Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellowship
Nominations open until September 30!
Eligibility | Details | Nominations
The College of Arts and Science is proud to host the Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellowship program. The program brings accomplished visual artists to Vanderbilt for a residential fellowship designed to expose the campus community to new perspectives, media, and ideas in the visual arts and to offer the opportunity for collaboration on a range of creative projects and initiatives.
The Berg Fellowship provides accommodation as well as a generous award stipend to cover both the expenses of residency and the honorarium for the fellowship. Stipends vary according to the length of the fellowship, typically one semester.
Eligibility
The Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellowship is open to accomplished visual artists who:
- Have a history of successful collaboration, co-creation, and public-facing work.
- Demonstrate the ability to engage a broad audience, including students and faculty.
- Are prepared for meaningful engagement with the Vanderbilt community during a residential fellowship that requires their regular presence on campus during the fellowship term (specific plans for the residential aspect of the fellowship will be arranged with individual Berg fellows).
- Are open to exploring interdisciplinary connections between the visual arts and other academic disciplines.
Program Details
Berg Fellows will have the opportunity to share their expertise and engage with the Vanderbilt community through a variety of means, including but not limited to:
- Visiting an undergraduate course multiple times over the course of a semester, in collaboration with the instructor, to share their expertise with students. This could be an existing course, or a course designed especially for the Berg Fellow.
- Working with faculty and students to conduct workshops, lectures, exhibits, panel discussions, classes, and public-facing events.
- Collaborating with students and faculty on art projects and installations.
- Exploring interdisciplinary connections between the arts and other academic disciplines.
Faculty Host
Each Berg Fellow will have a faculty host. Though the selected artist will have broad appeal and engage across units on campus, they will be embedded in a specific academic unit, typically that of their faculty host. The faculty host will receive a $5,000 salary supplement to serve as the primary point of contact, coordinate the residency, and facilitate the artist's needs while on campus.
Nominations
Nominations for 2025-26 are due by September 30, 2024.
Nomination Criteria
- All faculty in the College of Arts & Science are eligible to participate in the nomination process.
- Nominations must be submitted by a team composed of at least two faculty, preferably not from the same academic unit. The academic units represented on the team need not all be arts units. Staff members from arts-adjacent campus units (e.g., museum, library, Curb Center) may also be part of a nomination team.
- An initial letter of inquiry (LOI) of no more than 2 pages must be submitted on behalf of the nomination team by September 30, 2024, addressed to Vice Dean Bonnie Dow and emailed to hannah.quinn@vanderbilt.edu. The letter should include:
- An introduction to the potential Berg Fellow and a brief rationale for their selection
- Information re: with which course(s)/faculty/student(s) the Berg Fellow will work
- A tentative schedule of the artist’s time in residence
- The expected artistic activity (broadly defined) and how it will be communicated to a wider audience
- A link to the artist’s work
- Any relevant budget or space information, i.e., if the Berg Fellow would require a particular kind of space/equipment and any anticipated materials expenses or programming expenses
- Evidence of prior communication with the artist indicating their interest in the fellowship
Following submission of the LOI, those who are approved will be asked to submit a detailed proposal, using guidelines that will be provided. Both LOIs and full proposals will be evaluated by a committee of administrators, faculty, and staff with expertise and interest in the visual arts.
Timeline
- September 30: Letter of Inquiry due
- October 15: Result of LOI review communicated
- November 15: For those whose LOI is approved, complete proposals due
- December 31: Successful nominating teams notified
- August 2025 or January 2026: Berg Fellows begin residency