A.I.R. Fellowship Program

Founded in 1972, A.I.R. is the first non-profit, artist-run gallery for women in the country. The announcement for the gallery’s first exhibition elaborates our founding concept best, stating, “A.I.R. does not sell art; it changes attitudes about art by women. A.I.R. offers women artists a space to show work as innovative, transitory or unsaleable as the artists’ conceptions demands.” Based on the feminist principles of economic cooperation and decision by consensus, A.I.R. continues to offer an alternative venue for women that protects the creative process and the individual voice of the artist.

In 1993, the A.I.R. Gallery established the Fellowship Program for underrepresented or emerging artists. Our program includes mentoring and professional development for six artists over an 18-month period in preparation for a solo show at A.I.R. Gallery. All women artists not having a solo show in the last ten years and residing in the greater New York metro area are eligible. By removing the financial responsibilities of membership, the Fellowship Program includes a younger and more diverse group of women artists in the artist-run nature of the gallery. A panel of outside curators, critics and established artists selects participating artists annually. Panelists visit the individual artists’ studios in preparation for their solo shows.

The 2013-2014 Fellowship Panelists are: Katherine Chan, Director, David Nolan Gallery; Nancy Princenthal, Contributing Editor, Art in America; Instructor, Writing and Criticism MFA program, School of Visual Arts; Judith Rodenbeck, Professor of Modern & Contemporary Art, Sarah Lawrence College.

Each participating artist has the opportunity to work with the gallery's member-artists to design gallery programs and activities, as well as to plan and implement a public program or special project for the gallery during their fellowship. The program is structured to give the artists involved the opportunity to develop their work in preparation for a solo show, to build relationships with other artists and arts professionals, and to learn about not-for-profit gallery operations. The fellows leave the program with a series of naturally forged relationships, experiences, and essential skill sets in continuing their careers as visual artists.

As art critic Holland Cotter recently wrote in the New York Times, “Most of the interesting American artists of the last 30 years are as interesting as they are in part because of the feminist art movement of the early 1970’s. It changed everything . . . . What art in the next 30 years will look like I don’t know, but feminist influences will be at its source.” Building on A.I.R.’s historical influence on contemporary art, the Fellowship Program uses the relationship between the gallery’s existing members and the new fellows to create an inter-generational dialogue critical to guaranteeing a future for A.I.R. Gallery as an alternative space for women artists.

Deadline to apply for 2013-2014 A.I.R. Fellowship Program is October 28th at 11:59pm

For more information about how to apply for the A.I.R. Fellowship program, please visit our opportunities page by clicking HERE.

Click here for bios of past Fellowship Recipients.

The A.I.R. Fellowship Program is made possible by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, a state agency, The New York State Council on the Arts, JP Morgan Chase through a re-grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council, as well as generous support from The Bernheim Foundation, The Gifford Foundation, Elizabeth A. Sackler, The Milton and Sally Avery Foundation, The Theo Westenberger Estate, and many generous individual donors to the Emma Bee Bernstein Fellowship.