Bay Area Now 7 Request for Proposals

Since 1997, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has mounted its signature triennial titled Bay Area Now. The exhibition portion of the 7th edition of this institution-wide program, or BAN7, will take place July 18-September 28, 2014. Each edition of the program, organized by YBCA’s curators, marks a moment in the life of the institution and regional art scenes through the work of the participating artists who are seen as representative of the spirit of that particular time.

BAN7’s core idea is to decentralize the curatorial process and centralize the public presentation of some of the most exciting artistic voices in the region today.

By inviting selected, non-commercial, small to midsize regional visual arts organizations to curate site-specific projects with Bay Area artists within YBCA’s galleries, BAN7 opens up the curatorial process in new and exciting ways. The format will be similar to an art fair, in which participants will curate projects in locations throughout the exhibition space. By bringing various visual art organizations together, BAN7 will acknowledge and celebrate their work as vital players in the Bay Area’s arts ecology, creating a strong, shared platform for the support and presentation of contemporary artists in the region. We believe that the decentralized curatorial process will benefit the selected artists, by exposing their work and creating spaces for dialogue with diverse constituencies across various communities and the general public.

With this new format for BAN7, YBCA curators hope to achieve the following:

• Provide a platform for promoting a stronger sense of shared community among multiple publics.

• More visibility for artists through sector-crossing, collaboration, cross-disciplinary activity.

• Bring artists, curators and cultural producers from different sectors into an engaged dialogue with each other.

• Foster more appreciation for Bay Area art and artists, and a greater understanding of the range of art practices and individual artistic visions that make the Bay Area a vibrant center for contemporary art.

In order to take part in BAN7, non-commercial, small to midsize (less than 6 million annual budget) Bay Area visual arts organizations are invited to submit an application here:

http://ybca.org/ban7

Your proposal should reflect the spirit and mission of your organization–your raison d’etre. We’re looking for projects that are conceptually rigorous and creatively activate YBCA’s galleries, but are also feasible given available resources. We expect that each participating organization will have approximately 400-600 square feet of space made available to them.

Applicants are invited to a walk through of the galleries on Thursday, November 21st from 3-4pm with YBCA’s Director of Visual Arts, Betti-Sue Hertz and the Assistant Curator of Visual Arts, Ceci Moss, to gain a feel for the space. We encourage you to indicate your desired space in YBCA’s galleries on your application. All applications are due online by midnight, December 2nd. A jury including Dena Beard (Assistant Curator, BAM/PFA), Rita Gonzalez (Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, LACMA), Betti-Sue Hertz (Director of Visual Arts, YBCA), Shannon Jackson (Director of UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center and Professor of Rhetoric and of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies), Việt Lê (Artist, Writer, Curator and Assistant Professor of Visual Studies, CCA), and Ceci Moss (Assistant Curator of Visual Arts, YBCA) will review and select participants by January 15th. All participants (an estimated 15-25) will receive a fee of no less than $2000 (final amount to be determined by number of participating organizations) to realize their projects within the space.