Call for Proposals: CONNECT Curatorial Program

For Women, Femme-identifying, and Nonbinary Curators of Color

Deadline: March 31st, 2025, 5 PM CDT

Decisions will be sent by May 2nd

The exhibition will take place July 25th through August 30th, 2025.

CONNECT is a curated exhibition program supporting women, femme-identifying, and nonbinary curators of color. The program has a reciprocal approach, linking curators to Roots & Culture’s community of artists and audiences, and enriching and deepening the value of relations in the art world.

CONNECT aims to increase curators’ visibility, expand their network of artists and arts professionals to work with, build their audience, and develop credentials, while limiting affordability barriers.

CONNECT is an exhibition-based program, the exhibition will open July 25th and run until August 30th. Installation can begin July 21st.

Roots & Culture provides a stipend of $5000. A portion of this funding should be used to pay artists participating in the exhibition — an amount of $200 per artist. We ask that the exhibition is limited to 5 artists.

Beyond the stipend and artist fees, Roots & Culture offers budget for printing and signage, PR, and reception costs. We do not provide extra budget for shipping, travel, or production costs. We acknowledge that we do not provide an enormous budget, though in the DIY spirit of Roots & Culture, we encourage curators to think creatively within the parameters of the gallery’s inventory of equipment and facility and labor resources. We can provide a list of specifications as well as a floor plan, via e-mail.

You should check out past CONNECT exhibitions here, here, here, here.

APPLICATION / EXHIBITION PROPOSAL

CONNECT is open to curators working locally as well as nationally.

Applicants will submit a proposal for a single exhibition that they will be responsible for organizing at the gallery with a maximum of five artists.

To apply:

Send all materials to rootsandc@gmail.com.

Submit a 300-word exhibition proposal, a current CV, 15 images, and/or up to 3 two minute video excerpts of works representative of the proposed show. Please send materials organized into folders, or zip files. Google Drive is a preferable option.

The proposal should reflect a fully formed exhibition with artists and artworks which the curator has already established relationships with. After the acceptance date of the proposal, some modification of exhibition details will be allowed.

The accepted curator will be responsible to provide a work plan and schedule two months before the opening of the show (we will provide templates.)

Roots & Culture will only accept proposals from individual curators.

Proposals submitted past the deadline may not be considered for the review.

CONNECTIONS

The reciprocal component of the program includes the expectation for the curator to visit the studios of 10 artists who have worked in Roots & Culture’s other programs (in person or virtually.) These studio visits are meant to connect our community of artists with the curator. There is no expectation for the curator to program these artists in their exhibition.

In addition to connecting the selected curator to Chicago’s up and coming artists, Roots & Culture will also help introduce the curator to the city’s network of arts professionals, including members of our Board of Director’s Programming Committee who are available for mentoring, offering feedback on the exhibition, and providing critical engagement