movement to critically update and impact the monumental landscape. We welcome fellowship applications from individuals or collectives located within and across North America, including Central America and 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.

We are accepting applications in English, Spanish, French, and German.

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.

What to Submit

Interested candidates must submit the following materials through the application portal. We value multilingual projects and perspectives. Applications and written materials may be submitted in English, Spanish, French, or German. Please note that the fellowship proceedings and public programs will be conducted in English.

1. Curriculum Vitae or Resume*
2. Two References
3. 300 Word Statement of Interest
4. 300 Word Description of Your Current Project
5. Four Samples of Your Work. (Samples can include images, videos, animations, personal website, project website, published writing sample, article or blog, and press coverage.)
6. 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. You can do this via Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox.

How to Submit

Submit by 11:59 p.m. on December 8, 2019 via online form at https://monumentlab.com/2020-call-for-fellows

Fellows will be announced in early 2020.
The Monument Lab Fellows Program is supported by a grant from the Surdna Foundation, with additional support from the Center for Public Art and Space at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Shaping the Past is a project produced in partnership with Monument Lab, the Goethe-Institut, and the German Federal Agency for Civic Education.