Position title: Visualizing Abolition Artist in the Archive Resident
Award Amount: $6,000
Anticipated start: mid-Fall Quarter 2022
End date: end of Spring Quarter 2023

About

The Visualizing Abolition Artist in the Archive Residency pilot program fosters creative research and experiential learning about prisons, policing, and the movement for abolition through archival engagements with UC Santa Cruz University Library Special Collections & Archives. Created in partnership with the Mellon Foundation funded Visualizing Abolition public scholarship initiative, the Archive Residency Program offers a one-year stipend and research support for a graduate student artist to engage with unique primary materials in Special Collections & Archives and examine the University’s role in police and prison abolition, critique dominant historical narratives and archival silences, and/or explore connections between art, history, and social justice. Proposals may also interrogate the roles played by institutions such as archives and libraries in reproducing carceral ideologies. Possible projects include, but are not limited to: musical composition, painting, performance, photography, poetry, sculpture, and digital, video, or installation art.

This program supports the goal of the Visualizing Abolition initiative: to shift the social attachment to prisons through art and education. Additionally, it is in alignment with the University Library goal of student success by providing an opportunity for experiential learning, and to present research and works-in-progress associated with the Library. This is the first year of this residency program, and is therefore being approached as a pilot project intended to explore the possibilities of collaborative programming in this area.

The residency will formally begin in the middle of Fall Quarter 2022, and end at the culmination of Spring Quarter 2023.

Eligibility

Open to enrolled UCSC graduate students in PhD or MFA programs in the Arts Division.

Artist Support

• The recipient will receive an award of $6,000 in three installments of $2,000 over the course of Fall, Winter, and Spring Quarters. The award is intended to cover travel, materials, and related expenses incurred by the artist in the course of their residency. The award is generously provided by Visualizing Abolition Initiative through the Institute for Arts and Sciences.
• Access to collection materials, a dedicated office workspace in Special Collections & Archives, and access to specialized equipment as needed.
• Research, logistical, and advisory support from staff in Special Collections & Archives and the Institute for Arts and Sciences as staffing and resources allow.

Artist Responsibilities

• Produce one finished artistic work.
• Facilitate/lead one public event near the culmination of the residency, such as a panel discussion, guest speaker, performance, or exhibit opening. Special Collections will provide logistical support.
• Write a brief report on the residency for the Library Newsletter.

Application Process

Applicants must submit the following by October 3, 2022.

• CV
• One to two page proposal that addresses:
  • Your conceptual approach
  • Materials in Special Collections & Archives that interest you and how you will make meaningful use of them in your artistic work (see this resource list for examples)
  • How you will engage the campus community in your work
  • A brief timeline
• Contact information for two references

Please submit your application materials as a single PDF via email to Kate Dundon, Supervisory Archivist, Special Collections & Archives (dundon@ucsc.edu).

Questions

Kate Dundon, Supervisory Archivist, Special Collections & Archives (dundon@ucsc.edu)
Luke Fidler, Program Manager, Institute of the Arts and Sciences (lfidler@ucsc.edu)

Advisors

Gina Dent, PhD, Associate Professor, Feminist Studies, Director, Visualizing Abolition 
Rachel Nelson, PhD, Director, Institute of the Arts and Sciences, Co-director, Visualizing Abolition
Luke Fidler, PhD, Program Manager, Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Kate Dundon, MA, MLIS, Supervisory Archivist, Special Collections & Archives
Jessica Pigza, MLIS, Outreach and Exhibits Librarian, Special Collections & Archives

Sponsors

This program is sponsored by the Institute for Arts and Sciences and the University Library at UC Santa Cruz.

Image caption: Ruth-Marion Baruch, Selling The Black Panther Newspaper at U.C. Berkeley Rally, 1968. Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones Photographs Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz, McHenry Library Special Collections.