Art Papers Learn

ART PAPERS Art Writing Workshop

Registration opens September 8

ABOUT

This program is for New Orleans-based Black writers: primarily emerging ones, but attendance is also open to experienced arts writers. Participants will leave the program with strategies for writing about contemporary arts and culture topics, pitching to editors. They will create connections to a network of writers, editors, and publications. The initiative seeks to increase the quantity and visibility of arts writing that covers New Orleans and the Gulf South region. The workshop is FREE and open to writers based in New Orleans.

Participants will learn about a variety of art writing forms including interpretation of community-centered artistic practices, formal analysis (describing artworks), and curatorial statements. Sessions will address pitching to publications, working with editors, and how to find publishing opportunities. The program’s goal is to develop diverse Black underrepresented voices in art writing, increase awareness of writing opportunities, build community among New Orleans-based writers, and encourage inclusive practices that can undo existing norms informed by structural inequity and exclusionary practices.

This program is designed by Sherae Rimpsey, the inaugural Mildred Thompson Editorial + Arts Writing Fellow and Art Papers staff in partnership with the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane. Rimpsey has worked closely with ART PAPERS staff for the past year. About her intentions for the workshop, Rimpsey says, “The hope for this program is to create a space where writers and artists alike be heard and seen, to support their intellectual curiosity about art, to open up ways of looking at and thinking about art as a point of access for anyone, and for the participants to feel encouraged to contribute to the field of art writing.”

INSTRUCTORS

  • Erica N. Cardwell (writer, critic, and educator)
  • Ryan N. Dennis (The Black School curator-at-large and senior curator + director of public initiatives Contemporary Arts Museum Houston)
  • Ed Hall (copy editor ART PAPERS)
  • Sarah Higgins (editor + artistic director ART PAPERS)
  • Sherae Rimpsey (Mildred Thompson Editorial + Arts Writing Fellow, ART PAPERS, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane)
  • Renee Royale (writer, independent curator, visual artist, founder Support Black Art)

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

Thursday, November 9 – Sunday, November 12

  • Welcome Event: November 9, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
  • Workshops: November 10 – 12, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM

LOCATION

Various locations in New Orleans: The Black School, Community Book Center, and Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane

TO APPLY

  1. Write a 300-500 word statement of interest describing your interest in participating in the workshop and what you hope to get from it. Tell us about your previous experience with arts writing, or writing in an arts-adjacent context.
  2. Use the link below to complete an applicant form (LINK AVAILABLE SEPT 8) and submit your statement of interest

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1REZn654DHu9qxdQlYcvlgzjw0jNCnDSyYEHq4CGrcgU/viewform?edit_requested=true

Space is limited to 15 participants. Applications will be accepted until the program fills, after which time we will offer a wait list option.

Please note that accepted participants are expected to attend the welcome event (Nov 9, 6:00 PM) and all three days of the Arts Writing Workshop (Nov 10–12, 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM) to ensure that attendees get the most out of the experience and can learn, share, and connect with facilitators and fellow attendees in a meaningful way.

About Art Papers: Atlanta-based and globally engaged, Art Papers serves the creative community and the culturally curious by expanding the dialogue around contemporary art and culture, exploring the ways they affect and reflect human experience. We do this through publishing and public programming. We support the careers of working artists and writers and are committed to creating space for and amplifying diverse voices especially those that have historically been marginalized by the art world. We are empowering these contributors and artists to share a perspective on the art world that does not center Whiteness, heteronormativity, and ableist narratives. We represent the American South globally and offers an underrepresented perspective on the global art world, one that does not center the market and the usual suspects, but rather provides a community for artists outside of traditional cultural centers.

About Community Book Center: Community Book Center is more than just a bookstore, we are a social hub of the Seventh Ward. We host local events and feature African-centered books, art, fabric, jewels and an assortment of gifts and trinkets. For nearly 40 years, Community Book Center has been the oldest, and until recently, the only, Black bookstore in the New Orleans area.

About The Black School: The Black School is a Black-Centered experimental art school teaching BIPoC and ally students to become agents of change in their communities through art & design education and programming based in radical African diasporic histories, prioritizing local community needs. We facilitate this work via a growing list of programs currently including workshops, a youth-staffed in-house design firm, a festival, and a community garden. The Black School uses art and activism to transform social realities through Black Love, healing, and self-determination.

About The Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane: The Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University builds on the Newcomb College legacy of education, social enterprise, and artistic experience. Presenting inspiring exhibitions and programs that engage communities both on and off campus, the Museum fosters the creative exchange of ideas and cross-disciplinary collaborations around innovative art and design. The Museum preserves and advances scholarship on the Newcomb and Tulane art collections.

This program is generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Art Museums Futures Fund, the Elyse Levy Steiner Fund, and Ruth Dermody Sterling Fund.