**applications are closed. our second fellowship cycle application will open August 2025
Viet Voices is excited to announce an open call for San Diego’s first AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship, an opportunity for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artists to engage with the art community and develop their professional practice from April to July 2025. We inspire fellows to contemplate their connection to ancestral identity – homeland, language, and cultural memory – as themes for dreaming towards posterity. We question what continuity in community looks like, and how to ritualize our (re/un)learning environments. We seek contemporary artists who conceptualize beyond the commercial. Those who challenge censorship to experiment with the multiplicity of being.
About the Fellowship: The AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship is designed to support early-career artists who identify as AAPI and are at a pivotal stage in their artistic journey. The fellowship provides a platform for the development and presentation of new work while also offering professional/leadership development opportunities to foster future success in the arts.
Benefits of the Fellowship:
Exhibition Opportunity: Showcase your work in a group exhibition in San Diego with support in developing and documenting your work.
Mentorship: Ongoing mentorship from AAPI artists and arts professionals, including monthly, one-on-one studio visits and feedback.
Professional Development: Opportunities to participate in workshops/ceremonies, artist talks, and networking events with fellow artists, curators, and art professionals.
Financial Support: A stipend to support the production of new work, materials, and living expenses during the fellowship period. Each fellow will receive a honorarium of $3,000 disbursed in two partial installments.
Community Engagement: Connect with a network of AAPI artists and art spaces, queering the boundaries and intersections of art in San Diego.
Eligibility:
18 years of age or older from any city.
Emerging and early career artists of Asian American, Pacific Islander, and/or Native Hawaiian descent. LGBTQ2S+ identifying folks are strongly encouraged to apply.
Open to all visual art mediums, including but not limited to painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, sound, performance, new media, and inter/anti-disciplinary work.
Fellows are required to attend all monthly scheduled Fellowship development sessions and one weekend exhibition (all in-person).
Committed to addressing issues of diaspora, gender, sexuality, race, social health, and social justice through their artistic practice.
Not a student or enrolled in any degree seeking program at the time of the program .
Not participating in a comparable development, fellowship, or residency program at the time of the program.
Not currently a member, employee, or board member of Viet Voices.
How to Apply: To apply for the AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship, please submit the following materials. We strongly encourage you to use your own language and voice.
Artist Statement (max 2000 words): Describe your artistic practice, your goals for the fellowship, and why you are applying.
Portfolio: A selection of 5 images or video clips of recent work. Please name each file “firstname-lastname-title-year”. Performance video URL(s) can be sent through a a PDF (Youtube and Vimeo preferred with required passwords).
Artist CV
Proposed Project (max 2000 words): Outline the specific project you plan to develop during the fellowship and how it aligns to socially engaging audiences
Submission Deadline: March 16th, 2025 11:59 PST
Selection Process: The selection process will be based on the quality of artworks, the intentions of proposed work, and the potential impact of the fellowship on the artist’s career. Finalists will be notified by March 29th. Our first in-person cohort session is on April 26th, 2025.
Please note that the AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship is not a studio program and studio space and lodging is not provided.
For any questions, please email the Fellowship Director & Curator, hamsa fae, at heartofhamsa@gmail.com