The Middletown Art Center (MAC) is a small but mighty organization focused on socially-engaged arts programming, located two hours north of the Bay Area in Middletown, Lake County, CA. The MAC recently received a California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant for Raices Hermosas, a yearlong project of Latinx arts and culture programming that will include a visual art exhibition of contemporary Latinx artists. We are currently accepting applications for the curator of this visual arts exhibition.

Curator stipend: $5500 + lodging for installation week
Installation week: Jan 2024

Basic job description:
– Recruit 10-15 artists plus ~5 Lake County artists (we can provide names of Lake County artists) for a total of 15-20 artists
– Coordinate exhibition installation with MAC staff
– Assist with questions for artist videos
– Provide language for catalog
– Facilitate artist talk on Zoom

Kind of art we are looking for:
We are looking for mostly 2D work (~70%), as well as small installations and sculptures, and up to two video works. Our local community is 25-40% Latinx (census numbers are probably low), and most of our Latinx folks are Mexican immigrants or of Mexican descent. For that reason, we would ideally like a majority of the artwork to speak to themes of Mexican identity. That said, we are open to contemporary art by Latinx artists that deals with a range of issues including but not limited to identity, belonging, political issues, colonialism, contemporary expressions of traditional culture, etc. We want the art to be awesome and cutting edge, and to have themes that are accessible to our rural community and to audiences that have historically felt unwelcome in museums. 

Artist commitment:
Each artist will receive a $300 stipend for their participation in the exhibition, which includes talking about their work for a 3-min video (shot by a professional videographer; ~2hr time commitment for shoot), and for an artist talk on Zoom (~1.5hr). Artists will be able to use the 3-min video and a recording of the artist talk for their website/portfolio.

About the MAC:
Founded in 2015, the MAC has opened 48 contemporary art exhibitions to date. The MAC recently completed a very successful year long project called WEAVING – Weaving Baskets, Weaving Bridges that was designed collaboratively with local Native Pomo culture bearers. The project culminated in the Earth, Sky and Everything in Between exhibit which featured the work of 31 contemporary Native American artists, curated by local Native artist Corine Pearce. We are using the successes and learnings from the WEAVING project to inform Raices Hermosas. You can learn more about the WEAVING project here: https://middletownartcenter.org/weaving.html

Selection:
Deadline to apply: May 20th.
First round of curator interviews: ~May 29th-June 2nd, 2023.
Final selection: June 5th, 2023.
Curator selection committee: Lisa Kaplan (Executive Director), River Black (BOD President), Zabdy Neria