Call for Artist-Researchers: 2025 AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange

AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange: Call for Artist-Researchers

Deadline for Submissions: Friday May 9, 2025, at 5:00pm EDT
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Three paid hybrid research mentorships are available in 2025. Each selected artist will complete a month of research mentorship between June and August 2025.

Theme: Futurism

The applicants will center their research on the theme of Futurism. Futurism seeks to welcome impactful change through the landscape of art, cultural representation, and technology. Futurism can celebrate an iteration of a new world or embrace and preserve traditions in new ways.

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) invites early-career artists to submit proposals for its AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange to pursue practice-based research, over a month-long period, into museum practices, audience engagement or the AGO Collection. Held annually, the program aims to offer three artists the opportunity to further their artistic practice and ready themselves for larger-scale presentations within institutional frameworks.

With the support of mentors from across the Gallery, each selected artist will further their work with the aim of presenting their findings to the various teams at the AGO. This call is open to emerging artists working in any media. We welcome practice-based research proposals that explore interdisciplinary approaches, including those that are digital; consider the role of social engagement practices, engage with the museum field, or might be informed by the content and programming of the AGO. Experimentation is encouraged and these proposals could examine any area at the Gallery, including but not limited to: Conservation, Collections, Curatorial, Education & Programming, Library & Archives, Food & Beverage, and Visitor Experience. We seek research ideas which challenge conventional understandings of museum practices.

Selected artists will receive:

• A one-time $2,000.00 CDN stipend
• Mentorship from select AGO team members over a four-week period, culminating in a presentation of research findings.
• An AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Program webpage featuring their practice.

Who should apply:

• Artists and/or artist collectives who self-identify as emerging artists and are in the early stages of their artistic career
• Canadians currently living in the country or artists residing in Canada
• Applicants from underrepresented communities are encouraged to apply
• Practicing professional artists with two (2) or more years’ experience.

The following materials must be included to be considered:

• Research proposal, including artist statement (250 words maximum, one (1) page, size 12 font)
• Résumé/CV (one (1) page, size 12 font); and
• Art portfolio: provide a selection of five (5) images of your work in a pdf format, and/or links to videos, allowing us to understand your artistic practice and how they inform your research question. Successful proposals will address the following:
  ◦  Focus on either a connection to our audiences, challenge the museum field, or engage with the content and programming of the AGO
  ◦  How your project advances your artistic growth/development.

The AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange encourages submissions from populations who have not been equitably represented in museums, including Black, Indigenous, artists of colour, 2SLGBTQ+, women and persons with disabilities. Successful artists must be available between June and August 2025. Three selected artists will be notified by May 16, 2025.

Application Deadline: Friday May 9, 2025, at 5:00pm EDT
Successful applicants will be notified on June 2, 2025.

Apply Today

To learn more, review the 2024 AGO X RBC Exchange Program: Artist Researchers.

Thank you for your application to the AGO X RBC Emerging Artists Exchange Program.

Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M5T 1G4
416 979 6648
@agotoronto