a call for proposals
Room & Board is seeking artists of all stripes for a series of socially distanced commissions, “Rooms.”
As an artist’s residency and salon, part of Room & Board’s mission has been to make art intimate by bringing life and art, production and reception, and artist and audience into closer communion. Now that normal channels of both art and human connection have been disrupted, Room & Board seeks this same intimacy and experimentalism via those channels that are currently available to us.
Artworks for “Rooms” are to appear throughout the remainder of 2020 and 2021, and may use any format, medium, or distribution system (internet, postal service, graffiti, messenger pigeon, skywriting, etc.) capable of reaching an audience, large or small, at this moment. Unusual forms and non-screen modes of communication are encouraged (but Zoom is not forbidden). Curatorially, what I primarily seek in “Rooms” projects is an interest (however realized) in connecting meaningfully with an audience (however defined). Also important is a thoughtful and innovative engagement with the medium of distribution (whatever it may be). Because so much content is now online, internet-based projects face a high bar, and should ideally alter, influence, or reflect upon our usual relationships with our phones and computers, and/or link online to offline experience.
Artists who create or adapt works for “Rooms” are offered a stipend of $200 plus some budget (negotiable). Additional funding may be possible case-by-case for more ambitious projects (to be determined). Intellectual, emotional, and other forms of support, including research and production assistance, are available in abundance. Artists retain the rights to their works. A formal proposal is not necessary; write me at julia@roomandboard.nyc with ideas, half-baked notions, or questions, or to say hello if it’s been a minute.
What is Room & Board?
Room & Board is an artist’s residency and salon run out of my apartment. Originally based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Room & Board has been on hiatus for several years, but plans to resume full operations in its new home of Basel, Switzerland. Room & Board offers one-month residencies (and shorter stays) to artists of every and any variety, but particularly those whose work fits uneasily into institutional models of production, presentation, and audience. Residencies at Room & Board are not necessarily goal or product oriented, but are instead framed around an exchange of ideas during the residency. Experimental salon events, which are sometimes the result of a residency, rely on and invite an active and engaged audience for their realization. While “Rooms” is focused on the production of an artwork, I hope it will reflect these ideals of collaboration, experimentation, and connection.
And who are you?
My name is Julia Pelta Feldman, and I’m the founder and director of Room & Board. I am an art historian, archivist, curator, and salonnière. I grew up outside Philadelphia, lived in New York for a decade, moved to Berlin three years ago, and have just landed in Basel, where I research the preservation of ephemeral and performance art at the University of the Arts Bern, and where I hope to relaunch Room & Board as a live residency and salon once the pandemic allows. I received my PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. I have worked at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Grey Art Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, but all I want to do is talk to you about your work over breakfast.
Room & Board 