Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans

CALL TO ARTISTS

Trash as Material Virtual Artist Residency

Early Deadline to Apply: Monday, 10 November 2025.

A four-week, virtual collage artist residency in November and December 2025. In the post-use life of materials, what role do collage artists play? And what happens when collage artists use trash as material? Taking the premise that Trash is not simply a material, but an idea, artists will virtually assemble to explore art made with or about Trash. Themes that have already emerged through Kolaj Institute’s inquiry into this subject have included Trash as Archeology; the role of labor; litter and other street Trash; food waste; the history of sanitation; picking and hoarding; class, race, and questions of social justice; Trash and place; planned obsolescence; e-waste; and how to develop relationships with sources of particular Trash material and then physically process Trash into art materials. In this residency, artists will hear about these themes; about how artists made art about them; and identify new themes.

CALL TO ARTISTS

Carnival as Folklore Artist Residency

Early Deadline to Apply: 14 December 2025.

Carnival as Folklore is a five-day, in-person collage artist residency at Kolaj Institute in New Orleans, 25-30 January 2026. Carnival’s traditions are rooted in ancient European festivals. Its 19th-century revival in the Americas parallels a time when people were rediscovering and reveling in Greek and Roman Mythology. As such, carnival is dripping with folklore. No place does Carnival like New Orleans, where the city comes alive in a mass display of collective effervescence. During this in-person Artist Residency, collage artists will be invited to spend a week in New Orleans investigating Carnival as folklore and making art about it. Taking a broad view of collage and rooted in an understanding of Artist Practice, artists will hear a working theory of folklore; what it is; how it functions in communities; and the role artists can play in activating, transmitting, and celebrating folklore in communities as a form of cultural expression and a strategy for community resilience.

CALL TO ARTISTS

Collage in Practice

Next Deadline: Tuesday, 2 December 2025.

The practice of collage takes on many forms and is shaped by the artist’s goals and what they want to achieve with their artwork, how they want to diffuse their artwork in the broader ecosystem of art. The Collage in Practice Workshop is designed to give artists a working understanding of artist practice and how this understanding informs approaches to professional and artistic development. Participants will explore critical concepts and collage taxonomies as a way to develop and refine the language they use to talk about their own practice and to develop a broad view of the creative landscape in which they operate. Participants will finish the workshop with a deeper understanding of their practice; a strong statement of practice that can be used to communicate with curators, editors, and art professionals; a portfolio of artwork (or a plan to make one); and tools for growing or developing their practice.

NEW PUBLICATION

Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide

Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide is a collage. The book combines the text of a Polish human rights activist Martin Mycielski with the artwork of seven collage artists to create a space in which we can think about the rise of authoritarianism and how to navigate the troubling, difficult times in which we find ourselves. Organized as a series of lists, the book illustrates what to expect under authoritarianism and offers rules for surviving authoritarian regimes and engaging their supporters. The introduction traces how the text came into existence and how the artists came together to make collage about it. Ric Kasini Kadour shares historical examples of artists responding to authoritarianism; John Heartfield’s anti-fascist collage and a 1979 exhibition in East Germany that was described as a “victory over false consciousness.” Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide is a testament to the role art can play in our communities.