VISUAL
ARTS
Discipline-Specific Guidelines
2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship
The Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship in Visual Arts supports Minnesota or New York City-based visual artists, early in their careers, creating bold, innovative and risk-taking new work that challenges conventional artistic forms. This Fellowship supports visual artists, including but not limited to: painters, sculptors, drawers, printmakers, public artists, social practice artists, conceptual, installation, graffiti, textile, ceramics, glass, bead, metal, paper, and photography and digital video or film (presented in an exhibition or installation context). Filmmakers who are making work for screening and distribution should apply in Media: Film/Video.
Please take the Eligibility Questionnaire to assess whether you meet the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship eligibility criteria before reading through these further, discipline-specific requirements. You must meet all of the general eligibility requirements as well as those found in the Discipline-Specific Guidelines below, whether you are applying as an individual artist or as an ensemble/collective/collaborative.
Defining “Early Career”
Eligible applicants must have a sufficient body of completed work that a panel can use to assess your artistic development over time, dedication to the field and ongoing motivation to create new original work.
Early career artists:
- Have between 2 to 10 years of experience as a visual artist (excluding any time in a degree-granting program; as an assistant or designer in creating work generated by other artists; or time away from working as an artist due to circumstances–e.g., having children, caring for family members, long-term illness, etc.).
Visual artists who have been generating new work for more than ten years (excluding any time spent in a degree-granting program) are generally not eligible, even if they feel under-recognized. Visual artists beyond 10 years in the field who wish to discuss eligibility—based on reasons of circumstances (whether personal or geographic) or on specific creative practice considerations (i.e., the scale of work and/or extended creative cycles necessary to complete a single work)—should contact Jerome program staff before April 15, 2020 to discuss eligibility in advance of submitting an application.
- Have 2 completed and publicly presented bodies of work. As a general rule, excluding large scale public works, social practice projects, and/or installation, artists are expected to have at least 10 publicly exhibited works. Artists with fewer works may contact Jerome staff before April 15, 2020 to discuss eligibility. Works created and presented while in a degree-granting program are not eligible for meeting this requirement.
- Have at least 1 work on your resume/CV that has been part of an exhibition (group or solo) or installation supported by an organization (that is not your own) or a funder (for a project grant from either a foundation or a federal, state or local arts agency). This cannot be work created or presented while in a degree-granting program.
Panels rely on work samples and a resume/CV to assess the review criterion of artistic merit, impact and readiness. An artist’s application materials must demonstrate development over time, dedication to the field, craft and potential.
This is not an opportunity for beginning artists who have never publicly exhibited or shared their work, or without a sufficient body of completed work that a panel can use to assess your artistic development over time.
Age is not a factor in determining eligibility.
Artists who are mid-career or established are not eligible.
Artists will be considered beyond early career and ineligible if they have:
- Received consistent significant financial support for their artistic work from foundations and/or federal, state or local arts agencies for multiple different projects.
- A considerable body of work, having been acquired by museums and curated in a number of solo and group exhibitions in both galleries and museums.
- Garnered significant regional or national prizes or awards in recognition or support of the creation and/or public presentation and exhibition for multiple different works, including but not limited to:
- Creative Capital Award
- United States Artists Award
- Bucksbaum Award
- Fulbright Fellowships
- The Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant
- Foundation for Contemporary Art
- Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
- Inclusion in national/international biennials at major museums
Receipt of any one of these grants and awards does not make an artist ineligible—it is the receipt of multiple grants and awards for multiple projects that, taken as a whole, move an artist to mid-career or beyond.
- Achieved significant commercial success, including multiple large-scale commissions, commercial/promotional gallery representation, and/or having multiple works acquired by major museums.
- Received recognition in the form of awards, commissions, residencies or funding opportunities that are specifically categorized as mid-career.
- Received awards or prizes in recognition of significant cumulative career achievement (including but not limited to the Hugo Boss Prize, Lee Krasner Award, Carolyn Clark Powers Award, Guggenheim or the MacArthur Fellowship).
- Have a full-time tenured faculty position (or the equivalent).
Recognizing that different funders may define “mid-career” in different ways, artists who have received mid-career awards but consider themselves still in an early career stage should contact Jerome Program staff before April 15, 2020, in advance of submitting an application.
Artists with substantial recognition and lengthy careers in design or architecture will be considered ineligible. Artists who want to discuss eligibility should contact Program Staff before April 15, 2020, in advance of submitting an application.
Mid-career or established artists from fields other than visual arts will not be considered early career based on the decision to shift artistic direction. For example, a composer with a substantial career in music who is now moving into the realm of visual arts will not be considered early career for the purposes of this Fellowship.
Ensemble/Collective/Collaborative Eligibility
Ensembles/collectives/collaboratives may submit a single application requesting support request for 2–5 members who will share the Fellowship funds equally. In order to submit an eligible application, the ensemble/collective/collaborative must have a majority of members that meet all of the Fellowship eligibility requirements for artists applying individually and have a demonstrated history of creating new work collectively or as part of an ensemble. Only eligible ensemble/collective/collaborative artists may be included in the application.
Please take the Eligibility Questionnaire to assess whether your group meets the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship eligibility criteria for ensembles/collectives/collaboratives.
In the application, you must provide:
- Work samples from 2 completed bodies of publicly presented/exhibited work that you have conceived, generated and delivered as a generative artist. Use your most recent and strongest work. Panels prefer work created within the last 3 years. Older samples may be submitted with an explanation in the “work sample context” field. Work created and presented while in a degree-granting program is not eligible.
- Artists may also submit a third work sample of a work-in-progress or work that has not been exhibited, especially if this is a body of work you would be pursuing during your Fellowship.
Work sample options:
- Digital images, including detail images, of 2 publicly exhibited bodies works
OR
- 2 Vimeo or YouTube links of 2 publicly exhibited bodies of work
OR
- A combination of images and video of 2 publicly exhibited bodies of work. For this purpose, 1 minute of video = 1 digital image.
Work sample maximums:
- 10 images or 10 minutes from 2 publicly presented/exhibited bodies of works
- 3 images or 3 minutes for 1 work-in-progress or work that has not been exhibited (optional)
- 13 images or 13 minutes total maximum for all samples
For example, if you want to include video and images, you could upload 5 images and 5 minutes of video or 8 images and 2 minutes of video of your 2 publicly exhibited work and 3 minutes of video of a work that you are developing.
Submit your works in the order in which you would like them to be viewed, starting with your strongest sample. Panelists want to see a range of work demonstrating development over time, dedication to the field, craft and potential.
The applicant(s) must be the creator of all submitted samples. If applying as an ensemble/collective/collaborative, all of the work samples must be the creative work developed and exhibited by the members of the group who are applying.
With video samples, panels prefer to see documentation of real-time sequences of work representative of a live experience and links to the full-length work with a cue point for a single segment within the work. Do not submit promotional videos, trailers, reels, or interviews.
Jerome staff will assess whether your work samples are eligible for the panel to view.
Ineligible work samples include:
- commercial or non-commercial work-for-hire that you created at the direction of a client or producer, even if this is commissioned work;
- work created collaboratively for which you do not have primary creative control;
- any work created and exhibited while in a degree-granting program or with all student performers.
For image work samples in the application, you will provide the following required information:
- Images (in JPG, PNG or TIF format): you will upload directly to Submittable. Recommended maximum size of 20MB.
- Work Sample Description, covering all images. In a single text box, you will list for each image in order:
- Name of work
- Year created
- Materials/medium
- Size
- Exhibition/presentation history if applicable
- Image name (e.g., “1234-abc.jpg”)
- Work Sample Context:
- Provide up to one page (600 words), covering all images, to give panelists context. If you'd like panelists to pay attention to particular aspects of your work, this is where you might instruct them to do so. You may provide context for different bodies of work that you are including. If you’d like panelists to pay attention to specific elements of your work, this is also where you might instruct them to do so. Given the panelist preference for recent work, if you are submitting work samples that are older than 3 years, please explain why.
For each video work sample in the application, you will provide the following required information:
- Vimeo or YouTube URL: artists are encouraged to provide links to the full-length work used for work samples. This provides panelists the opportunity to view more of the work if they so choose.
- Vimeo Password, if applicable
- Work Sample Description, listing the following:
- Name of the Work
- Year completed
- Length of work, if applicable
- Where the work has been exhibited
- Your Role in the Work Sample
- If you were the sole artist, enter “visual artist”
- If you played multiple roles, list all of the roles you played in the creation of the work. For example, “performer, sculptor, composer”
- Cue Point for the Work Sample
- Indicate your start and stop time for video excerpts (e.g., “Start at 3:30 and end at 8:00”). If no start and stop time is provided, panelists will begin watching at the beginning of the video.
- Do not submit more than one sequence/cue point per sample (e.g., do not “Start at 1:00 to 1:30 then jump to 2:45 to 3:45”—panelists want to see uninterrupted sequences of work in real time).
- Work Sample Excerpt Context
- Provide up to 150 words (recommended length) to give panelists a precise context for what they are watching. This can include a brief description of the entire piece, any important information about sections of the work occurring either before or after your clip that you want them to know, or your intentions and goals in creating the piece. Is audio a key component of your video sample? If so, please let panelists know here. If your work is challenging to experience through documentation due to scale or detail or because it is participatory, you can share that here. If you’d like panelists to pay attention to specific elements of your work, this is also where you might instruct them to do so. Given the panelist preference for recent work, if you are submitting work samples that are older than 3 years, please explain why.
The total time/quantity for all samples combined is 13 minutes of video (not 13 minutes per work) or 13 images. If you are combining video and images, the total should add up proportionally to a combined “13 minutes total of video and images”—where 1 digital image is the equivalent of 1 minute of video.
Applicants who cannot provide the minimum amount of requested work samples leave the panel without enough information to gauge whether the applicant is truly competitive. Applicants who cannot meet the minimum requirement will be eliminated from consideration.
Panels rely on the resume/CV to evaluate how your artistic background demonstrates development over time, dedication to the field, ongoing motivation in the creation of new, original work in your artistic field over a multi-year period and your readiness for a two-year fellowship.
To meet eligibility requirements, you must have at least 1 exhibition (group or solo) or public installation on your resume/CV that has been supported by a presenting organization or funder (for a project grant from either a foundation or a federal, state or local arts agency). Work that has been self-presented or work created and presented while in a degree-granting program is not eligible for this requirement.
Staff will assess your resume/CV to make sure you are eligible for the panel to review. Any applicant whose resume does not clearly establish eligibility will be eliminated for further consideration at the prescreening stage.
Resume/CVs should be current and complete. Bios are not acceptable. The Jerome staff and panel will not do research to determine your role(s), presentation/exhibition dates, grants and awards, dates in degree programs, etc.
The resume is your chance to present and confirm your status as an early career visual artist with a history of ultimate creative control over projects, artistic development over time, dedication to the field, and ongoing motivation in the creation of new, original work. For that reason, you need to clearly list your visual art work separate from other work and opportunities.
A sample individual visual artist resume is available for your reference.
Individual Artist Resumes/CVs should include the following:
- Exhibitions (group or solo) or public installations: listing of publicly presented work, include all presented, commissioned and self-produced work.
- Name of the work and running time (if applicable)
- Year completed
- Number of works
- Where the work has been exhibited/presented/installed, length of exhibition
- If you played multiple roles beyond visual artist, list all of the roles you played in the creation of the work. For example, “visual artist, composer.”
- Provide a short (1–3 sentence) summary of the work.
Example: Bent and Bound, Large scale sculptures exhibited (3-weeks) at Soo Visual Arts, Minneapolis, MN in 2017. These 5 pieces were created with resin, metal, wood and found scraps. This body of work addresses gentrification and displacement.
Small Talk, exhibited (6-weeks) at Edward Thorp Gallery, NYC, in 2014. Solo exhibition of 15 works on paper, made with ink and a steel brush technique on handmade paper. This work is influenced by the clean water movement.
Gold, The Hole Gallery, New York, NY. I exhibited (8 weeks) 3 textile works part of a group exhibition at the Hole Gallery in New York. These fabric wallhangings were made in reference and support of migrant workers.
- Work in Development: provide the work, date, short description
Example: Currently working on a photographic series of dramatized portraits of young community leaders in Chinatown. Working with large format photography. I am in discussion with businesses along Canal Street for storefront window exhibition in 2021.
- Other Artistic Work: project, date, location
Example: Simple by Lola Rice, installed as part of Festival A, Bronx, NYC, 2016. I facilitated some of participatory elements of Rice’s installation experience.
Video installation, Gone, exhibited (4-weeks) at Rogue Buddha Gallery in 2014. This was a 3-channel video piece made in collaboration with Sergio Jons.
- Fellowships & Awards: list name of award, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of fellowship or award], [year], [amount of award or fellowship stipend], [length of fellowship], [name of project, if relevant]
- Grants: list name of grant, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of grant], [year], [amount of grant], [name of project, if relevant]
- Residencies: list name of residency, date, length of residency and the project
Example: [name of residency], [year], [length of residency], [name of project, if relevant]
- Education: list any dates when you were enrolled in degree program/s
Example: University A, MFA Studio Arts, 2011-2014
College A, BFA, 2006-2010
- Teaching: list name of class, venue, city, year, length of class
Example: [name of class], Venue A (city), [year], [length of class, e.g. 1 week intensive” or “12 weeks”]
- Additional relevant categories: Please include any additional categories, including curatorial experience, selected critical reviews, press, artistic training programs, etc., that you usually include on your resume.
Ensemble/Collective/Collaborative Resumes/CVs:
Artists applying as an ensemble/collective/collaborative should submit a resume of the collaborative work in addition to individual resumes of the artists applying. The collaborative information is the same format as that requested from individual artist applicants, just specific to the collective creators applying.
A sample collaborative resume is available for your reference.
The collaborative resume should include:
- Exhibitions (group or solo) or public installations: listing of publicly presented work, include all presented, commissioned and self-produced work.
- Name of the work and running time (if applicable)
- Year completed
- Number of works
- Where the work has been exhibited/presented/installed and length of exhibition
- List the roles of collective members. If collective members applying play multiple generative roles beyond visual artist, list all of the roles applicants played in the creation of the work. See example below.
- Provide a short (1–3 sentence) summary of the work.
Examples: Bent and Bound, Large scale sculptures exhibited (3-weeks) at Venue A (City) in 2017. These 5 pieces were created with resin, metal, wood and found scraps. This body of work addresses gentrification and displacement.
Small Talk, exhibited at Venue A (City) in 2014. Solo exhibition (6-weeks) of 15 works on paper, made with ink and a steel brush technique on handmade paper. This work is influenced by the clean water movement.
Gold, Venue A (City), 2017. 3 textile works exhibited (8-weeks) as part of a group exhibition. These fabric wallhangings were made in reference and support of migrant workers.
Elsewhere, Venue A (City), 2016. Exhibited (4-weeks) a series of 5 paintings of varying dimensions that are an abstract exploration of generational patterns, physical and emotional.
- Work in Development: provide the work, date, short description
Example: Currently working on a photographic series of dramatized portraits of young community leaders in Chinatown. Working with large format photography. In discussion with businesses along Canal Street for storefront window exhibition in 2021.
- Other Artistic Work: project, date, location
Example: Simple by Lola Rice, installed as part of Festival A, Bronx, NYC, 2016. I facilitated some of participatory elements of Rice’s installation experience.
Studio assistants for Sergio Jons, Minneapolis, MN in 2014-2016, assisting with paper production and printing.
- Fellowships & Awards: list name of award, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of fellowship or award], [year], [amount of award or fellowship stipend], [length of fellowship], [name of project, if relevant]
- Grants: list name of grant, date, amount and the project
Example: [name of grant], [year], [amount of grant], [name of project, if relevant]
- Residencies: list name of residency, date, length of residency and the project
Example: [name of residency], [year], [length of residency], [name of project, if relevant]
- Teaching: list name of class, venue, city, year, length of class
Example: [name of class], Venue A (city), [year], [length of class, e.g. “1-week intensive” or “12 weeks”]
- Additional relevant categories: Please include any additional categories, including curatorial experience, selected critical reviews, press, artistic training programs, etc., that you usually include on your collective resume.
Note: if the ensemble/collective/collaborative includes members that are not Jerome-eligible or not included in the application, but those artists were involved in the development and creation of the works included on the collaborative resume, please note this on the collaborative resume.
Example: Luck, multimedia installation (6-weeks) at Gallery A in 2019 with support from the Foundation A. Overall conception, creation and installation was done by Roni Stark and Rafael Greene. Greene also did the digital rendering. Audio and sound mix was developed by co-collaborator Lane Lee. Lee is not Jerome-eligible but is a regular member of Just Us Collective.
