Visual artists with an established practice are invited to apply for Artist Lab: Art Meets History in New Mexico, a four-week program designed to foster the integration of history into contemporary art practices. The Lab is presented as a collaboration between 516 ARTS, Kolaj Institute, and Albuquerque Museum’s photo archives.
The Lab looks at how our divergent histories of race, conflict, and colonialism inform how we imagine our futures. People often operate with a different history than that of their neighbors. How we understand our divergent histories of race, conflict, and colonialism inform how we imagine our futures. For artists to speak to society, we must raise up all the histories of our community. Participating artists are asked to work from their own people’s history, to confront that history, and to imagine a future that offers justice, fairness, and support for all people.
The Artist Lab equips artists with tools and strategies for picking up the unfinished work of history and speaking to contemporary civic discourse around social, economic, and environmental issues. Through interactive online sessions, collections research, and visits with historians, archivists, and curators, artists explore their process and practice; present a slideshow of their work; receive supportive, critical, curatorial feedback about their ideas; and discuss strategies for making art that speaks to the contemporary moment.