Apply: 2024 Artist-in-Residence Program

Application deadline: Monday, January 8, 2024, 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time

The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s inaugural artist-in-residence program will host an emerging artist for two weeks to activate the Archive’s collection in their artistic practice. The program will provide the artist with the time and support necessary to access and work with the Archive’s unique resources, as well as reach new audiences and make new connections with Los Angeles’ cultural community.

The residency will be a shared process for the Archive and the artist, tailored to their interests and the Archive’s capacity, and will include the following core activities:

• The residency will commence in advance of the in-person visit in the form of planning meetings to perform research, identify potential titles for access, refine project scope and proposal as needed, and collaborate with Archive staff to create an on-site visit itinerary.
• Research access to the Archive’s extensive film and television holdings and the support necessary to identify materials for access.
• As accessible analog works are identified, the Archive will provide resources to digitize said analog holdings in the collection to enable the artist to use high-resolution files in their work.
• An introduction to archival training to understand the process of conservation and digitization.
• The opportunity to meet with members of the Los Angeles community, the UCLA community, and/or the archival community that could help advance their project, including filmmakers, archivists and faculty. This work will take place either on Zoom or in person during the residency.
• By the end of the year, the artist will discuss their residency at a public presentation, panel discussion or event in the Archive’s Virtual Screening Room.
• Provide input for an online toolkit, to be developed by the Archive, for artists seeking access to moving image archival materials. This toolkit, along with knowledge gained from the pilot year, will inform future artists-in-residence, with the goal of expanding the program to support additional artists in their practice.

For resources on the Archive’s collection please visit:

• The Archive’s collection profiles
• Search our catalog (select “UCLA Film & Television Archive”)
  
  

Timeline for Artist-in-Residence Program

• Applications are due: Monday, January 8, 2024, 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
• Selected applicant will be notified by: early February, 2024
• In preparation for the residency:
  • Six weeks before the program begins, meet 4-5 times, in person or on Zoom, for orientation and preliminary planning and research.
• Residency completed by June 30, 2024
• Archive presentation completed by December 15, 2024

To support these core activities, the Archive will provide an honorarium of $8,000 for the selected artist-in-residence. The artist-in-residence will be responsible for booking their travel and lodging, and may use their honoraria for these expenses at their discretion. The artist-in-residence is solely responsible for determining their own tax liability and complying with all applicable tax laws and reporting obligations.

Criteria

The Archive highly encourages candidates to apply for the Artist-in-Residence Program if they meet the following criteria:

• The candidate is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. International scholars who are in the U.S. under a J1 or other work permit visas are not eligible for the program.
• The candidate is an emerging artist with less than 10 years of professional experience in their chosen artistic field whose professional and creative works demonstrate an interest in moving image media research and/or archival collections and institutions.
• The candidate’s proposed project will ideally be shared as part of a public presentation, publication or exhibition.
• The candidate is not enrolled as a student in any degree-granting program during the residency period.

The Archive recognizes that barriers to archival access have limited engagement with this rich collection, particularly among emerging artists and cultural producers from marginalized communities. In the selection process, the advisory committee will prioritize proposals that are responsive to today’s cultural context. The candidate is not required to have an academic background and can work in the visual arts, archiving, filmmaking and time-based media.

Requirements

If accepted, the residency must occur during the first half of the calendar year 2024. The on-site visit to Los Angeles may take place over two weeks in consecutive order or split into two one-week increments. The artist is expected to actively engage for at least 10 business days during the on-site visit.

Projects utilizing resources from the residency will acknowledge the Archive as:

• This project was created during the Artist-in-Residence Program at the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2024, with support from the Golden Globe Foundation.

Payment

• The honorarium is to be distributed in three payments:
  • After selection and after the Archive conducts planning meetings with the artist
  • Once the research visit is completed
  • Once the Archive presentation is complete
• Each payment may take up to 60 days to process.
• Current UCLA-affiliates or anyone previously affiliated with UCLA in the past 2 years should expect additional wait times.
  
  

How to apply

Update: we are no longer acccepting applications.

If you have questions, please email air@cinema.ucla.edu. The application will require:

• The applicant's contact details
• A general description or abstract of the research project (up to 300 words), including a title and format of the project
• A detailed explanation (up to 500 words) of how UCLA Film & Television Archive collection materials are essential to the progress and completion of the project. The explanation should answer the following prompts:
  • How do you hope to engage with the Archive?
  • How will working with the Archive’s collection support your creative practice?
• An abbreviated CV of no more than two pages.
• Inclusion of 3-5 images or up to a five-minute clip from previous works that demonstrates how your work would interact with the Archive’s collections. The description for these examples is limited to 100 words total.
• Contact information for one reference who can speak on the applicant’s research or research project.
  
  

Please note that the committee cannot consider letters of recommendation from librarians or staff of the UCLA Library.

While we do not expect applicants to be well-versed in the Archive’s entire collection, the proposal should demonstrate familiarity with the Archive’s mission and knowledge in areas of the collection that will be applicable/of interest to the proposed project.

The applicant’s project proposal will be evaluated by an advisory committee and based on the following criteria: evidence of commitment to their respective artistic field; interest in archival moving image research and collections; utilization of the Archive holdings in innovative ways within the parameters of the Artist-in-Residence timeline and resources.

Advisory Committee

• Ina Archer, Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist, National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Tuni Chatterji, Manager, Film Education, Academy Museum
• Chon Noriega, Distinguished Professor of Film, UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media
• Loni Shibuyama, Archivist/Librarian, ONE Archives, University of Southern California

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