Fellowship: Open Call

2025–2027 Vera List Center Fellowship: Open Call – Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School – New York, USA

Theme: Matter of Intelligence
Application Deadline (Round I): January 6, 2025
Stipend: $25,000

Overview

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School invites national and international early- to mid-career artists, writers, scholars, and activists to submit project proposals for its 2025–2027 Focus Theme, Matter of Intelligence. This newly expanded Open Call provides opportunities for creative projects to be considered across multiple programs, including the VLC Fellowship, seminars, exhibitions, forums, and publications.

This cycle emphasizes collective intelligence and invites creative approaches to understanding intelligence, its societal implications, and its intersections with epistemology, technology, and art.

Eligibility

• Who can apply?
  • Artists, writers, scholars, and activists, especially from underrepresented communities in the art world.
• Project criteria:
  • Must engage critically with the theme Matter of Intelligence.
  • Should make intellectual and artistic contributions to understanding intelligence.

Fellowship Benefits

• $25,000 stipend.
• Non-residential two-year fellowship.
• Access to the curatorial, academic, and professional resources of the Vera List Center and The New School.
• Project presentation opportunities through VLC programs and publications.

Application Process

Round I: Initial Proposal

• Purpose: Introduce your idea or project concept.
• Projects considered for:
  • VLC Fellowship.
  • Inclusion in seminars, exhibitions, forums, or publications.
• Deadline: January 6, 2025.
• Notification: January 30, 2025.

Round II: Fellowship Proposal

• Applicants advancing to this round must submit:
  • Detailed project budget.
  • Timeline.
  • Work samples.
• Reviewed by a selection committee, with final decisions made by VLC staff.
• Deadline: March 7, 2025.
• Notification of Finalists: March 30, 2025.

Key Dates

• December 12, 2024: Information session (11:00 am EST).
• January 6, 2025: Round I application deadline.
• January 30, 2025: Notification of advancement to Round II.
• March 7, 2025: Round II proposals due.
• May 2025: Fellowship appointments announced.
• October 2025: Vera List Center Forum and fellowship convening.

Focus Theme: Matter of Intelligence

This theme explores the material and immaterial manifestations of intelligence—human, nonhuman, and artificial. With a focus on collective intelligence, the inquiry encompasses various frameworks, such as:

• Social constructs of intelligence and their role in perpetuating hierarchies (racism, ableism, eugenics).
• Counter-narratives through Indigenous, spiritual, and communal epistemologies.
• Artistic intelligence as a medium for exploring and expanding definitions of intelligence.

Art and interdisciplinary methods will be central to investigating intelligence’s capacity to shape human and nonhuman relationships, environments, and societal structures.